Mike Smith:
This week, I’ve been joined by Barbara Curtis. Barbara is the author of nine books and many articles on education and mothering. Barbara, you’ve laid a great theoretical foundation for why the preschool years can be a wonderful time for cultivating learning in the home. Would you wrap up this week by giving our listeners a few practical exercises that they can incorporate with their preschool children?

Barbara Curtis:
Well, Mike, the most important thing a parent can do is to start seeing thing through the eyes of a child and understanding the child’s limitations and then trying to connect the child with what they need to do.

So, I mentioned sweeping the floor before. When you see your child trying to sweep the floor, and they are not capable of doing it yet, it’s because the child doesn’t have abstract thinking ability. They don’t know how to sweep into a certain area. So what you can do is just take a piece of chalk and draw a circle on the floor and have the child sweep everything into that circle. That bridges the gap for the child.

And you know what, a creative parent can bridge that gap by starting to understand that’s the role they play in educating their child and find all kinds of ways to make things possible for their children that they never thought were possible.

Mike:
Well, Barbara, thank you so much for joining us this week! This will be a great encouragement to parents of preschool children! And until next time, I’m Mike Smith.