This little girl’s parents are so pissed.

3 year Leonie Terry walked out of her school in Manchester England, managed to cross four streets on her own before a passerby spotted the lone preschooler and escorted her safely back.

The school, in question, Aspinal School in Manchester, apparently had their gates left open, and little Leonie who didn’t quite fancy the pork chops they were serving for lunch, decided to go off home, and get herself a more appetizing meal.

According to the beleaguered school which is being attacked vociferously by the girl parents and child safety experts, they have recently installed high routines and perimeter fencing to ensure kids’ safety.

Umm…News flash, Aspinal. 3 year old kids are more likely to walk through open doors, than vault over 8 foot high fences. Jeez.

If this was my child, heads would have been rolling by now.

So what if your New Year’s resolution history is littered with the graves of promises broken? A new beginning is a great time to help your kids set small goals for themselves. Just make certain you don’t burden your child with must dos.

• Treat it like a game rather than a contest.
• Keep resolutions few, and keep them simple. This is very important. You can increase the nature of resolutions as they get older, but at this age it’s best to focus on a few key issues relating to health, hygiene and social skills rather than school work, or learning skills.
• Give your child a choice in the resolutions. Read out a list, and let him pick 3 that appeal to him.
• Don’t force your opinion on him. If watching less TV (him, not you) would make you happier, but he’s crestfallen at the idea, don’t force him into it. The idea is to make the whole process seem fun, and make him feel like he’s in control of his actions.

Here are a few suggestions from the American Society of Pediatrics to get you started:

• I will brush my teeth twice daily.
• I will pick up my toys everyday before I go to bed.
• I will wash my hands before eating, and after using the bathroom.

Here are some more that are doable:

• I will drink a glass of milk every morning at breakfast.
• I will watch 30 minutes less TV everyday.
• I will be polite to Mommy and Daddy.
• I won’t make a fuss before going to school.
• I will say “Please,” “Thank you,” and “Sorry” more often.
• I will not tear the wings off a butterfly or insect.
• I will eat my dinner without complaining.

Here’s wishing you a great New Year!  Stay healthy, and be happy!

I wanted to squeeze in this post in 2007, so I could avoid a really creepy start to 2008.

Here’s a link to a shot that creeped me out when I had a first look at it, getting progressively more disturbing as I continued to look. I know I am not the only one with that reaction. Check it out at #2 on Top 10 Worst Realtor Shots.

It’s an ad for a realtor. Once I got past the over processed hair, the slash of red that passes for her mouth and the womanly pose, what got to me was the stiff and forced smile. I wonder if she’s the agent’s daughter. In any case, I can’t imagine what the parents were thinking.

I’ll say it again. Creepy.

If you’ve dreaded the moment your little tyke begins to ask uncomfortable questions (no, not about that, about Santa), relax. A new study reported in Live Science says kids are quite capable of dealing with the shattering of their Santa fantasy.

At some point in time, your little preschooler will grow up, and begin asking questions about Santa. How exactly does he manage to circle the world in one night, delivering goodies to good boys and girls everywhere? How does a reindeer manage to fly…and non stop? All right, so what exactly is the deal here?

As a parent, you might think it’s best to not build up the Santa story too much, so as to prepare your child for not so big a disappointment when he figures out that no one is shimmying down the chimney on Christmas eve. Now, experts say there’s no harm in letting kids believe in a Santa. After all, a lot of kiddie play centers on imagination. Make believe friends, role playing - these are all ways through which preschoolers hone their creative skills. The Santa fantasy is just an extension of this, and nothing that you should be getting paranoid about.

And in any case, kids are more resilient to hurt and disappointment than we think they are. In other words, the chances that your child will be permanently scarred, and hold a grudge against you for the rest of his life for deceiving him are minuscule at best.

But, a word of caution for parents who are really worried about deceiving the kids: don’t elaborate on the fantasy and feed it. If your child takes the lead in embellishing his Santa fantasy, join in. There’s absolutely no harm. But, skip on the empty glasses of milk on the mantel.

So, what do you do when the inevitable questions begin tumbling out?

Chances are if he’s asking questions he’s already figured most of it out himself. After all, he sees a Santa at every mall he visits, and he’s probably sat on the lap of more than one Santa listing out all the ways he’s been a good boy lately. He’s already beginning to clue himself in to the truth of the matter. So his very first experience with innocence lost may not be as traumatic as you think.

When can you expect the fantasy to end? Studies show that it’s around the age of 7.

So, how are you planning on dealing with the inevitable questions? Is it something that worries you at all?

Here’s wishing you all a Merry Merry Christmas!

I had an interesting conversation with my nephew the other day. Interesting as in “from the mouths of babes” kind of interesting.

He attends a preschool close to his house, and his mother informed me she was planning on taking him out of the school, at the end of the current year. I was surprised because it’s a reputed kindergarten, and when I asked her why, she told me that the school was fine overall, but they had way too many holidays. They had the usual national holidays and other days off for major festivals, and plus a whole slew of other frequent holidays that had her son at home more often than at school.

That might be an exaggeration, but I can imagine how frustrating it must be to enroll your kid in an expensive kindergarten and not feel like you’re getting your money’s worth to put it crudely. I mean, kids do have a tendency to lose interest in things when they keep getting interrupted in their schedule, and if you’re constantly giving them days off every time the teacher catches a cold, you’re putting them at risk of losing interest in all the things their young minds are picking up on at school.

So back to the conversation with my 4 year old nephew, and it went like this:

Me: So, I hear you’ll be leaving for a new school soon! Isn’t that exciting!

Nephew: Yeah.

Me: (In an attempt to mollify him) You’ll love it in your new school. Your Mommy thinks you’ll have more fun there. And you have too many holidays at your school right now.

Nephew: But that’s the best part about my school!

From the mouths of babes.

My very first post!

Welcome to my blog, The PreSchool Mama, created especially for all you mommies of preschoolers out there. In here, you’ll find tips and advice for teaching your preschoolers, ideas for arts, crafts and activities, tricks to get them to eat, and plenty of motivational advice to help YOU better cope with raising your preschooler.

So what makes me such a preschooling expert? Well, I am a former preschool teacher myself, with training in Montessori teaching methods, and managed to combine my kindergarten career with raising my then three year old son. I definitely found my training and teaching experience hugely beneficial when it came to raising my own child. In fact, I soon found that friends and relatives were all too keen on picking my brains when they needed help with their kids!

Which is where this blog comes in. I hope to share all the wisdom I have gained through life experiences at home and in the classroom, and I hope you’ll find this blog useful for raising your own child.

Do drop by again, and often!