Plan Ahead For Kindergarten Registration

It is that time of year again. If you child is already 5 or will be turning 5 on or before Oct. 1 (date depends on your state) then it is time to start thinking about registering your child for kindergarten. There are several steps involved in the kindergarten registration process.

If you are unfamiliar with the process then, it is a good idea to call the elementary or primary school your child will attend for more information. If you are not certain which school your child will attend then call the school district's main office.



While registration is free there are some costs associated with kindergarten registration. Your child will need a current physical (often documented on the state's medical exam form) and will need to be current on all vaccinations. Your child will also need a current eye exam (often documented on a state eye exam form).

Most schools also require a birth certificate and social security number.

Some schools require these five documents at the time of registration: ~ Birth certificate ~ Social security card ~ Current immunization record (on state certificate) ~ Current physical record (on state medical exam form) ~ Current eye exam (on state eye exam form)

Other schools are more flexible and allow registration with only some of the forms as long as all other information is provided by the time school starts.

Once your child is registered, then your child will be scheduled for a kindergarten screening in most school districts. The screening is conducted by one or more professional educators.

The purpose of the kindergarten screening is not to determine whether or not your child will be admitted to kindergarten but rather how your child's unique needs will be met in the coming school year. This means matching the right teacher, classroom, and program to your child.

Most often, kindergarten screening looks at six primary areas: cognitive skills, listening and sequencing skills, language skills, fine motor skills, gross motor skills, and social/emotional skills.



The kindergarten screening is not the final judgment on your parenting skills or your child's school readiness. It is simply the first time (in most cases) that the school district will have to assess your child. Early screening allows the school to help you prepare your child before school begins. You may be given a checklist, or other instructions, noting skills to work on with your child. Sometimes children with special needs may be flagged at this point. This can be very beneficial as the earlier intervention takes place the easier it may be for your child to stay on the same time table as his peers.

The kindergarten screening also allows the school to better match your child with a teacher, class, and program. Each child's kindergarten experience is unique depending on the level of their skills at entry and the rate of their progress after school starts. The activities and work your child engages in during kindergarten may not be identical to those of all classmates. Many schools break classes up into ability groups or even pull children out of class to work with peers of similar ability or need.

Identifying special needs, problems, or abilities early on helps the school plan for the coming year. Will there be sufficient demand for a gifted program or a remedial program, are examples of some of the questions that kindergarten screening helps the school answer.

While your local school must make a place for your child no matter when you register it is to everyone's benefit if you register as early as possible. The school needs an accurate enrollment projection but also needs to make educational plans that can most accurately be made after meeting and testing your child. In addition, your child benefits from early enrollment by allowing you to know what to do to prepare your child for kindergarten. Finally, your child is now on a list, which will allow the school to contact you regarding open house, information meetings, and other events.

For example, my local school district offers a special program a few weeks before school starts that allows some kindergarten students to start school early. The students can become familiar with the school building when it is not full (and not so frighteningly loud and busy) and begin working on some important skills, which may be interfering with their ability to succeed.

Kindergarten registration is a simple and necessary process, but it can be confusing if you don't know what to expect. Knowing what to do before you register, what to expect during registration, and what will follow registration can help make the process less frustrating and confusing for everyone involved.

Partnership Between Parents and Kindergarten Teachers

Pre-school is an educative learning partner of the family. Some reasons that kindergarten is an extremely important educative factor are:

- Kindergarten creates an environment for children and it helps them develop their social skills
- Kindergarten prepares children for primary school
- is a protective environment and passes the time with children of their own age



There are differences from one kindergarten to the next regarding the closed and open space children dispose of, the instruction or advice, the qualifications of the teachers and their desire to do the best they can to promote good social skills and behavior. Any state or authorized kindergarten is obliged to offer a good learning process. From the management offered at the kindergarten or school, the parents have to find out what the conditions of life are and what type of environment of the unit has to offer, as well as the qualifications and the potential of the personnel.

