If you are the kind of parent that plans ahead, then the first day of kindergarten will not take you by surprise. When the big day arrives, the clothes are all bought, the list the school gave you is complete, teachers conferences are done and you may have even used the last few months before school to help your little one bone up on the alphabet, on her numbers, shapes and colors so that step into a formal educational setting will not be such a shock.
It’s like an invasion in a way. You are the General and you are preparing your troops to invade a foreign land to achieve an objective. The difference is the foreign land is not necessarily hostile, it’s a kindergarten room. And the teacher, administration and even other students there on that first day not only don’t want you to fail, they want to be your team to help your little one do great. The other difference is your invasion force is not a seasoned team of soldiers, it is that sweet little five year old boy or girl with a slightly terrified look in his or her eye.
Continue reading ‘Ready for the Worst’
Published on
July 5, 2010 in
child.
Tags: a Friend, an Enemy, for Kindergarten, Game of Getting Ready, games, grow, kindergarten, Kindergarten Teacher, learn, Making a Game, Making Kindergarten Fun, play, together.
One of the most natural reactions your child may have to meeting the kindergarten teacher on that first day at school is to be intimidated and afraid. The first day of school is a confusing and frightening experience sometimes if your little one has not been out in structured public situations before. The teacher will have a million things to think about and the top of the list will be to teach the children to learn the rules and the structure of school. And while there will be many days and weeks ahead for your child to get used to school, its possible it all could be very overwhelming and your baby may run home in tears that “the teacher hates me”.
Of course you know that the teacher wants only the best for your child. With time, the teacher will have time to spend with each child and that natural bond will occur. But if the first impression your baby boy or girl gets is that the teacher is their enemy and someone to fear, that bond may be slow in coming. And if the new student gets the feeling that school is a scary place where they are in danger, it could be the beginning of a lot of trouble with school down the road.
Continue reading ‘Making the Kindergarten Teacher a Friend and not an Enemy’
Published on
July 3, 2010 in
child.
Tags: for Kindergarten, Game of Getting Ready, games, grow, kindergarten, learn, Making a Game, Making Kindergarten Fun, Making the First Day at Kindergarten a Big Event, play, together.
Going off to kindergarten is a big deal to your child. For parents who already have kids, big transitions in the lives of the kids is often taken for granted. But to put in perspective in your life, an equivalent type of event in the life of you as an adult might be a relocation to another country for a new job. For your five year old, going to kindergarten is launching into a new world, a world she has never known before. It is going to a place to do things she doesn’t know how to do, to be under the authority of strangers which is totally new and to spend most of her day with people who are not her family.
Continue reading ‘Making the First Day at Kindergarten a Big Event’
Published on
July 1, 2010 in
child.
Tags: for Kindergarten, Game of Getting Ready, games, grow, kindergarten, learn, Making a Game, Making Kindergarten Fun, Making Kindergarten Safe, play, together.
Sometimes we are not even aware how much we do to protect our kids when they are living at home. But when you are preparing your child to go out into the world on her own for the very first time, all of a sudden it can get very scary when you think of the many dangers out there. So one of the big jobs of preparing for your child to go to kindergarten is assure your child’s safety while she is at school.
It’s encouraging that, obviously, schools are designed to be safe places for your kids. The rooms are prepared to have young children in them and the way the children’s days are organized, there really is no time when they are not under the watchful eye of a caregiver. Schools are also more and more doing aggressive background checks on the people who work at the school to make sure there is no chance someone untrustworthy would have access to your child.
Continue reading ‘Making Kindergarten Safe’
Each year when a child makes that transition from months at home to going back to school, there is always a transition. As adults we might compare it to that feeling when we go off on two weeks vacation and then return to work. Except the transition is much more difficult for youth because each year it is a new school routine, new teachers and they have often been out of school for months, not weeks.
