You Don't Need Preschool for Your Kids II

Yesterday, I posted an article written by Dr. Laura on her blog regarding Preschool. Today she posted this letter she received from a reader in response to her blog article. This is such a wonderful, and thoughtful response I had to post it here today for you all to read. I wish there were more parents who thought this deeply. Brilliant!

BRAVO! - for your comments about preschool in your blog You Don't Need Preschool for Your Kids

I'm a mother of a 16 year old boy and a 10 year old girl. I'm also a teacher. I went back after my little girl was in 1st grade-same school, same hours, etc. I used to laugh when people would suggest I should go back to work and put my daughter in preschool. They would say stupid things like, "Don't you think she needs the social activity?" Um, yeah right. I would smile at the person, look them in the eye, and say, "Isn't that what a family is for?" Really, it's in your own family unit the child first feels safe and learns how to interact.

My daughter was my "shadow" for years we went to the store, the bank, the cleaners, the dentist, etc-together. She learned how to say "please" and "thank you" by my example. She learned how to thank God for the food she has, how to plant flowers, how to treat the dog and the cat kindly, and how to love. She learned to be a good and kind person. Everyday we colored and read together. We visited the library and we rode our bikes. Sometimes, we went for coffee/juice at our local bagel store. When she started school, she knew all her letters, numbers and colors-more than a lot of the other kids who were in preschool. She continues to excel in school as does our son.

When parents ask me about preschool, I always say I don't believe in it- and then I tell them to think about it. How would your child learn better: With 21 kids in a classroom with a couple of teachers and an aide… Or 1:1. Our education czars are always pushing for "smaller class size", unless you totally suck as a parent, isn't YOUR classroom way better than ANY other classroom? I have a friend who stayed home to rear her now grown, married, etc kids. Before I had my son she used to tell people when they would ask in a condescending manner "What do you DO?" She would answer, "I am raising a human being." That IS the definitive answer.

Nancy

You Don't Need Preschool for Your Kids

Dr. Laura Schlessinger recently posted this article in her blog regarding the new Preschool trend. I found this encouraging. With more and more people I know either putting their toddlers in Preschool or older parents telling me I should put mine in, that it'll be "good for them" the lines were starting to blurr. I know it'd be convenient- who wouldn't love that extra couple of hours a day? And yeah, she'd probably enjoy it most of the time, but is it in HER best interest? Nope. Read on to see what Dr. Laura has to say.

You know how negative I am about anything having to do with preschool, daycare, or any of that. We're raising children here. If you don't want your kids around, I guess you could use preschool and daycare for that. If you don't want to program your life around your kids, you'll use preschool and daycare to help you. If you know you are a really crappy parent, you can use them too. If you are in dire straits and don't have another option right now (temporarily), I guess you'll use them. There are many reasons to use preschool and daycare, but many of them can't and shouldn't be supported.

A recent article I read (entitled "Why Preschool Shouldn't Be Like School") reported new research showed that trying to "teach" kids at younger and younger ages backfires. Anxious parents are so eager that their child "gets ahead" that they've even taken to reading books to babies still in the womb. Teachers are pressured to make kindergartens and nursery schools more like school, and even the "No Child Left Behind Act" urged more direct instruction in federally funded preschools.

But direct instruction actually limits a young child's ability to learn. Teaching allows kids to learn specific things, but they need more opportunities for exploration and play so they can "discover" on their own. They need a Mommy and a Daddy to give them a stable, supportive home and lots of love.

Head Start has always been a failure. I knew it was a failure back in the 1960s. And now, one study shows that 75% of mothers hand their iPhones over to their kids, thinking that will make them smarter. App makers are marketing directly to parents who are looking to help their children as young as 4 months old get a head start on learning. If you type in "toddler" and "educational" into the App Store, you'll find more than 800 apps specifically marketed to children under the age of 3. One town in Maine is spending $200,000 on iPads for its entire incoming kindergarten class. So the question is, do iPads or smartphones or toddler-marketed apps really make young kids smarter?

The bottom line? NO. In fact, the American Association of Pediatrics says children under the age of 2 should not be seeing anything on a screen of any kind, whether it's an iPhone or a television set.

Parents are too often looking for that edge to make their children the smartest. The most important thing you can do as a parent is interact with your child. You do not need an iPad or fancy software or a preschool or a daycare to make your child learn. They do it every day, all day, in many different ways. Let kids just be kids.

Public Schools & Flavored Milk: Yay or Nay?

So, this is maybe a tad off my blog topic as it’s more on the newsy side, but I think you’ll get how this fits in on the whole. The other day my husband and I were watching the evening news together, and a story in California caught our attention. On Tuesday the Los Angeles Unified School District voted to remove flavored milk (chocolate and strawberry) from its cafeteria menu in an effort prevent childhood obesity. They will be serving regular milk only. Many parents were pleased with this decision as flavored milk contains about twice the amount of sugar that regular milk has (milk has some natural sugar in the form of Lactose). Others were unhappy with the new ban saying that they prefer their child drink chocolate milk over “no milk at all” and felt it wasn’t really the school’s business.

This story got me thinking. How would I vote? I can see both sides of the issue. On the one hand, I’m all for less “nannying” on the part public schools, but on the other how is it the school’s business in the first place to be serving chocolate milk? When I was a child, chocolate milk was a treat I loved to divulge in occasionally with my lunch. It was not, however, part of my daily diet. Let me repeat: it was a TREAT! If a child has the opportunity to choose between regular milk and chocolate or strawberry, I would just bet that they would choose flavored nine times out of ten. Public schools should provide basic sustenance to children in the cafeteria (milk, fruit, veggies, sandwiches). If a parent doesn’t like what is being offered, send them with a sack lunch. If your child won’t drink regular milk and you would rather have them drink flavored than none at all, send them with flavored milk! I think that’s part of the major crux of this issue-the lack of parental involvement. Many of the parents upset about the chocolate milk nix aren’t interested or don’t make the time to pack their child a lunch on a regular basis. After all, who has time for that? Let the school system feed your kid right? Wrong! IMHO we are the parents, and it’s our responsibility to make sure that they are eating what we want them to eat. That’s part of “parenting”. Teach them at home to drink regular milk, or give them chocolate in the privacy of your home and leave the academics to the schools.  

That’s my rant and opinion on the issue. What’s yours?