When starting Kindergarten, it is a special year for kids as that is the year they start learning new things and evolve from being just toddlers to schoolchildren. Since it is the beginning to proper introduction to school, with play time and storytelling being interspersed with some learning, your toddlers may need to prepare in advance to get used to the new changes to discipline, routine, and learning. Attending kindergarten is not rocket science and some basic scheduling and disciplining at home can easily prepare your kids. Remember, your worries must not be alleviated first, else your kids will sense your tension and have contradictory feelings about the experience. Children are resilient by nature. They can handle a fall from a tree and a cut on their knee, but only when the strength comes from their parents through good parenting. Over-worrying and fussing around your kindergarteners can turn them into attention-seekers, which will make it difficult for them to make friends in school. As kids are neophobic by nature, aka, they are afraid of new things, school and kindergarten may worry them secretly. But you can put their worries to rest by following these quick and easy tips to gently ease your kindergarteners into a new life of learning and friendships.
Mastering basic skills like zipping their school bags, copying from the board, and writing down what the teacher says, is essential for kindergarteners. Most parents nowadays leave it up to schoolteachers to teach these things to kids, but it is a setback and reflects badly upon you and your child. Practice these things at home for a few weeks before kindergarten starts to get them used to it.
It is important to teach young children self-care, like buttoning and zipping their clothes, using the toilet alone, and washing hands after using it. They may not have a caretaker nearby or available at school and should not be dependent on others for help. Teaching these basic self-care tricks to your kindergarteners can help their performance at school and lead them to become a favorite. The secret is practice, practice, and practice, as small children develop good habits very fast if they repeat them consistently.
It is a great idea to try setting schedules and routines at home that have similar periods of recess, story time, studying time, and playtime, as that of kindergarten. This will not only make the school mornings much easier but also help your kids stick to them without discomfort or failure at school. It may take time for them to get used to waking up early and studying first, so try incorporating these changes into their routine a few weeks before they begin school.
You should get your kids out on playdates with other children their age. This will give them the chance to socialize, bond, and learn how kids become friends. It will also teach your kids the merits of sharing, teamwork, and friendship, and gain social intelligence. In kindergarten, they will have to deal with 20 to 30 kids in their class every day, so the practice should start early to inculcate good manners in them while lessening fights and bullying tendencies.
It is important to teach your children good manners from an early age. They should know that one apologizes when rude or wrong, say thanks when helped or gifted something, and greets back every person who greets them. These habits may seem small, but they have a bigger impact on their lives and relationships as they grow up. It is also ideal to inculcate respect for all, kindness towards animals, and empathy in kids from this age, to make those good habits long-lasting.
Introduce your kids to books. Not just picture books but real books for children, like ‘funny stories for five-year-olds’ or the easier works of Enid Blyton and Amar Chitra Katha. These books introduce kids not only to the world of other school-going young kids who indulge in good and fun deeds, like the Malory Towers and St. Clares book series, or inspire them by the brave tales of mythological and historical figures, like Hanuman and Swami Vivekananda. If they find words difficult to spell, help them spell and read as that is how young kids develop an excellent vocabulary.
These top tips will surely help parents prepare their kids for kindergarten. But remember to teach your kids the importance of asking for help from teachers or other authority figures when truly needed. This will teach kids that they can come to adults when they really need help or cannot do something on their own while maintaining self-dependency.