6 Lessons I Learned From My Son’s Pre-K Teacher

October 27, 2015

1. Teach your child to celebrate his own successes. Yes, you should celebrate your child’s successes, but the next time he accomplishes something (like dressing himself), ask him why he is proud of himself. My kid gets praised all the time, from familia and friends, but teaching him the value of his own self-worth is just as important.

2. It’s OK to break the “rules” at mealtime. My son is a picky eater and I struggle to get him to eat different foods. For example, he’ll only eat mac ‘n’ cheese or grilled cheese for lunch. His teacher suggested giving him breakfast (he likes pancakes) for lunch just to switch things up and get him used to the idea of having a different meal at lunchtime, but one that he knows and likes.

3. Let your kid do the “hard” stuff on his own. I used to do “tricky” things like zipping up my son’s jacket, because it was just easier for me to do it. I also wanted to avoid tantrums. Now, he’s learning how to do things for himself at school and this process doesn’t come without tears or meltdowns when he gets frustrated. But rather than getting frustrated, too, I’ve learned to sit with him and teach him what to do, so that he can figure it out for himself (skills he will use later in life!), regardless of how long it takes.

4. Empower her to make her own decisions. At school, my son gets “Choice Time;” he can choose to do a number of different activities, such as blocks or puzzles. So, I give him the opportunity to make more decisions at home. At night, for example, he can choose to practice his language skills, work on counting, or draw.

5. Set a good example. When I pick up my son from school, he is instructed to get up from his chair, take his backpack from the back of his chair, and then push his chair in. He follows this rule every single day. I’ve started to take notice of my own habits at home. For instance, when we get home I usually throw my coat over the stroller rather than taking the time to hang it up in the closet. To help reinforce his good behavior and manners at home, I’ve started to take the time to hang up my coat and place my purse in the closet. By doing this, I’m teaching my kid that I follow rules, too!

6. Give your kid advance notice. My son’s teacher outlines events of the day by putting up visuals on a wall of their days activities. She alerts the kids before asking them to change activities. So rather than switching gears abruptly at home, which I’m totally guilty of doing, I’ve learned to alert my kid or give him a timeframe of the change that will occur (like a 5-minute warning before we leave the park). As a result, he’s a lot more cooperative!

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Yesenia Almonte is an experienced Editorial Beauty Director in New York City. She is widely recognized for her expertise in developing unique beauty content for a variety of top—selling publications that span a broad range of multi-media platforms. Yesenia has the ability to conceive, construct and transform beauty trends into personalized creative recommendations for diverse markets. She has comprehensive knowledge of the teen and Hispanic markets and has created a number of revenue-generating editorial packages across different mediums. Throughout her career, she has initiated collaborations with some of the foremost innovators in the creative industry, including Pat McGrath, Kenneth Willardt, Ondrea Barbe, Sarah Silver, Serge Normant, Orlando Pita and Gucci Westman.

Yesenia was most recently the Beauty Director of Seventeen. During her tenure at the magazine, she entirely redeveloped the magazine’s beauty editorial and direction by expanding and diversifying its content through creative and innovative features and looks, while also providing increased visibility to a broad range of beauty brands. In addition to overseeing the beauty content across all of Seventeen’s platforms, including seventeen.com and misquincemag.com, she created the massive multi—platform beauty franchise Seventeen’s Beauty Smarties, an initiative whereby real girl YouTube beauty vloggers create exclusive looks for the magazine and online videos. Since it’s inception, the Beauty Smarties franchise became a successful YouTube show, The Seventeen Beauty Smarties Showdown and became the backbone to the launch of Seventeen’s multichannel network on YouTube in partnership with AwesomenessTV. Yesenia edited Seventeen’s Ultimate Guide to Beauty, an in-depth how-to guide, and helped develop Seventeen’s extensive digital tool, the Seventeen Shopping Insider app. In an effort to reach readers everywhere, Yesenia also created customized beauty specials targeting the Latina and African American teen market, which have resulted in record-breaking advertising revenue for the magazine.

Prior to joining Seventeen, Yesenia served as Beauty Director of Latina Magazine, where she curated the beauty content for the Hispanic woman via the magazine and website. At Latina, she also developed Latina Beauty, a Walmart-only special interest publication for the Hispanic woman.