The Transition Points Every Child Goes Through

Child development and education are two of the most vulnerable yet most significant stages in life. It is during these stages that the child’s first identity is built based on how he first sees himself, how he thinks he should behave, and how he expects others to behave in relation to him. During these stages, also, the child will face different challenges as he goes through many transition points. These challenges include physical changes, social demands, academic pressures, and emotional needs. Some of these can be handled with just a little getting used to but others truly can place much stress and pressure on the child.

This is why parents play an integral role during child development and education. It is crucial that parents are there to provide particular understanding and guidance for the child. They must offer him support, understand what he is going through, and help him cope with these challenges.

Preschool may pose emotional, academic and social challenges for the child. This is the time when a child experiences his first prolonged separation from his parents and could also be the first time when the child is required to stay put at his assigned chair for brief periods of time, and listen and follow instruction. The child also learns how to read, write, and listen, and develops his comprehension and memory skills by learning the alphabet, the names of colors and how they look like. As for social challenges, a child is used to being pampered and being the center of attention but preschool with its group nature, requires him to share colors, books, and other supplies, participate in group games and activities, and ultimately, share the spotlight.

Early elementary years usually involve acquiring new skills and discovering hidden talents, forming new friendships, crying over petty fights, facing bullies, developing a “boy versus girl” mindset, experiencing having crushes (thus marking the start of self-consciousness and insecurity), and going through periods of envy every once in a while.

As one will see, a lot of things happen during child development and education and all of these things will have affect your child in one way or another, making it vital for parents to make sure that he receives the love, understanding, guidance, and fair discipline that he needs.

A Classroom Cannot Substitute The Real World

Like most parents, you are probably thinking that a decent school with high standards of teaching is enough to ensure the proper education for your child. This is not true. A good school may and most likely will provide your child sufficient “academic” knowledge, but education is not limited to subjects like history, language, math and the sciences alone. There is more to education than the ability to summarize the life of Julius Caesar, explain the symbolisms used by Shakespeare, calculate limits at infinity, and recite the names of all the constellations of the night sky. In fact, a background on these things is important but in the end, you and I both know that your child will not survive the real world if these were all he knows. Even if schools teach values education subjects, knowing what is “ideal” is not enough when he finally comes across what is “real”.

Learning achieved in school is not enough once your child’s out there in the real world. What one reads in books, no matter how much your child has memorized them, will not help him if he has not been there firsthand. Real education is achieved through experience. Life requires that a person learns and understands certain things—things that cannot be learned inside a classroom. One must experience something in order to understand it. Likewise, the education for your child if he is to become prepared for adulthood, must involve being exposed to what really happens once you are an adult.

The best real examples from whom he can learn are of course, his parents and immediate family, and the community. A child must observe, learn and understand how adults function in order to survive, how one should balance time and handle money responsibly, and how one should act and speak if somebody lost a loved one. He must also experience failure, so that he would know how to stand up if he fails again. He must know and experience how to apologize, express gratitude, forgive, solve problems, and make decisions. He must know how one should behave in parties, how spouses should give and take, how to raise a child well, and how to respect the opinions of other people. These are some examples of the things that make up the real education for your child.

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