Which Preschool Activities Are a Waste of Time?

Preschool Activities: We’re currently facing a severe teacher shortage across the U.S., and our preschools are particularly hard hit.

Since early childhood educators generally are paid minimum wage daycare near me, have very little respect from society, and are expected to prepare children to be academically ready for school. Many have been unable to pay.

Before the outbreak, there was a significant turnover rate, but it increased. Therefore, fewer experienced teachers are taking on these positions, some of whom do not know about children’s early development.

A few people do not know the importance of pretending, playing, and exploring for a child’s emotional well-being.

I taught kindergarten and preschool for several years. I am now writing about the issues of early learning. Nowadays, I inform parents about common preschool activities that are unproductive and may even be harmful to their children.

Too Many Structured Activities

1. Make a note of the calendar
2. Inspiring copycat craft ideas that are not original
3. Teacher-directed lessons
4. Worksheets
5. “The “letter of the week”

Inexperienced teachers fill empty spaces; they usually fall into the trap of giving children more time to play, focusing more on organized activities like those mentioned above.

It requires a skilled and confident teacher to stand up and assert that play and playing are important to children in preschool and the best way to learn.

Although some parents are satisfied with teacher-led activities (viewing the activities as “real learning”), those who know about them are aware of the things they are: mostly unproductive and time-consuming. It could be better used for activities that are centered around children.

It is no doubt that the most effective teachers are teachers who stand up for the right of children to play and stubbornly resist viewing preschool as a way to help prepare children academically for their first year of kindergarten.

They are the fierce fighters of early childhood education today.

They’re the ones that are backed by decades of studies that prove that teacher-directed activities are not appropriate for children and could limit a child’s natural enthusiasm and passion for learning.

1. The Calendar

Most preschool classrooms are equipped with a comfortable space where the teacher can sit in a chair while the children gather around the rug to have circle time. The main focus is a huge calendar meant to assist students in learning about the different days of the week and the calendar of months, and the concepts of time (yesterday, today, tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow).

The teacher announces with a raunchy exuberance: “Okay, class, yesterday was Monday. Today is Tuesday. What is tomorrow’s date?”

Even though they’ve been performing the same thing since the beginning of time, children blankly stare at her as if she’s asking them to figure out how to deal with the problem of climate change. Someone is calling out Sunday. Another speculates Friday. Another suggestion is Saturday.

With no other options, Then someone announces Wednesday. The teacher then squeals, “Correct!” as the kid was an incredibly talented genius.

Unsuitable for Young Students

As with many other activities for preschoolers, the calendar time concept is developmentally inappropriate. It’s an idea that was repurposed from elementary schools and imposed on children who are too young to be able to handle it.

According to NAEYC (National Association of the Teaching of Young Children), NAEYC has found no evidence to suggest that calendars can be meaningful for kids who aren’t the age of one. It’s because children must grow up before fully comprehending the concept of time.

Think of children on a long drive who constantly ask, “Are we there yet?” The parents reply “two hours” or “20 more minutes” or “less than an hour,” but they don’t get a satisfactory answer. This is because these measurements of time are completely irrelevant to children.

Other Ways to Teach Kids Math Concepts

In addition, even though calendar time introduces young math concepts (counting patterns, counting, sequencing), experts on early education say that children master these concepts better when working with concrete material.

In their piece “Calendar Time for Young Children: Good Intentions Gone Awry,” the authors concur that math is best taught in small groups to allow children to handle manipulatives like Unifix geoboards, cubes, and patterns blocks.

Suppose a competent teacher guides students by engaging them in discussion and prompting the students to explore. In that case, they benefit more from their experience than when they are doing group calendars without engaging elements that require hands-on work.

1. Craft Projects

Pinterest, The website full of pictures, has negatively affected the preschool curriculum through its plethora of captivating craft ideas for children. Teachers– most with no background in art education–look through Pinterest for fun ideas that will please parents.

However, these activities don’t encourage children’s imagination, independence, or decision-making ability. Children follow the teacher’s directions in a mechanical, step-by-step method, trying to replicate her flawless example. Everyone’s work is the same as the previous one tidy, neat and boring.

Discouraging Creativity

From a young age, preschoolers develop incorrect notions about art, thinking that the end item matters more than the method. It is a popular belief that uniformity is more important than originality.

