Parent Education and Early Childhood

In Jakarta, preschools and early childhood education and development centers have become a business. The attractive features and curriculums they exclaim have made parents question the significance of having their child enter school at such an early age. Some parents are guilty of placing their children under the false pretenses that these programs are designated and built to make their child get a head start in kindergarten, while others are in it for the sake of other parents questioning why their child has not entered school. The importance of early education can not be denied that it may give the child a boost in later years, but the quality of education does not necessarily come from schools. It can be taught from home, morning walks, trips to the grocery store, visits to parks, zoos and other educational centers. What I believe to be the core of every education starts from home. Of course, we must rule out working mothers, as they have a different role, and need the benefits of a quality education.
Each individual child should reach some independence as early as 2 years. These can be taught from watching their mothers do chores, washing clothes, and other simple activities such as cooking and making up the bed. Children have a natural instinct to copy and follow their parents, so teaching them to make their bed and clean up after themselves should be quite simple. The key to it is patience, and repetition. A child’s brain is exceptionally quick and smarter than you think. They are able to create a number of ways to make you buy them what they want from a simple cry to dragging themselves on the floor in public. These are not signs of disciplinary problems or spoilt ness, but rather smart thinking. From teaching household chores to your child, you are giving them a chance to be more intelligent than others because you are educating independence. And every human is made successful with independence as a pillar in their life. Independence will give you child a chance to make simple decisions such as whether or not he or she prefers chocolate or white milk, how much he or she should take from the bowl so that there will be no waste.
Another area we have to understand is teaching decision making. Decision making is not an easy task for children to grasp when are not given that privilege while still under the age of 5. After the age of 5, their core characteristics are born and become the foundation of their life. Thus, after the age of 5, when they are not used to making their own decisions, they tend to follow the lead of their parents and constantly ask for ‘permission.’ But teaching them decision making at an early age allows them to be familiar with responsibility. If they have siblings, teaching them decision making will lead them to understand about being responsible. Being responsibile in this sense means looking after their siblings. When they are exposed to responsibility, they come to understand completing simple tasks. This canr range from naturally brining their dirty plates to the kitchen, and cleaning up after themselves.

To be continued....