Wise words from STELC teacher Mrs Smith in her parent letter: Just a thought as we move into summertime...this is such a great time to try our different things and there are so many opportunities out there for young children. I see parents facing such pressure to expose their children to things at younger and younger ages. Research just doesn’t back up the need for this. Children need time for free, unstructured play and the research backing that up is quite strong. I would encourage you also to minimize the time preschoolers are in front of screens... I saw a statistic recently that said the average preschooler gets 7 hours of screen time per day. The American Academy of Pediatrics has come down firmly against this, recommending none for those under 2, and no more than an hour or two for older preschoolers. I raised my children prior to all the hand held devices and I feel pretty sure I pushed the limit here, but certainly it is worth considering. A final thought on what I find on Pinterest and the myriad of mommy blogs. I get absolutely exhausted seeing the effort that goes in to planning enrichment activities at home. Loads of fun ideas out there, but I worry about the effect on the kids of a constant stream of “cool” stuff to do. It seems to me children need time to learn to entertain themselves... don’t feel bad if your home is not blog worthy! Whew... I’ll get off my soap box here. You are a terrific bunch of parents doing a lovely job of raising children!
Posted on: Mon, 05 May 2014 19:26:16 +0000