The Gardner School provides a nurturing and stimulating environment that fosters your child’s physical, social, emotional, and intellectual growth. Our experienced teachers and staff create spaces where preschoolers can thrive, and you play a vital role in continuing your child’s learning journey outside of TGS! A great way to help your child learn and practice new skills is through the daily tasks you already do with them. Mealtime, bath time, and even a trip to the grocery store can provide everyday learning opportunities!
Daily Routine
When you think about all the routine activities that happen throughout your day—from waking up and getting dressed to making meals or even walking the dog—there are multiple opportunities to sprinkle in teachable moments.
- Cooking: Check out all of the benefits that baking and cooking with your child can have on their development!
- Chores: Giving your child simple tasks and chores around the house can foster a sense of teamwork and accomplishment. Here are some age-appropriate chores for preschoolers and a few tips on making chores a part of your daily routine.
- Gardening: Explore how getting outside to do easy yard work or gardening with your preschooler can create the perfect learning opportunity.
- Grocery shopping: Counting and weighing produce can provide your child with a math lesson while increasing their vocabulary. You can talk about the different colors and shapes you see and the nutritional value of the items you’re putting in your cart.
Make Time to Talk (and listen)
At The Gardner School, we provide all of our students with a language-rich environment where they’re surrounded by various forms of communication, such as talking, singing, and reading. In such an environment, children have plenty of opportunities throughout their day, across all activities, to engage in back-and-forth conversations and communicate with others. This is essential to their early learning and significantly impacts their language and vocabulary development, reading and math skills, and social-emotional development.
Whether you’re in the car together during your daily commute or sitting together at dinner, talking to your little one about their day and asking them thoughtful questions can provide a moment of connection and a learning opportunity. These six questions to ask your child every morning are a great place to start. You can also try these strategies to engage your child in a conversation:
- Get down on their level
- Tune in and listen to what your child says
- Talk about what they’re doing, what they’re looking at, or what they’re interested in
- Take turns talking
- Ask questions that relate to the child’s experiences or interests
- Give your child enough time to respond
- Extend their language by adding onto the words they say. For example, if they say “dog,” you can say “Yep, the black dog is barking!”
Knowing what your child is learning about at school is another great way to spark conversations that help extend their educational experience!
Playtime
What can look like “pure fun” to adults actually involves several complex mental processes as children’s brains develop! Through free and guided play, children can explore at their own pace, use their imagination, and develop a wide range of key skills. That’s why play is an essential component of our curriculum for all our students. This blog breaks down the difference between free and guided play and provides some examples to help you facilitate and prioritize play at home.
Read Every Day
One of the most important areas of learning that impacts all other areas is reading. If you’ve already incorporated reading into your child’s daily routine, keep up the great work! Know that it’s never too late to create a reading routine. In our blog, we’ve provided four essential reasons to develop a reading habit. As you continue to read, you can discuss the books you read together, discovering new words and exploring what they might mean.
Partnering With Parents to Facilitate Learning Beyond TGS
All the activities and daily tasks that make up your family’s time at home bring endless opportunities to engage with your child and expand their learning journey. The Gardner School blogs are written by parents and for parents to provide you with insight and tips that help you feel supported by our community. Whether your family is enrolled in TGS or you’re considering enrollment, we’re always here to answer your questions. Contact us to learn more or to schedule a tour.
