Preschool Skills That Predict College Graduation

Reading, writing and arithmetic are without a doubt invaluable skills to learn in school. But they are by NO means the only skills we work on throughout the day here at Touchstone. As early childhood educators, it is our job to try to set children up for success by teaching important life skills such as empathy, listening, following directions, and self-control. In essence, teaching them how to think.

All four of these skills involve ACTIVELY THINKING about a given task. Children  at age 4 often react impulsively, and need to actually learn how to calm themselves down and actively think about a task in order to complete it successfully or socially appropriately.

 Here is an interesting segment from a morning T.V. show which reports on a study on pre-k skills that predict college graduation. 

http://www.katu.com/amnw/segments/Preschool-Behavior-That-Predicts-College-Graduation-175601411.html

A few activities to practice the idea of actively thinking are:
- ask your child questions before/during/after reading such as: 1. "look at this picture, what do you think is happening?" 2. "why do you think that just happened" or, "what would you have done in that same situation." 3."who was the character of the book and where did it take place?"
-purposefully trick your child by giving the wrong answer when practicing academics with them.
-switch the rules of a familiar game. See if your child can remember what you changed.