19 Jan 2017

Parents have been urged to enroll their children in kindergarten as it prepares them for elementary school.

This was said by the managing director of Mayfair Kindergarten School, Ms Tshenolo Mayfair, in an interview with BOPA in Francistown on Monday.

Ms Mayfair stated that kindergarten introduces young children to a school environment and teaches them to sit and listen, to obey teachers and cooperate with fellow students.

These skills, she said, help kindergartners to adjust more quickly to elementary school.

“Kindergarteners begin to feel comfortable in the classroom, meaning that by first grade, they are acclimaticed to the school setting and prepared to focus on learning. Kindergarten learning also lays the foundation for learning in later grades,” Ms Mayfair noted.

She stated that kindergarten classes can also help students to thrive in their early development, noting that it teaches young children skills like patience and perseverance and that learning these skills early contributes to later successes as an adult.

“Kindergarten students enter their first year of formalized schooling with a clean slate, ready to be shaped by the experiences and environmental factors of the classroom. A positive kindergarten environment establishes an educational foundation for children’s future learning,” she said.

Ms Mayfair said individual personalities of teachers and students positively or negatively impact the learning environment, as does the location and setting of a kindergarten classroom.

Parents’ full involvement, she said, is often the number one factor that can make young children succeed in kindergarten than any other factor.

Other equally crucial factors that can contribute to successful kindergarten years for young children, she said, included the quality of teachers interacting with such students, educational approach, discipline methods and curriculum choices that make up the kindergarten learning environment.

“As kindergarten schools, we often encounter terrible anxiety among first time students, but we always put on a friendly and welcoming smile and assure the little children that they have come to a really wonderful place with lots of friends and many toys,” noted Ms Mayfair.

She said this is very important in preparing these children psychologically and helps them to like school, not fear it.

Furthermore, she said she believes that it is very important that in preparation for the first day of kindergarten, the school must hold kindergarten parent orientation to ease any anxieties families may feel during this important educational transition.

“As a parent, your child’s future elementary school may provide you a clear picture of how your child will likely turn out academically going into elementary school. Parents who attend kindergarten orientation meetings also give them the opportunity to meet the school teachers and other parents, check out the classrooms and other available facilities to be used by children in such schools,” she said.BOPA