But the transition from being a child in the home to the classroom is most extreme for a very young child facing that first day at kindergarten. It helps to think about that transition by trying to look at the challenge through the eyes of your little girl or boy as much as you can. In most cases, being at home with mom, dad, siblings and the family pet may be all that he or she knows. Not only does it seem that the world revolves around family, the family home is a place of comfort and other than brief outings, the world is not a place that the child feels comfortable with yet.
Continue reading ‘Making Kindergarten Normal’
Published on
June 28, 2010 in
child.
Tags: for Kindergarten, Game of Getting Ready, games, grow, kindergarten, learn, Making a Game, Making a Game of Getting Ready for Kindergarten, Making Kindergarten Fun, play, together.
If you have a child under five, you have already watched many amateur productions of plays that were composed entirely in that sweet little mind. Role play and acting scenes out just seems to come naturally to children. Perhaps it’s because they see it on television and videos. But it’s more likely because children just naturally have strong imaginations and creating alternate worlds and then making them come to life is just a natural part of being a child.
We see this kind of play happen nature when we witness bear cubs or even kittens in our own homes as they seem to be all about play every day. But there is a reason for their play. Often the games they “play act” are their way of trying out hunting, stalking, fighting and even running away. In the same way our own children use their creative imaginations to “play act” scenes in life that they will one day encounter for real In that way, nature seems to have put it into babies of every species to use play to get ready for life.
Continue reading ‘Making a Game of Getting Ready for Kindergarten’
A preschool child takes his or her signals from people around them, and most of the times that is mom and dad. In almost every situation, the child watches you to see if this is a good time to laugh, to cry, to pray, to be serious or to be afraid. Just watch your little one when you are out in an unfamiliar situation. Her little eyes will be glued to you and when you react a certain way, she will immediately react that way too.
So the influence you have on your child’s attitude about her first year at school will be driven to a very large extent by your attitude. If you are nervous or anxious about this big step, your child will go into the first days in kindergarten tense and serious too. Continue reading ‘Making Kindergarten Fun’
As your child gets ready to go out in the world, maybe for the first time when you send her off to kindergarten, one of the top concerns any worried mom or dad has will be about security. And while most schools are run by qualified education professionals and campuses are secured, it might give you a greater sense of security if you were able to “arm” your child with a cell phone “just in case.”
Of course that desire to let your little boy or girl carry his or her own cell phone to kindergarten may be more related to moms insecurity about being out of touch with the child for several hours. If you know she has a phone on her and knows how to use it, at least you know she can reach you if she needs to hear your voice and that you can reach her if you need to know your baby is doing ok especially in those first days and weeks at kindergarten.
Continue reading ‘Kindergartners With Cell Phones’
There are certain big events in everyone’s life that we take the time to really celebrate and even get others involved so create spectacle and ceremony for the commemoration of that event. Marriages and funerals are perfect examples of huge life events that are so important in the life of those involved and in the life of the family and the community that we even get the church involved to place their blessing on the event.
Days like this almost always mark a transition from one phase of life to the next phase. Graduations from high school or college are celebrated with great joy because they take a young person into the next big step of maturity and responsibility. The celebration and the spectacle that we build around these big events help the one going through the transition make that jump and start this new exciting phase of life with enthusiasm and the blessing of the ones that love them.
Continue reading ‘It’s a Day Worth Remembering’
When we think of going into the “preparation mode” as that first day of kindergarten approaches, the two areas we most focus on are the academic and the emotional. If your little one has conquered shapes, colors, counting and basic vocabulary, these are some of the academic skills that she should have as she heads off for that first day of formal school. You may have given her some home school or even preschool exposure to get those skills in place and all of that was good preparation for this big day.
From an emotional and social point of view, the big change from staying home with mom every day to being in an institutionalized setting is one that your child will cope with better with some preparation. So letting her meet the teacher, the other students, sit in on one day with you there and then have time to role play or talk through what it will be like all will be very helpful at reducing that feeling of disorientation that your kiddo may experience the first day at school. Continue reading ‘Is Your Child Ready for Kindergarten?’