The kindergarten teacher will conduct the children’s activities directly or indirectly. Some of the education process is conducted with the whole group of children and some of it is done in stages, as small groups of children or individually.

Parents and teachers need to form some sort of a partnership. There are problems that can come up in such situations and they may vary a lot. Some children that come to kindergarten have trouble adapting, socially and intellectually. There are many reasons for these things and can be discovered with parents and teachers working together to figure out and resolve the issue. Communication is the key to making a Childs kindergarten experience both fun and educational both the parents of children with difficulties and the ones of children with a normal evolution must be contacted to settle educational programs that involve the family.



Parents can continue educational games their children played in the kindergarten while they are at home, this will help the children gain confidence in their power. In the future this can help their children develop the initiative and confidence to give answers or volunteering to be involved in games.

The purpose of kindergarten is to help develop good social skills, to help prepare them for school and to let them have fun while they learn. They have to be introduced to learning and classrooms at this age, or it will be hard for them to adapt and maintain control once they start primary school.

The Basic Skills of Kindergarten

Children love to learn. In the first years of life, there really is no distinction between learning and play to a child and they get as much fun and joy from learning new things as they do from any game they play. So the years before kindergarten are a perfect time to use play time with you to begin their path toward conquering some basic principles that will be very helpful to them when they reach kindergarten.



Many children’s games and books focus on helping your little one learn colors, shapes and other basics that will be good to have a firm grasp of before they reach kindergarten. You can make a game of knowing the color names and you will be surprised how quick witted your child is and able to pick up not just the basic 5-10 colors but many nuances of color as well. The same is true of shapes. While a child may have trouble saying “octagon”, don’t underestimate their ability to learn the names of the various shapes of their toys and blocks.

You can use play and reading time to also help your preschool child get a good grasp of the alphabet, how the letters look and numbers and counting. These will all be excellent basic skills of kindergarten that will make the step into formal school easy and smooth for your child. In fact, it isn’t out line to expect that your preschooler could learn to sign her name and do some basic letter shaping exercises before she starts kindergarten. How great would it be for her not only to have these core skills and areas of knowledge well in hand before school starts but to be able to start with that much confidence that she is smart and ready for school? That kind of confidence translates into big time success for any student starting on a big new adventure.

Along with using play time in such a productive way, there are many studies that have shown without a doubt that reading to your child every day is one of the finest ways to get them ready for school. If you read stories to your little one and allow them to look over your shoulder, you will be surprised how many words they will learn to recognize just from that casual time of loving relaxation with mommy or daddy.



But reading is also one of the best ways to improve your child’s vocabulary and ability to speak clearly and expressively. Don’t be surprised if you find your child with books open early and often because you took the time to read to her even before she starts at kindergarten. And that love of learning is something that will stay with that child for the rest of her life. What a wonderful gift.

If your child loves to run and play as is very common in young children, you can use that to help them develop strong motor skills which will help in dozens of ways in school. Hand eye coordination not only will help your child do well in gym and playing sports, it will help in learning to write and many other related physical dexterity challenges that she will face in school.

By looking at many of life’s simple pleasures that you enjoy in raising a preschooler as also opportunities to develop your child intellectually, physically and even socially in preparation for kindergarten, you are giving your baby wonderful skills, knowledge and abilities that will pay off big when kindergarten starts officially when she is five. And you will be thrilled to see her naturally step into the formal school world so well and begin to succeed because you took the time to get her ready well ahead of time.

Making the Kindergarten Teacher a Friend and not an Enemy

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.

So teaching your child that the teacher is not an enemy is very important to her success on the first day of school and your child’s success in school for years to come as well. The first step in helping your child understand that the teacher is a friend is just to talk about it. Sitting with your child and visualizing together how that first day at school will be and seeing the teacher as a protector, a guide and a friend will send the child off to school with a good opinion of the teacher even before the class is called to order for the first time.

