School has certainly looked very different in every household in this past year. In times like these, there seems to be no escaping technology as online classes, as an alternative to the traditional learning setup, are here to stay for a while. Though enrolling your child in online preschool classes is a personal parenting choice, there are definite benefits in doing so! With their expertise, online preschool classes ensure a structured and age-appropriate early childhood education for your child, providing the much-required social interaction through their sessions.
What was once only an option previously, online classes in India for preschoolers, have gained a lot more importance and understanding in recent times. The benefits may be many, but the questions and confusion remain. As a parent, you want to make sure that your child’s first structured learning experience is a good one. Choosing the best online preschool, especially when schooling from home, can be challenging. With the wide range of options that exist for different ages in terms of early childhood education institutions and types of preschool curriculum adopted, it is important to ensure that the choice you make reflects what is best for your child.
Here are some criteria for preschool selection that will guide you on how to pick the right preschool online learning for your child.
1. Preschool Online Learning Program Offers Appropriate Content: when choosing the best online preschool, ensure that the program offered is age-appropriate, developmentally appropriate, and aligns with what your child is seeking. Apart from content appropriateness, make sure it's credible and created by an early learning expert. While being contextually relevant, the online classes for preschoolers should nurture your child’s interests.
2. Duration and Timings of Preschool Activities Online: with a total duration of 1-2 hours for all online activities, each session should not be more than 35-40 mins. Ensure that your child gets screen breaks between multiple sessions. Programs offering flexible timings with batches staggered through the day will give you the option to choose sessions based on your schedule.
3. Preschool Online Learning Batch Size: as most online preschool classes take place in a group, make sure that each batch has only around 5-8 students per session. This ensures that the preschool teachers pay individual attention to every student in the group. During online classes, the role of the preschool teacher is to engage with the children singlehandedly. Hence, student batch size is important. Also, in larger batches, every child may not get a chance to express themselves, owing to the students' strength.
4. Preschool Curriculum: as a variety of pedagogies or curriculum for preschoolers exist, it is critical to make an informed choice. Some of the pedagogies followed include Montessori, Waldorf, Reggio-Emilia, Play-Way, and Multiple Intelligence, to name a few. Understand what type of activities the program offers if they are play-based and how it helps your child’s development. Ensure that creative and interactive means are used to engage and meet your child’s early childhood and preschool learning needs.
5. Quality of Preschool Teachers: in addition to the preschool curriculum and pedagogy, the preschool teachers also play a critical role. While choosing online preschool classes for your child, it is important to enquire if the teachers are adequately qualified, have the experience, and expertise to handle online classes for preschoolers.
Physical early childhood classrooms are, in general, highly interactive spaces. So this must be mimicked online too! It is the role of the preschool teacher to incorporate, in addition to learning aids, interactive learning techniques, as shown in the video here, to enhance the preschooler’s learning and understanding.
In a country like India with so many languages, a child is usually exposed to their mother tongue more in the initial few years. As a result, they are likely to be more comfortable in the same. Incorporating both English and the relevant regional language while teaching early years improves your child’s performance and enables them to learn quickly. It further ensures your child is comfortable and can gradually be encouraged to speak in English completely. So preschool teachers must utilize both English and regional languages while teaching.
6. Learning Aids for Kids: interactive teaching-learning aids for kids, especially during online preschool classes, make learning more immersive and exciting. An engaging storytelling experience with stunning animations and a powerful narration can capture your child’s attention in no time. The use of interactive learning aids for kids can also bring out the skills of the preschool teacher. The more interactive online classes for preschoolers are, the better your child learns. Also, ensure that the learning aids used during sessions are available or easily accessible at home.
7. Program Credibility and Support: it is important to review the available options before making a final decision. Details on the program’s credibility, management and teaching staff experiences, and testimonials from previous or current students’ parents will give you a sense of what to expect from the program. Ensure that the program delivered is safe, educational, and suitable for preschoolers.
Good preschools maintain a transparent channel of communication with their parent community. Your interaction with the program staff will help you gauge the team’s communication and support system in place.
8. Demo Class: some online preschool programs do offer demo classes for potential students and parents. It gives both the child and parents a first-hand experience of the preschool activities being offered online before making the final decision.
Remember, early childhood education is much more than your child knowing their A, B, C’s and 1, 2, 3’s. With many online preschool classes available, it is important to choose a program that best suits your child and enhances their future learning and development. One which creates an environment that enables their developing personalities to blossom and thrive. Kutuki, through its interactive early learning offerings, does just that, transforming the learning experience of over 150 million Indian preschoolers.
Created solely for Indian preschoolers of ages 2-6 years, Kutuki’s early learning platform engages preschoolers through an interactive app and online preschool programs as well. Crafted by early learning experts, interactive stories, engaging rhymes, and games with attractive animations and illustrations on the Kutuki Kids Leaning App allow for unassisted, self-paced learning. The certified online preschool program provides preschoolers with a structured, personalized, and immersive preschool learning experience.
With a focus on academic and co-curricular activities, Kutuki’s comprehensive online preschool curriculum equips preschoolers with much-required skills and address important developmental milestones through live interactive sessions with early childhood education experts. In addition to the comprehensive preschool program, standalone mini-programs are also offered that focus specifically on Phonics, Maths, or Reading skills.
Kutuki's child-centric content uses interactive elements through a mixture of hands-on activities, creative song, and story-based curriculum to build Linguistic, Numeracy, Physical, Social, and Creative skills in young ones.
Irrespective of what form of program, which caters to the early childhood education requirements, you choose for your child, do remember that it is critical to make a choice based on your child’s abilities. Choosing the right online learning platform can change the way you look at your child’s preschool journey.
