Starting school can be an exciting time for kids and their families! It can also sometimes be frightening as kids are getting ready to experience a new environment and don’t know what to expect. This can be completely normal; we can all get nervous in new situations.
There are a few things that you can do to help your kids feel more comfortable for the change to going to school!
- The first thing is talking about it! For a lot of kids, something that can help is to talk about kindergarten and what it might be like. Knowing what they are going to do or where they are going to go can help them to feel more comfortable with the change.
- The second thing that you could do is familiarize them with the school or new environment they are going to be in. You could drive past it and tell them, “Look, that is where you will be going to learn in a few days” or “there is your new school!” If it is possible, you could ask the school if you could come and do a tour. That way your child can see what it looks like and how they will get around. You could also go to a meet the teacher night, so your child has the chance to meet their teacher. If your school doesn’t have one, you could request to meet them during their teacher workdays before the first day.
- One last thing you could do is to make a routine for your kid! Helping them form a consistent routine can help them adjust to what a school environment might be like. This could be as simple as it’s time to get up and get dressed! Or you could even plan when you will have lunch every day or set aside time to practice their skills like they might in class!
Many parents start to wonder what they should do to help their child be prepared for kindergarten. They can wonder how to best help them prepare for the things that they will be learning and doing in class. Here are some ideas of things that you can teach your child or help them learn to prepare for this new adventure in front of them!
Self-Help and Independence
Helping kids to be independent can help them to have more confidence in their skills as they go about their day in class! You can work on helping them learn to use the bathroom by themselves, as well as the importance of washing their hands after! Teaching them to wash their hands can be super important as they are using the bathroom on their own during the day! You can also teach them how to blow their nose! They might be used to a parent helping them to blow it, but at school, they might not have the same help. Teaching them to get a tissue when it feels stuffy or like their nose is leaking. As well as how to blow their nose into a tissue can help them be able to try this at school and even at home!
You can also teach them skills like how to put on their jackets and shoes to prepare to go outside for outside time or when it is time to come home for the day. This also includes learning to use buttons and zippers. It can be frustrating not knowing how to help themselves when they have to wait for someone else to help them with lots of other kids! Being able to zip their jacket can help them be more prepared to leave for the day and give them some independence that they can do it by themselves!
One other thing you could teach them is how to open snacks! This might be learning to open a container or how to open a plastic bag with snacks. There might not always be a teacher or staff member nearby to help them open their food during snack or lunch time. Helping them learn to open snacks before school starts will help them to prepare for these mealtimes.
Prepare Social Skills & Being with Others
It can be common for kids before kindergarten not to have lots of interactions with big groups of kids. This can be a new change for them; it might make them a little nervous to meet a bunch of new people. But there also might be new things happening that they haven’t had to experience before like following new rules.
There are a few things that you can do to help them prepare! Setting up more playdates can help them to interact with other kids and get used to being with others their age! This could also work by taking them to the playground or library, play groups and story times! They can see what it is like to be with lots of kids but also learn how to interact and talk with them! This is also a great time to teach kids how to take turns or share.
It can also be helpful at this time to teach kids to listen to others and what they have to say. This way they can start to have good conversations with their new friends. During this new time, they might feel a lot of emotions and teaching kids how to regulate and express their emotions and feelings can help them to have a smoother transition. You can teach them how to recognize how they are feeling and how to share that with others. As well as what they can do to help themselves address that emotion if they are feeling mad or sad.
Here is a great article done by PBS Kids that talks about how to help your child to learn and understand their emotions: https://www.pbs.org/parents/thrive/helping-toddlers-understand-their-emotions
Ready for Learning
There are so many fun things that your child will do in kindergarten. It is also a time where they will learn so much! Here are a few ideas of things that you can teach them before they go to kindergarten to help them with their education skills.
The first thing you can do is to introduce them to letters and words. This can include learning the alphabet and learning to recognize letters, both uppercase and lowercase. You can help them to practice writing their letters so they know how to write each one and can start to develop their handwriting. While doing this you can teach them to learn the letters in their name and how to write it!
Here is a great resource to find free and customizable alphabet flashcards: https://www.canva.com/flashcards/templates/alphabet/
You can also encourage learning these letters and word recognition through reading as well! You can read aloud with your child and point out letters and sounds to help them to recognize words. With reading, you can also teach them how to read stories themselves and begin to recognize words in their books at home, school or the library!
Some other things you can start to teach them are about shapes and colors so they can recognize them at school! To help with their math skills you can also teach them how to count and sort objects. As well as comparing different amounts of objects or numbers.
Working on their fine motor skills can also be helpful for the new activities they might do in class! These are things like coloring and drawing, which might already be things you do at home! You can teach about using different colors or using different writing utensils, either a pencil or a crayon or marker. You can also teach them how to use child-safe scissors since they will most likely begin to cut stuff in class. Knowing how to hold them and open and close them can help kids get a great start to cutting! If you’re worried about cutting items in your home, there are scissors that are designed to only cut paper! They are made to be plastic only instead of using a blade like most scissors, so they can’t cut other things.
For more information about the State of Utah Kindergarten learning and programs, you can go to this website: https://schools.utah.gov/curr/kindergarten
They have also created a wonderful infographic that gives you a list of things a child should be able to do in each area of development as they enter kindergarten: https://schools.utah.gov/curr/kindergarten/_kindergarten_/HereWeCome_.pdf
If you have any questions or would like any resources about preparing your child for kindergarten or any other topics, we would love to help!
