Separation anxiety at preschool

Learn about: Separation anxiety at preschool from Tom Hobson,...
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Separation anxiety at preschool

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Separation anxiety is a common prospect when mom or day goes away. In the classroom, the children are very upset about this. One of the great things about a cooperative preschool is I have a class full of loving arms, loving parents, loving teachers, and caregivers who can give that child one-on-one consolation, so that they can feel comfortable in the classroom. My experience has been -- and I think this is true in every preschool -- within the first five minutes, they are done with their tears. They have expressed their emotion fully. I think that's important because we want to honor their feelings. We don't want to shut them down because it is upsetting to have mommy walk away. One of the things is that we don't always know when mommy is coming back. What we do is we spend a lot of the time talking to the child and we get them engaged in other activities. If they come up and say, "I want mommy." I agree with them. I say, "I want your mommy, too." When we sing the "Boom Boom" song at the end of the day, that's when mommy comes back. The children becomes masters of their own schedule because they know the signal when mommy comes back. I tell the parents, "I'm telling your child this. Make sure you are back at this time."

Learn about: Separation anxiety at preschool from Tom Hobson,...

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Tom Hobson

Co-Op Preschool Teacher

Tom is a preschool teacher, blogger, artist, and author. For the past 10 years, he’s worked for the Woodland Park Cooperative preschools, teaching two to five year olds in Seattle, Washington where he lives with his wife and daughter. His award-winning blog, “Teacher Tom,” has earned him an international following as a leading proponent of a progressive, play-based curriculum and the cooperative model of early childhood education, as well as a fierce advocate for public policies that support the whole child and the teaching of democratic values to even our youngest citizens. His blog, like his classroom, is a place of exploration of the physical, social, political, emotional, and even spiritual world. It’s a place of experimentation, where the adults learn every bit as much as the children.

Tom is the author of A Parent’s Guide To Seattle, a regular speaker on early childhood education, a board member of the Fremont Arts Council, and a founding member of the Superhuggers performance art ensemble.

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