Preschool & Parenting Blog Archives

Early Childhood-Preschool Teacher Requirements

Preschool Teacher Requirements: Many people wonder about becoming an early childhood educator or preschool teacher. They feel that they have a good connection with children and enjoy kids so this may be an appropriate field for them to venture into. What are the needed skills? What can you expect? Take a look at some basic educational & personal requirements below for your consideration. Educational & Personal Requirements for a Preschool Teacher Your preschool teacher requirements would cover two specific areas. The first area of requirements for someone wishing to become a preschool teacher would involve the person having the education and skills necessary to become a early childhood educator while working in the field as a teacher dealing with infants, toddlers, preschoolers and school entry children. Personal Requirements: Teacher requirements involve one having firstly, a strong desire to work with children of different dispositions and age ranges as well as having patience to deal with children on a daily basis. An individual desiring to become a early childhood educator must understand that children are not always on their best behavior. Educating children can be very rewarding, but some days educating toddlers and preschoolers can be very taxing and your job as a preschool teacher involves guiding the children and educating them with patience. Educational Requirements for a Preschool Teacher: Educational requirements for an early childhood educator involve completion of certain levels of education. Those desiring to become a preschool educator need to have first successfully completed high school. Many high school or secondary school institutions have co-op programs or placement programs for those who are looking to get into the early childhood educational field. This is not a preschool teacher requirement, however these placement programs help high school students to see if childcare is an area which they enjoy and can deal with on a daily basis. This is a good option, but certainly not necessary. Colleges offer many options for early childhood education courses. In Canada many colleges offer the full 2 year early childhood education course or e.c.e course. Another option now available at many colleges in Canada is the 1 year fast track course. As you can imagine, the workload is much more intense as you are completing all pre k educator requirements in 1 year instead of the standard 2 years, however, this option may be best for some who want to complete the e.c.e course fast and get working in the preschool education field with their full diploma. For those of you who may not have colleges or educational institutions close by, you may also search for early childhood education diploma courses online. Some of the topics covered in an early childhood education course could include important topics or variations such as: health, safety and nutrition, creative expression, intro to programming, child development and behavior, parent teacher child relationships and communications or language. These topics are discussed in greater detail along with many other essential topics of learning as the early childhood education course […]

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Early Childhood Development Areas Of Learning

Early Childhood Development Areas Of Learning for Teaching Pre K The ‘5’ areas of early childhood development in infants, preschoolers and toddlers are: Physical (P), Intellectual (I), Language (L), Emotional (E), Social (S). The information below pertains to various play based learning and programming activities which deal with different areas of early development for children in these various early learning stages. By programming in the specific areas of development below using suitable educational activities, you can help each infant, preschooler and toddler to progress in their early childhood development and beyond. P– Gross motor, fine motor, creative movement… I – Puzzles, file folder games, building type ‘toys’, “cause & effect”… L– Books pictures, symbols, songs, rhymes, single words with pics… E– Dramatic play, exploration, art work, real-to-life toys… S– Solitary activities, play with one friend, two friend situations, etc… Circle time songs, Games, turn any activity into social time… *Our website is full of various learning activities and education resources that can be plugged in to these various learning areas of early childhood development and growth. We expand further on this play based learning curriculum below by answering an email from our fan page. Areas of Play Based Learning for Children Explained: *Our fanpage fan ‘Nenet’ asked for some suggestions on the play based curriculum. Since with play based learning the children are essentially learning through their play and interactions with one another, you will want to make sure the areas they are playing in have a variety of items that they can expand their play and keep their interest going. You will also want to keep in mind any children with disabilities and make sure there are modifications made when needed to make sure ALL children are included. Since the preschool children are learning through play you will want to keep all developmental areas in mind when planning each center: Physical Intellectual Language Emotional Social Also as a teacher/parent you are a role model. You will want to engage in play with the children for a short while, ask open ended questions and remove yourself when the children are engaged in play so they can take the lead in their play/learning. Let’s plan for the block area as an example. Here are some examples of some items that would be great in the block center. Large Blocks Small Blocks Duplo Blocks made of different materials (boxes, bark, plastic) Blocks that open, snap together, or connect Area carpet with a road map/city image on it Masking Tape Paper Pencils People toys Small cars, trucks, motorcycles etc. That’s a lot of stuff to put in a block center so here are ways to use it: Put about 5-6 different items listed above on the block shelf or more, or less, depending on the size of your class. The masking tape can be used by the teacher to make “roads” on the floor. You will find that some children will prefer the Area Carpet and some children will prefer the masking tape

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