It might be helpful to work with your child to understand the relationship between authority and benevolence. You should work to help your child see that even though the teacher is setting the rules and enforcing discipline in the class, she is still the best friend and protector of the children as well. The best example your little one has of this model is, of course, mom and dad. A child has utmost trust and love for her parents. And yet she knows that it is also mom and dad who set and enforce the rules and even punish when the kids have been bad. By seeing that the role of rules maker and enforcer can be part of being a caregiver, the child can transfer the affection they have for mom and dad to the teacher and understand that role in class.



You can even take the next step in helping your child accept the role of teacher in her life by looking for a chance to go to the school and even sit in on a class just to watch what happens at school. Many schools are happy to let kindergartners that will be starting next year sit in for a day, especially if they are with mom or dad to help them feel secure. You will see some wide eyes as your child absorbs all that goes on in kindergarten. Then you can use that experience to answer a lot of questions when you get home. All of that is outstanding preparation for what the child will experience eon their first day in school.

By meeting the teacher, watching what happens in school and getting familiar with the “idea” of kindergarten, you are getting out ahead of the problem of fear and intimidation that is often big problem for children in their first day at school. The teacher your child will have in the fall will be thrilled to meet her and begin making friends with your child right away. And that short time together may be all it takes to change that teacher from an enemy to a trusted friend and a face your child will look for as soon as she goes to kindergarten that first week. And when your child sails through that first week at school, it will because you took the time to get her ready to have a great time in her first experience at school.

Making the First Day at Kindergarten a Big Event

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.



When a child graduates from a phase in their lives like from high school, college or even from elementary school, it is not uncommon to celebrate with a big party and gifts. The purpose of the celebration is to commemorate the successful conclusion of a formal phase of life and start of the next phase. We want the child to come out of their completed experienced encouraged and excited so they charge into the next challenge with gusto.

It might be time to consider the start of kindergarten in that same category. In a way, starting school is the end of infancy. Your child is going off to do something all by herself. She will take on challenges and conquer them. She will have days when it seems it is impossible and then she will conquer those fears and achieve the impossible. So you want to send your little one off to kindergarten with that that its time to leave infancy behind and go into this big new world of school with gusto, enthusiasm and ambition.

Making the start of kindergarten a big event puts the feeling of joy and excitement around that first day in that new school. It is a “rite of passage” that puts momentum around your child’s growth from being a baby at home to becoming a student. In our eyes kindergarten is hardly a big challenge. But in your little one’s eyes, it is just as big a step as any other transition you have experienced. And that celebration gives her the momentum to overcome those initial fears and go into the kindergarten classroom with excitement and positive anticipation.



A party is always a good way to start out this new phase in life. Perhaps going to your child’s favorite restaurant would be a nice touch because she can invite some of her friends to be there with her whole family to cheer and celebrate this big day with her. While many children’s restaurants are used to singing to a child having a birthday, with some notification and letting the restaurant know what you want, you can have the staff come out and sing a happy song with a cake and ice cream to make this event memorable and fun for your soon to be star student of the family.

You want this celebration to be special and not like every other birthday. Presents might include extra fun school clothes, a new notebook, a fun backpack or a jumbo crayola set in a special carrier that she can use to take it back and forth to school. But by making this celebration full of laughter, song and joy, you are sending a message to your little one that everybody appreciates what a big deal starting kindergarten is and the whole family and all of her friends are behind her 100% of the way. And your support in launching that child into school so well will pay off when she comes home successful, happy and excited about what she is doing in kindergarten every day.

Making Kindergarten Safe

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.



The trip to and from school is one that is often a big concern. The ideal would be if you could drive your child door to door. If your child must walk to school, take some time before the kindergarten year begins to meet parents of other kindergarten age children in your neighborhood. If your kiddo can tag along with a parent supervised group that is walking to school, that parent’s presence is often enough to make sure your child is safe.

But there is no question that safety begins with the child herself and the best way to prepare your child to be safe is to teach her to think about every aspect of safety throughout her day at school. The simple rules that were part of life at home must become hard and fast law at school. Your child should know never to pick up anything and put it in her mouth and to only eat things that she either brought with her to school or that she buys from the school cafeteria or are given to the class by the teacher.

