10 New Year’s Resolutions to Make Your Preschooler Smarter

10 New Year’s Resolutions to Make Your Preschooler Smarter

By Renee Mosiman, M.A. and Mike Mosiman, Authors of The Smarter Preschooler

1. Take your child to the library once a week. Allow your child to pick out some favorites but encourage interest in new topics. You can do this by finding a connection to something already familiar. For example, if your child likes the story “Old MacDonald Had  a Farm,” you might check out a nonfiction book about farms. If your child likes to draw you might find a book on famous paintings.

2. Read aloud to your child a minimum of thirty minutes a day. You can start with ten minutes and gradually build up. If your child is not used to sitting for long you can allow you him of her to draw or play quietly while you read aloud.

3. Play with your preschooler. Research suggests that the level of play is increased when parents play and that the most educational toys are the ones that foster interaction between child and parent. So show you kids how to set up a tea party, how to build a tower of blocks, or pretend to be a patient while your youngster checks you over with a toy doctor kit.

4. Play card and board games with your preschooler. They are great for developing reading and math skills as well as teaching social skills and good sportsmanship.

5. Provide alone time for your child to play, read, and think without outside distractions. This helps kids learn to entertain themselves while building attention and concentration skills.

6. Limit television viewing. Long hours of television viewing has been linked to attention problems and poor academic achievement. The sooner you set limits the better as early television viewing set life time patterns.  You should allow no more than 30 minutes a day for TV time.

7. Get some books on tape for your preschooler to listen to. They are much better for building imagination than television.

8. Sign up for a music class especially designed for preschoolers. Music training helps develop intelligence, encourages music appreciation, and prepares children for future music lessons.

9. Join a weekly playgroup. Getting together with peers in an unstructured setting  helps preschoolers learn social skills while under parents watch.  You can get together with neighbors, friends, or parents though a homeschool group or moms club.  Try meeting at the park as weather permits or at each others homes.

10. Plan an educational field trip once a month. Depending on where you live you might try visiting the zoo, science center, or a nature reserve. This is a fun way for preschoolers to learn without the rigidity of formal schooling.