Appropiate Clothing For Preschool Children
You wake up, shower, have breakfast and think about what you will wear today. Your decision is based on the type of day you have ahead of you and the clothing you choose is appropriate for your daily activities e.g. suit and tie for the office, track suit for the gym, high heels and posh frock for your sister’s wedding.
The same principal applies to dressing your child for pre-school care, whatever the age of your child your clothing choices should be based on the kind of activities that your child will participate in each day and the ability and development of your child.
To help you make this decision you must have all the facts, the best way to go about getting them is to communicate with the pre-school staff and discuss the activities that are planned. A copy of daily activities should be available to you either to take away or to view on a display board.
Pre-school guidelines and good practice suggests that children in pre-school should be gaining daily experience with a variety of differing areas. In order to do this the pre-school should have a selection of activities available throughout each session, and these should include messy play/arts/craft etc and physical play. Therefore your child needs to be dressed to participate in all areas of the program.
Outdoor clothing such as extra jumpers, coats, scarves, gloves, wellington boots etc should be provided to allow pre-school staff to ensure that your child is kept warm and dry in cold/wet weather, sun hats and sunscreen are necessary to keep your child protected from the sun. You may find the pre-school asks you to provide separate outdoor and indoor footwear. You also need to consider the type of outdoor footwear your child will require, flimsy open toed sandals are not ideal for climbing up and down slides or kicking balls. Young babies should have soft shoes or extra socks available for outside play to keep their feet warm and protected; it is not recommended that children wear “hard” shoes before they are walking as this can affect the growth of the foot and toes.
Toilet training children should wear clothing that is easy for THEM to get on and off without taking too much time – when they need to go they need to go immediately! Dungarees and clothing with fussy fastenings should be avoided. It is also important to supply the pre-school with at least three changes of clothing during the early stages of toilet training, this should include underwear, socks, tracksuit bottom type trousers and a spare pair of shoes too!
Messy play, sand, water, glue, paint, chalk etc is an important part of the child’s development - introducing them to new textures and colours and allowing them to experience different sensorial materials. This messy play can also assist in the development of pre-writing skills by holding a paintbrush for example. These activities are designed to allow the child to experiment and this inevitably means a bit of mess! In most pre-schools even babies will take part in the occasional painting activity. In order to protect clothing good practice suggests that pre-schools should provide or ask you to supply an apron or old shirt to cover your child’s own clothing whilst taking part in messy play. The pre-school should also make sure that children are able to wash their hands and faces after messy play - ask if this is happening in your pre-school!
Alarms should ring if your child is sent home in pristine condition every day, it is important to remember that a little bit of mess is required for your child to take part in activities that will ultimately benefit their development.
If your child has two different parts to their day, school in the morning and out of school care in the afternoon, it may be necessary to pack a change of clothes for them that is appropriate to each half of the day. This is particularly important if they will be taking part in sports, appropriate footwear and clothing is essential for safety in many sports. A towel should also be available to your child if they will be showering after their activity.
Weather needs to be taken into the equation when planning your child’s wardrobe too, despite the severity of the tantrum at 7.00am you really should not give in to allowing your four year old to arrive at their pre-school in summer clothing in mid-December! If you find that you are battling with your child each day about what they should wear you can try to offer them a choice between two appropriate outfits of your own choice rather than allowing them to pick out something that just will not do. This will be made easier if you pack up summer clothes at the end of the summer and store them away form your child’s bedroom wardrobe and do the same again at the end of the winter with their cold weather clothing. This way even if they do manage to get into the drawers and wardrobes they have little chance of picking out clothing that is totally inappropriate!
Suggestions for appropriate clothing
Babies
The basic rule of thumb here is warmth, ensure that clothing is adequate based on weather conditions and once your child is at crawling stage dress them in all-in one suits that will not fall off as they crawl around the room! In the winter time you may prefer to put tights on your child (boy or girl) under their outer clothing to prevent the constant replacements of stray socks! Summer time will require you to pack sun hats and sunscreen and Winter time will mean that extra jumpers and outdoor coats must be available in your child’s bag. Outdoor soft shoes are required all year.
Toddlers
Toddlers are constantly on the go and should be dressed in clothing that will allow them to move freely around the obstacles and enable them to move their limbs in order to climb and run. Layers of clothing are best for this age group as lots of short energy bursts can often mean that toddlers will get hot quickly and need to cool down before they become agitated. Short sleeved t-shirts and a sweatshirt are a good option along with ‘jogging-bottom’ type trousers as these are soft, comfortable and warm.
Toilet training.
If your toddler is toilet training remember you will need to change from all-in-one vests to separate vest and underwear and dress your child in clothing that is easy to pull up and down.
Montessori
Montessori pre-schools are often a more controlled environment and the very nature of Montessori allows children to work at their own pace, however children will still be participating in outdoor play and may also have other subjects such as music and drama, yoga or keep fit on the program. For this age group clothing needs to be functional and practical, footwear should be safe and closed toed and appropriate weather clothing needs to be provided for the change in seasons.
The school age child
School uniforms are expensive and restrictive and are not really appropriate for out of school activities. Your child should be provided with an alternative outfit appropriate to their out of school time table. Again, take into account the weather and the type of activities that they will be participating in.
Label your child’s belongings.
Pre-schools are busy places, staff have a lot to do and keeping track of the jumper Aunty Ann sent from Australia is strictly speaking not their priority. Label everything that you send to school with your child’s full name, either sew in labels or use permanent marker. Most pre-schools will have an area designated for children’s bags, coats etc.. Get into the habit of hanging up your child’s belongings on their peg with them each day and collecting them from their peg at home time. It can be very hard for staff to remember which bag belongs to whom when parents drop off their child and leave belongings on a table or chair in the classroom. You may only have put down one item but remember there could be upwards of 10 other children in the class too!
If you have plans to go somewhere special directly after you collect your child from pre-school supply a change of clothes and ask staff to change him/her before you arrive or arrive a little earlier and change your child’s clothing before you leave.
Finally, if you do not want to spoil an item of clothing or lose a favourite jumper do not allow your child to wear it to pre-school, save it for the appropriate occasion, after all you wouldn’t wear your best dress to decorate the kitchen, would you?
Written by
Ireland's leading Early Years education Magazine