You have to be diplomatic in teaching your child that accepting something to eat from another child is not ok. From your perspective, you have no idea whether what that other child is offering is safe, well prepared or might contain illegal substances. Yes, this is a bit paranoid but being safe is far better than being sorry later. So the rule of “no trading” when it comes to lunch items must be reinforced well so it is high on your child’s set of guidelines for her day.



Now you don’t want to scare your child or give her the idea that every adult is an abductor and every other child a drug dealer. It is ok for your little one to trust the adults at school and the other kids too but at the same time observe basic safety precautions even with trusted kids and adults so she is never even in a situation that could become dangerous.

Making it a rule to never be alone with another person anywhere is one way to make sure your child is always being looked after. This assures that she is never alone with an adult, including the teacher so if by chance someone improper got through the system, there is no access for that person to talk to or touch your child. But by stipulating that your little one makes sure she is never alone even with another child, the kids have fewer chances to think of activities that are not allowed and outside the range of acceptable and safe activities.

It is also a hard and fast rule that your child must never go home with another child or accept a ride from anyone without notifying mom first. Even if the child is your little one’s good friend, the two children must not be allowed to “be creative” about their route home or what will happen after school. By making sure your kindergartner knows the rules of safety well and observes them religiously, you are doing all you can to make sure that when you send that precious child off to school, you are continuing to protect her even when you cannot be around her all the time.

The Purpose of Kindergarten

It’s pretty common when you are starting to prepare your preschool child for that first day of kindergarten for her to ask you, probably with tears in her eyes, “But Daddy, why do I have to go?” And while you have your parent answers to give her and you will obviously refocus her attention on how fun it will be and how it will be her next step toward “being a big girl”, you might ask yourself that question as well. It’s important that dad and mom have a firm idea of what kindergarten is all about as well so you can do a good job of preparing your little one for this big step in life.



It is a mistake to see kindergarten as a huge academic leap into the future. When parents pour so much energy into preparing their children to excel academically before heading off to kindergarten, they miss the point of this important year of school. Moreover, by “prepping” the child for school as though this first year was going to be their freshman year at MIT, you create even more stress and anxiety because the child begins to think they are going to walk into a situation of high stress. The result is the child goes off to kindergarten already stressed and far more anxious than is justified for this first step out of the home.

Now this does not mean that preschool is not a good idea. Not only does preschool give the child an early love of learning, it is also an excellent way to help your child begin to acclimate to the idea of going to school out of the home. And learning to go somewhere else and become part of an organized curriculum is a big purpose of kindergarten. So preschool gently starts that transition both academically and emotionally.

To a very large extent, the purpose of kindergarten is to help young children begin that transition to a structured environment of school. If by the end of this important first year, kindergarten children come to school happily, know how to work with a schedule, sit at desks, listen to speakers, write things down and take them home and then bring them back again the next day and walk through the structured schedule of a normal school day, that is a huge step forward in preparing your child for school life that will begin in first grade.

Yes there is a curriculum in kindergarten and simple lessons are taught. Very often grades are not even kept or a child is given a good or passing grade just for being in class, participating in the group activity and trying to work with the program. The learning objectives that any kindergarten teacher will have for this year of life with these first year students is heavily slanted toward behavioral and social goals and not as heavy on academics.



The kindergarten teacher is a much different kind of teacher than any others your child will meet in his or her academic career. You will find your child’s kindergarten teacher to be very interested in each child as an individual and in helping your child make that transition away from living at home every hour of the day and toward using a significant part of their day at school. Commonly kindergarten teachers have special training in child psychology and are as much counselors and guides as they are teachers of lessons from books.

Get to know the teacher of your child’s kindergarten class. You will find she is eager to know all she can about your child to achieve her goal of preparing each kindergartner for the more academic years ahead. And if you are in sync with those goals, you can reinforce the experience your child is having with encouragement and interest at home. And working as a team, you and the teacher will help your child have a wonderful and successful first year in school.

