I talk to mamas all over the country who are feeling pressure with their preschoolers. They’re being pressured to push academics, to focus on reading and writing and math facts with their three-, four-, and five-year-olds.
Perhaps you’re the mother of a young child and you have felt that pressure. Let me reassure you that the preschool years should not be about academics. Oh, make no mistake, your child is learning a lot of things, but that learning is not dependent on your forcing lessons and worksheets and flashcards on that precious little one.
Preschool was meant to be a time for natural learning in a loving environment. Those young ones are making important brain connections about the world around them and how their bodies interact with that world, about their own emotions and self-regulation, and about social expectations with a variety of people in different settings—not to mention learning a brand new language!
They are constantly observing, analyzing, comparing, categorizing, recalling, forming hypotheses, experimenting, testing, trying, and refining. All of those brain connections—with the world around them and the world within them—are essential foundations that need to have plenty of time and space to get established. If you don’t give your preschooler enough time and opportunity to work on those fundamentals, he will be at a disadvantage when it comes to academics—dealing with abstract symbols on paper—reading, writing, and math facts.
He needs to play. All of those foundational brain connections take place quite naturally for most children through informal play in a loving and language-rich home.
Your job is to protect that important play and to provide a variety of ideas with which your child can form connections in everyday life. It’s not that hard. Those great ideas are built into great books and stories and music and art and games and nature and household chores—elements that you can easily tuck into your daily life at home.
But many moms either don’t know where to find those great ideas—they don’t know the best books or music or art or games for 3 to 5 year olds—or they don’t have time to go looking for them.
That’s why I am thrilled to announce a fabulous new resource for the preschool years. It’s called Our Preschool Life.
Our Preschool Life is all about protecting that important play of those early years and encouraging natural learning in everyday life—not worksheets, not contrived lessons, not electronic games.
Every month Our Preschool Life will deliver right to your door a wonderful box of great things and fantastic ideas for your 3 to 5 year old. You will receive the very best picture books, lovely art prints, special craft supplies and project ideas, handy chore cards, and stickers of nature friends to look for outside.
But that’s just the beginning. Throughout the month you will also receive digital deliveries with even more carefully curated activities and ideas that you can tuck into each day as it fits best. You get fun songs, classic nursery rhymes, timeless tales, ideas for games and outdoor life, Bible stories, classical music, great poems, activities for exploring math concepts with everyday things around the house, and even a focus on good habits.
Plus, you get some ideas just for you. Our Preschool Life recognizes that sometimes it’s tough being the parent of a preschooler. So you will receive encouragement, help with habit-training, and parenting tips, because parenting a preschooler can be challenging.
One thing I love about Our Preschool Life is that it recognizes that young children grow and develop connections at different rates during those preschool years. Not all three-year-olds are at the same level in motor skills, language skills, social skills, or even experiences; and that’s normal. Many of the activities from Our Preschool Life come with options, telling you how they can be leveled up or down. So you can use the version that best fits where your child is right now.
Your child is a unique individual and deserves the respect of being encouraged to learn and grow at his own pace—without pressure, comparison, or shame. You know your child better than anybody else does, so it just makes sense that you are the most qualified to recognize and use the ideas that will preserve his natural love for learning and keep him growing as an individual.
Our Preschool Life will keep a steady supply of the best ideas coming to your door and to your phone or other device, so you can spend your time enjoying these precious years with your 3 to 5 year old.
I know some days it doesn’t seem like it, but believe me, these years will fly by quickly. With Our Preschool Life you will have the ideas and the freedom to enjoy every day, confident that life is the very best preschool curriculum.
You can learn more about Our Preschool Life at ourpreschool.life. It’s preschool learning the way it was meant to be.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: | Help
Podcast (podcastv): Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: | Help
