Across the span of more than two decades, you and your child will encounter several major transition points in his or her education journey. The transition from preschool to primary school is the first of these. It is also arguably the transition where parents have the most significant role to play, given the tender age of the child.
You will have to pay close attention to your child’s preschool learning milestones, be aware of the key differences between preschool and primary school, and prepare your child for the myriad adjustments they have to make when starting primary school.
In this article, we’ll discuss what you have to do and what you have to know in order to build a strong foundation for your child and set him or her firmly on the path of lifelong learning.
What your child should gain from preschool
In moving on from preschool, you will first want to gauge the extent to which your child has honed key academic skills in two areas — literacy in English and numeracy. The first area, literacy, can be further broken down into three subsets, which are reading, writing and speaking respectively.
Your child should be able to sound out and decode words they come across, and he or she should also possess the capacity to read for understanding.
Encourage and foster in your child the habit of reading books from a young age. When your child loves reading, language acquisition occurs naturally and a lifelong learning tool is developed.
Your child should also be able to write at a comfortable pace with good penmanship, and have the confidence and ability to craft basic sentences. These are skills that can only be honed through practice. Finally, your child should also be able to express his or her opinions verbally in a clear and confident manner.
Numeracy skills can also be further broken down into three components. The first involves being able to do simple matching, sorting, comparing, ordering and patterning. Counting and number sense is the second: your child should be able to understand one-to-one correspondence, and know how numbers relate to the quantity of real objects. The third component is number recognition, meaning that your child is able to subitise, a skill that allows him or her to identify small quantities without the need to count.
Preschool should also prepare your child by inculcating good classroom habits, such as knowing when and how to ask for help, and having a healthy attention span. These are habits that we place a strong emphasis on developing for our preschool students at The Learning Lab.
Key differences between preschool and primary school
Life as a primary school student is radically different from life as a preschool student, and as parents, you should be prepared to help your child deal with these changes.
Firstly, your child will have to get used to a school day that is structured differently from the time they wake up in the morning to the time they walk out through the school gates.
Primary school hours are longer than in preschool, and your child will be exposed to a new phenomenon known as recess, among other things, where he or she will have unsupervised free time and must learn how to navigate social dynamics.
Your child will also have to bring along and manage a substantially larger amount of school-bag items compared to what he or she is used to in preschool, from textbooks and stationery to homework, lunch boxes and water bottles.
Far more reading and writing will be required compared to preschool along with new classroom materials and modes of learning, which is why having a strong foundation in these areas is so important.
Your child can also expect to pick up a range of new skills in primary school from technical skills such as computer literacy to more qualitative skills like leadership and critical thinking.
Finally, primary school will also be the first time your child will be exposed to formal assessments, and parents have to pay special heed to managing the pressure and expectations that come with these.
How to prepare for the transition
The first thing you can do is to make sure that both you and your child continue to get adequate sleep under your new schedules.
Primary school marks the beginning of many years of rising early in the morning for parent and child, and the earlier you establish a good rhythm, the better off you and your child will be.
Coming up with and keeping to a new daily routine, and explaining what it entails to your child can be helpful in getting the both of you established and on firm footing.
The step up to primary school also marks an important developmental milestone for your child, who will benefit from being encouraged to be more independent and to take greater ownership of their studies and choices. Independent learners are better positioned to take advantage of primary school’s out of the classroom learning opportunities and activities.
A more structured learning environment and daily routine also warrants a more structured approach to goal setting. Take the time to sit down with your child to talk about their short-term and long-term goals, which can be anything from making new friends to taking small steps towards their ambition of becoming a scientist by doing well in school.
As your child begins to spend more time in school on his or her own, regular conversations or check-ins become an important way of monitoring your child’s progress and development.
Click here for more tips on preparing your child for primary school.
Helping You and Your Child Take the Leap to the Next Level
Making the transition from preschool to primary school can be a challenging but also rewarding process for you and your child.
At The Learning Lab, we take pride in being able to help our students go from strength to strength as they progress up the education ladder. Our rigorous and holistic curriculum ties together the different stages of your child’s schooling journey and is optimised to build upon the foundations laid at each previous level.
Click here to find out more about our holistic blend of rigorous course material and value-added classroom activities.
The Learning Lab is now at 9 locations. Find a location that suits your needs.
If you have any questions about our range of programmes or class schedules, you may contact us at 6733 8711 or drop us an email at enquiry@thelearninglab.com.sg.
The Learning Lab is now at 9 locations. Find a location that suits your needs.
If you have any questions about our range of programmes or class schedules, you may fill in the form below or contact us at 6733 8711 / enquiry@thelearninglab.com.sg.