Making Kindergarten Fun

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.



Of course, you know the importance of shaping your child’s attitude toward school. You want them to take school seriously. In a strange way, in order to get your child interested in school, especially in this important first year, you have to lift the pressure and speak of them about kindergarten in their own.

And the orientation of any child in the months leading up to kindergarten can be sized up in one word – fun. We often underplay the importance of fun and even scoff at how much value a child places on fun even in going to school. “Fun” is a code word for a child. It means more than just a child’s desire to play in a frivolous way. In other contexts, “fun” means the child wants to be engaged, challenged, become part of a process, loved, feel safe and feel joy about what he or she is doing. So when a child complains that something “isn’t fun”, it might just mean that the activity is frightening or fails to connect to them on their own terms.

Learning to listen to your child is a big step in helping them get ready for all of life’s challenges including this big step into kindergarten. So the more you can do to make their first days in kindergarten fun will be of tremendous value in helping your child want to go to school and overcome their feelings of anxiety and stress about doing something new and a little scary.



The best way to make kindergarten fun for your child is for you to have fun getting her ready for the event. The process of buying new clothes and school supplies can be great fun for parent and child so if you take your little one with you and let him or her make choices about those new clothes, about the kind of notebook they will take and about their lunch pail or carrier, those things will have special meaning to them and the child will be excited to put them to work.

Talk up the fun your child is going to have at kindergarten. By emphasizing that they will get to play lots of games and make lots of new friends at school, they will take that clue from you and go into the new experience looking for new friends.

The more engaged you are in your child’s school experience, the more he or she will see this as a big adventure and go off in the spirit of joy and fun to “discover the world” because they know mom and dad will be waiting eagerly at home to hear all about their big day.

Giving your child the spirit of fun and adventure about going to school is probably the best gift you can give her and the best way you can prepare your little one to take on the challenges of school. And if your new student goes into school looking at it as a big fun outing, each new assignment will be taken on with creativity, mental energy and personality and that will naturally give her success in everything she does at school. And as success leads to more success, before long you will have a child that loves school and goes there with energy and enthusiasm throughout kindergarten and on into first grade and up and up in the latter of success in the academic world.

Making Kindergarten Normal

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.



So if you take your child to school for that first day and leave her there, the environment she is now in could not be more strange to her than if you put your child in the middle of the rain forest to fend for herself. Small wonder so many children undergo extreme anxiety that first day of kindergarten when their parents leave them to the first major adjustment of life and they are doing it from a cold stop with absolutely no preparation whatsoever.

There is a lot you can do to make that first day they are stetting in the classroom less strange to your child. By taking your child through some preparation times in advance of the first day, you can do a lot to make the idea of going to kindergarten normal to your child and to make that first day seem more routine and even fun when she finds her desk and begins to listen to a teacher for the first time ever.

Videos can help your child visualize school and be of tremendous help. Look for children’s videos that are appropriate to your little one’s age that are educational and above all fun and comforting to her as these videos picture the on screen children in a school like setting. Many of the most popular children oriented TV shows like Sesame Street and Barney will have videos to help with this transition. Watch them together with your child and then afterward talk about the day that will come when she will go off to school. In that way, you are helping her process that such a thing is a reality and that she should mentally prepare for that day.



You can also use playtime at home to help your child pretend to be in school. You can arrange the play furniture you have in a classroom setting and put her stuffed animals in the other chairs. Then you can be the teacher and simulate how being in school might go. As you call on her stuffed bear to answer questions or on her toy ducky to sit up straight, you child will laugh but also be preparing mentally for when that is a real situation with lots of other real children all around her.

Visits to the classroom that your child will attend and meeting the teacher are also good steps toward making that transition. When you see your child actually initiating going to school during play with her toys or with other children, you will know that she is well on her way toward a smooth transition into academic life, even if that academic life is at this time only kindergarten.

