What does “Quality time” with my preschooler look like?
Date :
Wednesday, December 16 2009
Source:
Autourina Mains
What is “quality time”? Quality time is any time parents and providers spend with their child to nurture, teach and help them develop. It does not mean you have to set “dates” with your child in order for you to spend quality time with your preschoolers. Life is extremely busy and for working parents, time is limited and precious. However if you just change the way you view quality time with your children, you can see that every moment you spend with your child is truly quality time. Children and especially preschoolers demand our time. They are growing quite rapidly and are very excited about all the new skills they are gaining and want to share them with us.
Spending quality time with your preschooler may be easier than you think. At this age they are eager to share some of the household responsibilities and allowing them to do so will build a life time of good work ethics. For instance, allowing your preschooler to be in charge of the grocery list helps build literacy skills as well as math skills. Placing a magnetic notebook on the frig and letting your preschooler either write, scribble, or draw pictures of what you’re out of, are all important literacy skills. If your preschooler is just learning his/her letters then encourage him/her to write the first letter of the needed items. For instance they can write T for tomato and F for fruits and draw a picture of tomato or fruit next to the letter. Your list may be extremely long, but you and your preschooler have worked together to build it. When at the grocery store, instead of having him sit in the cart, have him read his list and help collect the items.
Another simple way of spending quality time with your preschooler is to take them along when you are running errands. It may seem like it takes more time, but it is well worth it. I live in a small town so I used to take my little ones with me when I went out to pay bills. I wrote the checks out in advance and had them ready to be delivered to the City Hall, the gas company, the lumber store, the auto parts store, etc. Each child was responsible for a couple of checks and they had to be watchful for their store. Soon they learned the names of all the stores and had fun going in to deliver the checks. This was a fun time we spent together and it helped develop their early literacy skills, math skills and responsibility to pay what they owe.
One more creative way to spend quality time with your preschooler is to hit the garage sales on Saturday mornings. My kids and I used to go to garage sales a couple of times a month. We got up early in the morning, got some hot chocolate and donut holes and off we went. I gave them $2.00 so they could buy any treasures they found. They are all grown up now, but they still love to go to garage sales with me. So be creative and make spending quality time with your child as a part of your daily routine.