The choice of the International preschool must be made in January. Here’s what you need to know, including open days, heterogeneous classes and special educational styles Care, welcome and relationship are the words that can guide us in the choice of kindergarten. The choice is always the result of a series of elements. It is important to understand what the most significant aspects are that you would like to be satisfied, for your family and for your child. For this reason, the first thing to do is to get well informed about the characteristics of each school.
Open day, what to ask
The open days organized by the schools, the so-called open days, are the crucial moment in which to gather not only information, but also the “feeling” of the school. What should you pay attention to during the open days? How spaces and materials are managed is very important in a kindergarten. It doesn’t necessarily mean that everything has to be brand new. However, an organized space and tidy materials are what help children to use them in a useful way, on a perceptual and cognitive level.
A particular eye should be devoted to creativity
After the age of three, children enter the world of the fantastic. This is where all the potential of creativity opens up and it is good to encourage them. Pay attention to the outdoor spaces must be experienced as something more than a small garden with a slide. The garden is an opportunity to do different things. Collect materials, get to know nature closely, carry out a project by taking care of it through a small cultivation. Activities that enrich the days of children are also welcome, such as groups in which to play music, psychomotor skills, etc.
Montessori: what is the idea?
Also with regard to the educational styles that characterize the offer of many kindergartens, the advice is: get well informed about the various pedagogical models. During the kindergarten open day you can see the pedagogical model in action. You understand how it is managed and translated into practice, abandoning the idea that there is an absolutely good or absolutely bad approach. It is always important to put the relationship at the center. Because it is there that the theoretical educational approach meets the reality of every single family and every child. Each school is different.
Choose the kindergarten
To reach the final choice, it is useful to listen to word of mouth and the opinions of those who have already attended a given kindergarten. However, the advice is never to neglect your personal feeling. If you feel comfortable entering a school, if the environment welcomes you and you like the people who live there, you are already well under way. The feeling that comes from the climate tells us a lot about how we will experience the place that our child will visit every day. This does not mean that one school is better than the other in absolute terms, but that the encounter in the relationship with that family is working well.
