Every year, parents of future first-graders face a dilemma: is it necessary to spend a lot of money and time preparing for school in paid development centers?
Aif.ru collected the opinions of experts, teachers and parents .
“If I knew that at school children with different backgrounds would study according to the same program and under equal conditions, I would not have dragged my son from the age of four to different“ preparations ”, — says Maria, mother of the second grader Vanya. — My son read 70 words per minute a year ago, and there were children who could not master even 15. To which the teacher said: “I’m not God, I don’t give out brains.” Brain? And what about brains? We spent a lot of money, I thought — almost a hundred thousand, broke from work, and I dragged my son to classes 3 times a week. All children study the same program. So why did we push so hard?
I'm ready to argue with her Elena, the mother of Vanya's classmate Sasha: “We somehow walked with my son, he was three years old. A woman with Sasha's age was walking towards, we caught up, I heard her say to her child: “This is a pillar, it is reinforced concrete.” I was stunned: my child at this age did not receive such information. Does she need it? And, of course, we rushed to preparatory courses, because I don’t know if it is important for a child to know about a reinforced concrete pillar at the age of three. What if he grows up ignorant? I'm not a teacher. I enrolled my son in a developmental center, they worked out twice a week, drove him through two stops, it was very convenient. As a result, he went to school fully prepared, we were praised, the son wore “asterisks” — those are A's in first grade.
Does kindergarten replace preparatory courses?
Arina Kisel, a practical psychologist, teacher at the International Pedagogical Academy of Preschool Education, is sure that if a child attends a kindergarten, then additional classes in circles to prepare for school are not needed.
According to the expert, it is possible to understand the parents of a future first-grader who consider it their duty to take their child to additional classes. However, Kisel is convinced that this is unnecessary. “Of course, I'm talking about children who attend kindergarten. Modern Kindergarten — this is already the first stage of education and upbringing, where the preparation of children for schooling is carried out in the classroom on the basis of their usual activities: games, drawing, modeling, designing, singing, dancing, conducting experiments, — the expert concludes.
The system of classes is built in such a way that kindergarten graduates acquire all the necessary knowledge and skills. Children learn ideas about the world around them from practical experience, actions with objects, in visual and musical activities, in games, in communication with peers and adults.
Kissel advises to trust your child more and create a positive, festive mood in the family on the eve of the first of September. And the extra effort and taking crash courses can backfire, increasing your child's anxiety.
“Invest in your kids!”
Tatyana Brestel, head of the school preparation studio, primary school teacher, educational psychologist, on the contrary, calls for the preparation of children for school.
The expert names several types of fears that a child experiences before the first grade: raise a hand, answer at the blackboard, make a mistake, meeting new children, condemnation by other children, parting with a favorite toy, loneliness, deuces. It is better if parents help their child prepare for such a crisis. It's like building a bridge between kindergarten and school. There are many development centers for this. In small groups, an experienced teacher will help the child turn all these fears into strength. When he goes to school, he simply won't have them.
“Our graduates study well in lyceums and gymnasiums. They differ from their peers in their erudition, quick thinking, desire to learn, participate in school competitions with high results, we receive gratitude from parents and their children, », — says the expert.
Many parents hoped for the school, but now well-prepared children go to it. Therefore, offensive situations happen: a child after grade 2 does not know how to solve equations, remember the multiplication table. Then teachers or tutors deal with him, figuratively speaking, sending him to first grade. But this could have been avoided.
“There is no need to remember what happened in the last century, everything was taught in schools. Now is the speed age. Now other children are being born, with other speeds and possibilities. They only need to be given tasks, various exercises, intellectual games. They absorb everything. Children pick up the phone and find everything there without the help of an adult. But not everyone can learn to read. They need help with this, — sure teacher. — Therefore, I advise respected parents to take their children to developmental studios from the age of 4.
“MA and EMA”
Nikolay Yagodkin, founder of the Center for Educational Technologies and author of the Encyclopedia of Children's Motivation, also recommends preparing children. However, the specialist says that options are possible: now there are many different ways to prepare. You can use developing courses, or you can do everything yourself.
“It is necessary to focus on the requirements of the particular school in which you enroll your child (the level and requirements of schools are different), — says the expert. — The situation is complicated by the fact that classes in general education schools are overcrowded, the teacher does not have the opportunity to devote enough time to each student and look for an individual approach to him. The bulk of modern children already come prepared: children can read and write, which means that the teacher will focus on them, building his educational process.
The life of a child changes dramatically. Being in a new society among strangers, new requirements and rules… All this already contributes to a stressful state. The child who understands that he cannot do what his classmates can easily feel will feel even worse. Children who are not at all prepared for school fall into the category of lagging behind and experience failure, which in turn greatly demotivates them to learn. It is much more difficult to revive the motivation for learning later.
Attending training courses helps the child quickly adapt to the school system: socialize, get used to the system of lessons/classes, especially for children who do not attend kindergartens, but are at home with their parents. If a child attends a kindergarten, then the problem of socialization is not so acute, and the parent can independently teach the child basic reading and arithmetic skills, if he has free time and desire.
Schools now also have preparatory courses, they are inexpensive and also designed to help children adapt to school.
But if a parent takes responsibility for self-preparation for school, a situation often arises that he does it incorrectly from a methodological point of view. Yes, parents can read, count and write, but this does not mean that they can easily teach this to the baby, because they are not professional teachers. Yagodkin notes that the most common mistake is that parents teach letters to their children, not sounds. This leads to the fact that the child cannot put them into syllables. For example, having learned the letters M (em) and A, the child reads: EMA, instead of MA. And there are many such mistakes. Then the teacher has to retrain the child, and this is much more difficult than teaching the child from scratch.
“We must first develop cognitive activity”
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Olga Serova, psychologist, specialist in preschool education with twenty years of experience, children's writer, member of the Union of Children's and Youth WritersI am also sure that it is necessary to prepare children for school, but there are different methods.
Every parent wants their child to study well. Therefore, he leads the preschooler to preparatory classes. Usually paid. This is done out of good intentions: “By the first grade, he must read, count and write!”, “Then he will say thank you!” etc. But are such actions justified?
Serova is sure that, first of all, it is necessary to develop cognitive activity, communication skills, and independence. It is these competencies that will allow the child to successfully master the position of the student. Ability to read and write — secondarily.
But if studying is not interesting, additional training (development of reading, writing and numeracy skills) will not be effective, but will only aggravate the situation, nullifying the motivation to study at school. The expert is sure that preparatory courses are not a guarantee of good academic performance.
It's another matter if a child is inspired by learning leisure — This means that for him these are his own points of growth. And the best parent help — find such a job. It is important to remember that the leading activity of the senior preschooler — game. There is a lot of creativity, joy and energy in the game that gives children a sense of self-confidence.
There are many ways to prepare a child for school. It is not necessary to spend money on this. Sometimes the time spent with you — more valuable and more effective than popular and advertised developmental activities for preschoolers.
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