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Here Comes Preschool!

By Shel Franco

Pages: 1 2 3

child and artwork A few months ago I chatted with my mother on the phone, relaying all the wonderful things my 3-year-old could do. "You should see this, Mom," I glowed. "He already writes the letters of the alphabet. He counts like crazy, and his vocabulary is unbelievable."

"Don't you think he should be in preschool?" was my mother's reply.

Preschool. I hadn't really given it much thought. He was about the right age. He absorbed information like a sponge. But, for the past three years, he had spent all day with me. And although he had a few friends, he had never participated in a group activity.

Maybe my son was ready for preschool. Still, I wished there was a way to know for sure.

Each year, education experts see children from age 2 to 4 enter preschools around the nation. "The average preschooler that I see in the schools is probably of age 4," says Mary Nesset, a certified school psychologist in Michigan.

But don't rush your 4-year-old out the door just yet: Children reach developmental milestones at very different rates. Here's how you can determine if your child is ready or not.

Somewhere between birth and age 3 a child develops the ability to use language. According to Joanne Kathy Estes, an early childhood educator in Mississippi, "A child needs to be able to express his physical and emotional needs to the teacher or parent in very simple language."

Estes also points out other cognitive skills that prove useful to the preschooler. "[The child should have] an attention span long enough to listen to a five-minute story [and the ability to] follow simple one step directions."

When Jessica Little's daughter, Meghan, started preschool at 3 1/2 years old, she had no doubt in her mind that her child was ready. "Meghan actually asked me when she could go to school," recalls Little, of Pennsylvania. "I had her input the entire time. She even picked the school she liked the best. I guess I just followed her lead."

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