Children with limited vocabulary express their thoughts through drawings and paintings, but they are now faced with fewer chances to express themselves. They have missed missing out on the biggest delights of art, self-expression.

As they age as they get older, they’ll likely say, “I hate art. I’m not good in the art!” They compare their work with others and conclude that it falls in the middle. They’ve never realized how amazing art can be a relaxing, enjoyable, and expressive activity to indulge in.

1. Teacher-Directed Lessons

Preschools were once a location for play, socialization, exploration, and learning. Teachers served as instructors, ensuring that everyone was secure, happy, and engaged.

The pressure for academic rigorousness has swept through this once sacred space and has ruined it with methods that are not appropriate for children between the ages of 4 and 5.

Teachers are no longer asking the pertinent concern, “Is this developmentally appropriate?”

Instead, they steal what’s popular in elementary schools and turn it into something they could utilize with their kids, no matter how absurd. Lessons directed by teachers have become more popular than activities geared toward children.

Children must be quiet and pay attention during circle time while the teacher gives information about famous musicians, international nations and solar system engineering, endangered species, etc.

As young as they are, children receive the notion that knowledge comes from the outside of their own.

They’re not allowed to explore something that excites them to learn more about it independently. This type of education is the most rewarding and not the type that makes them completely dependent on the adult.

Professor Nancy Carlsson-Paige was the co-founder and director of Defending the Early Years, an organization that promotes the use of developmentally appropriate practices for preschoolers.

She is also the author of an excellent book called “Taking Back Childhood: A Tested Pathway to Raising Confident, Creative, and Kind Kids. I would recommend this book to every parent of preschoolers, particularly those overwhelmed by early academics.

1. Workbooks

There is nothing that seems to impress ignorant parents better than workbooks. They believe that pencil-and-paper assignments are the real way to learn.

The rest, like painting at the easel or digging in the sandbox, or riding tricycles, seem like frivolous activities and are not worth the tuition price. While watching kids play and play, they are compelled to ask, “Why isn’t the teacher teaching them anything?”

Preschool administrators must ensure the parent’s content. So, many of them are willing to comply with parents’ demands for workbooks.

Whether they’re for handwriting reading, math, or the phonics curriculum, it doesn’t matter. If children are sitting in silence at tables, creating on paper, the parents think that learning is taking place, and they believe that children are ready for kindergarten.

The preschoolers know that research doesn’t prove this. They are aware that the workbooks they use aren’t developmentally appropriate. However, they are in business and follow the rules even though their children suffer.

Expert, knowledgeable and enthusiastic preschoolers speak to dads and moms about how children learn best.

They are aware that research supports active learning, including playing, exploring, exploring, and learning. The solitary, narrow skills taught in workbooks are not even a fraction of what is taught in a stimulating classroom with curious students and a spirited teacher.

Angela Pyle, an assistant professor at the University of Toronto’s Erick Jackman Institute of Child Study, believes that children learn more efficiently by using tactile materials than paper-pencil tasks. As a mother of a 4-year-old child herself, She writes:

” I know that the research says my daughter will learn more from playing than completing a workbook. She will be better able to learn the skills required for literacy and numeracy. It sounds counter-intuitive that preschoolers learn more and better from play than from worksheets and seat-work, but it’s true. “

1. Letter of the Week

The celebration of one Letter every week is the standard way preschool teachers teach the alphabet.

At the beginning of the school year, “A” gets all the attention. The students bring in items from their homes that begin with the Letter A, such as an apron or apple. The class designs the artwork of an alligator or Ape. They work on writing “A” in their workbooks.

The process is slow, systematic, and boring and is certainly not the ideal method for children in their first years to learn.

Research has shown that the Letter of the Week approach is ineffective because when the children are at “Z,” 26 long weeks have passed, and the initial letters have long been lost to memory.

Experts advise that learning alphabets should integrate into daily routines and not be taught as a separate unit.

Programs like Zoo-Phonicshave kids playing with letters and sounds by singing, dancing, or playing. Children learn to do A-Z every day in a fun, developmentally appropriate manner.

Benjamin Franklin said, “Tell me, and I forget. Teach me, and I may remember. Involve me, and I learn!”

This is the philosophy the basis of Zoo-phonics, which teaches children to utilize their bodies as animals and produce every sound of a letter. It’s a sense-based experience of hearing, looking, speaking, and acting. The information children gain is stored and won’t be forgotten.

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