We had a touring family this past week come to our East location. It was a couple with a 10 week old baby and when our Director asked them why they were looking for care, she received what is now what we consider the “standard” reply, one that we hear daily on the phone and on tours. Moms are telling us that their big worry isn’t about Covid anymore, it’s about their children’s development. How they aren’t seeing people, aren’t hearing conversations all day, and how keeping them at home could be badly stunting their development. They are intuitively sensing what experts have been preaching for decades.
Babies: Why SEEING Faces is so Important
As one article so eloquently explains, infants pay close attention to eyes and mouths on faces. Babies use faces as a tool for learning from familiar people, like mom, dad or a teacher. Although they cannot yet speak, infants as young as six months of age learn and understand names for new faces. Source #1 Observing faces foster critical language development. Research shows infants and children pay close attention to mouths during important periods of language learning. This is why our infant teachers wear a clear mask guard at Sunrise. Their developing brains depend on it to mature, make connections and learn.
Preschoolers: Why Being Around Other Children is VITAL to Development
Social interaction helps young children to start developing their sense of self, and also learn what others expect from them. Young children are egocentric by nature. Putting them in preschool helps your child naturally come out of that phase. Sharing, setting boundaries, and problem solving all come from socializing and interacting. Children learn to have empathy for other people; recognize when their friends are sad or mad or even happy! At Sunrise, we give our children the social interaction they need with other kids their age, and help them to learn self-discipline. As they develop and pick-up social cues, they learn what behaviors or reactions are appropriate and which ones aren’t. Going to preschool gives them the consistency needed for their social development. Source #2 and #3
How Sunrise Montessori Helps your Child
You know that feeling you get when spending time with a friend? How you typically learn something about yourself? How happy and more peaceful you become? Children need the same kind of connection with kids their own age as they experience their confusing and exciting stages of development and having your child attend a preschool is exactly what the doctor ordered. Toddlers and preschoolers need as much social exposure as they can get. Pediatricians recommend parents encourage 1 to 5 year olds to interact with peers and preschoolers who are in preschool full time can get this exposure to other kids at school. Source #4 At Sunrise, we aren’t just focused on academics. The Montessori curriculum engages the WHOLE child by appealing to their natural curiosity and showing the purpose behind learning as well as encouraging manners and empathy for their environment and all who live in it. Our teachers place value on effort, recognizing and celebrating the uniqueness of each child. The qualities parents want most for their children are initiative, integrity, imagination, an inquiring mind, self-knowledge, interpersonal skills, and the ability to feel and recognize truth on different levels. Sunrise Montessori’s holistic approach to educating the whole child does just this. Source #5
The past six months have been a whirlwind, but our children are still growing, still developing and like a crucial vitamin their body needs to grow, they still require socialization with other children to thrive. Six months alone is a long time to someone who hasn’t been on this earth for very long. Like a rose bud trying to unfurl, your child is trying to become who they are meant to be, but they need the right environment of light, water and love to achieve that. Here at Sunrise, with the proper care and exposure to socialization and academics along with our love for children, your precious little one will get exactly what they need at each stage of development and beyond.
Source #4: https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/life/parenting/a29490284/kids-playdates/
Source #5: https://montessoritraining.blogspot.com/2016/06/educating-whole-child-in-montessori.html
Sunrise Montessori Preschool has two locations in Round Rock. Interested in learning first hand what we can offer your child? Then book a tour on our website at Sunrise-Montessori.com or call us so you can discover why Sunrise Montessori Preschool is where YOUR family belongs!
