Make Your Child Smarter: From 3 to 5 years old
Learning Through Play During the Pre-school and Kindergarten Years.

The age of three to five is the beginning of a child's 'real' school experience and during this stage because he will be experiencing a longer period of separation from his mother, it is very important that she strengthens her relationship with him. Playing together is one of the ways to strengthen this bond and to prepare children for kindergarten activities. Parents who involve their children in educational play increase their children's motivation and concentration levels and break any learning barriers due to 'fear of the unfamiliar'.

Educational play that will prepare children for school
When preparing for educational play activities for their child, parents must take into consideration the following elements that will prepare their child for school:

Encourage you child to have a confident and curious attitude towards learning
Suggested Play:

This is the best time to have a lot of books available around the house. Books with pop-up pictures or books that offer some pages of the story to color are especially interesting for children while reading. Make the experience fun because reading together will help develop your child's ability to confidently express himself verbally which will help him communicate with other children, teachers and you. Express your eagerness to read with your child and discuss interesting details and events in the book with him.


Your child should be familiar with letters and numbers
Suggested Play
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Letters: Avoid teaching letters in alphabetical order. Instead, focus on games that show the spelling and sounds of words clearly. Toys that sound out letters or show colorful pictures that appear upon selection are stimulating for children. Spelling blocks with pictures on them and boards with magnetic letters also help children identify letters in a simple manner. Sing along tapes that include spelling songs are often useful if parents take the time to attract their children's attention to the lyrics and help them by singing with them.

Numbers: You can play counting games with your child during almost all daily activities. You can count the number of grapes he puts in his mouth to eat, the forks on the dining table, or the toothbrushes by the sink…the list is endless. Basic counting games that you can buy for your child include board games with dice that control the number of steps your child will take, dominoes and number cards. Number cards have dots printed on one side and the number of dots printed on the other. You can slowly teach your child how to count the dots then identify the number. Counting books that give your child the opportunity to identify a number, trace it and color it are also useful as direct learning tools. Once again these games are as fun as parents make them. If you make your child feel that these games are a chore or homework, his learning experience will be inhibited.


Make sure your child is healthy and has the necessary physical
skills

It is important to prepare your child's health for his school experience which often requires more stamina and energy than the regular day-care experience. Make sure that your child is following a proper diet and has taken the required vaccinations.
Suggested Play:
It is recommended that your child play a sport that is suitable for his age as this will help increase his overall stamina, and his ability to work in groups and to follow instructions. It is equally beneficial to have a parent/child sports routine where the parent takes the child to a club or any open area for a regular session of physically challenging play such as playing catch or swimming together.
"Small-muscle" skills such as holding a pen or a pencil often require some training. Toys that involve some handiness and manipulation such as construction toys, Lego blocks, puzzles and simple craft kits help improve children's overall finer movements.


Your child should have positive social and emotional skills
Of all the skills necessary to help prepare your child for the school experience, social and emotional skills can be regarded as the most important. Only a parent or direct guardian can positively influence a child to be confident while working alone, cooperative with others while expressive of his own needs, and to have the ability to follow simple instructions and control negative emotions and impulses. These socio-emotional skills are built through love and parental bonding which can be achieved by playing games with your child provided they are calm, fun, not too competitive (that is with no stress to win), and uninterrupted.
Suggested Play:
Direct games that positively influence children in this area are role-play situations (doctor-patient, parent-teacher, buyer-seller etc.). Engaging in role-play while explaining certain aspects as you play along can be very useful for your child. For example, when playing doctor-patient, you can take the opportunity to explain to your child how he should react at the doctor's clinic when he's in pain. Show your child that we react to bearable pain by expressing it, rather than by screaming or being insulting with the excuse that we are in pain. A variety of situations such as these teach self control, tolerance and analytical skills. Games that involve "grown-up" activities are abundant in toy stores nowadays. You can easily find toy kits with cash registers and supermarket products, garage and car wash sets, cleaning equipment such as toy brooms and buckets etc. It is important to remember that during any game you play with your child to make eye contact as much as possible and include some physical proximity. Try to hug your child or give him a pat on the head or a back rub whenever you feel it's possible.


Hidden hazards of the school experience
Take the time to examine the kindergarten program of the school of your choice to ensure that it makes a gradual transfer into the world of academics. A well informed school would know that play is a natural part of the learning process for this age group and that it has proven to be more effective than worksheets or simply listening to the teacher. If you enroll your child in a school with an overly structured education and a heavy workload, you are taking the risk of your child prematurely deciding that learning is "boring" and therefore being discouraged at such a young age. He will be starting his academic experience based on low self-esteem. Opt for a school with a good academic reputation but also one where you have seen happy confident kids.

Be sure not to fall into the trap of seeing your child for only a brief time after school to merely feed him and send him to bed. Try to make the time to talk together, to play and to read stories so that your child maintains his relationship with you which will give him the security he needs for the rest of his life.