Making a Game of Getting Ready for Kindergarten

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.

As parents, one of our great joys is to join our children in play. We get to sort of “become children” ourselves all over again for a while which is great fun. And if we think its fun for us, just watch as grandma or grandpa get down on the floor and suddenly become five year olds for a while. The only shame is one day our young ones will grow up and then we can’t play with their toys any more.

This impulse to act out scenes of life that they will eventually grow into is a wonderful resource you can use to begin to prepare your child for kindergarten. Very often, even though they may not know they are doing it, children use this skill to cope with fears about life and changes that may be on the way. So you can use kindergarten skits and games to help your child feel less frightened of that big change and even come to see the coming of kindergarten days as a time of fun and excitement so when it gets here, she welcomes it with glee rather than with dread.

You can set up a mini kindergarten room in your living room using play chairs from your child’s toy table and using stuffed animals to be the other students. The lessons can be silly things at first like the plot of the Wizard of Oz or the names of all of her My Little Pony dolls so your child gets to jump up and yell, “I know teacher, pick, me!” and begin to experience the thrill of being recognized publicly for being smart, even if the public are stuffed bears and Shrek characters.

Once your little one sees how fun it is playing school, you can begin to do more to make the game more realistic by implementing a schedule with a time to lay down her head, a time to draw, and a daily schedule including “single file to the lunch room” and back. These will be fun games that will get a giggle from your child but also introduce these concepts in a fun way so when they happen for real when she starts kindergarten, they wont be frightening but have an association of playtime with mom.

By taking the time to play out what will be happening in kindergarten, you can prepare your child for all of the aspects of school she can expect. Its an outstanding exercise and you can take her through it without ever letting her know that this is a big part of the “work” of getting ready for school, even though to her its just a game.

Kindergarten Secrets

Oh, it’s time for kindergarten. If this is your first kindergartner, you may not know what to expect. Kindergarten varies from school to school, but here are some general principles that apply across the board.

Kindergarten assessment is done before your child begins school. The teacher will do some testing to see where your child is at as far as learning. As you watch this take place, you might feel like you are being put under the microscope. “You didn’t teach your child the shapes for oval and rectangle? He doesn’t know what the J sound makes? Try not to take personally the responses that your child gives. Everyone learns at a different rate.



Assessment will review colors, shapes, letters, writing, more & less, and other skills as applicable to the teacher. Remind yourself that this is just a help for the teacher, and a way to gauge what your child has learned since they began. During parent teacher conferences, the teacher will refer to the assessment to see where your child has progressed.

Prepare for homework. Your child will have homework assignments, probably on a daily basis. You will have to help with these. Think of it as after school learning, and you are the teacher. This is also a good time to start collecting magazines or newspapers, because you can be sure that you will have to start clipping out pictures that begin with the letters of the alphabet.

Kindergarten is a great time for your child. They will learn and grow so fast during this year. They will make new friends and begin to discover more of the world around them. With your help, this can be a successful year for them.

When Your Child Ready For Kindergarten?

It is that time of year again. If you child is already 5 or will be turning 5 on or before Oct. 1 (date depends on your state) then it is time to start thinking about registering your child for kindergarten. However this is also the time that many parents begin worrying about whether or not their child is ready for kindergarten.

First, it is important to note that entry to kindergarten is based primarily on age. In most U.S. states that simply means that if your child is or will be 5 years old on or before Oct. 1 (date may vary in some states) then your child must start kindergarten that school year.



The good news is that most primary programs are designed to take children with a variety of social, emotional, and academic needs and work with them based on their strengths.

However we also know that children who start kindergarten with a good grounding in six skill areas have a head start and a higher success rate than children lacking these basic skills.

The skills that ease transition into kindergarten and help lead to a successful kindergarten year fall into these basic areas: cognitive skills, listening and sequencing, language skills, fine motor skills, social emotional skills, and gross motor skills.

Cognitive skills that will help your child be better prepared for kindergarten include the usual suspects such as knowing the alphabet, primary colors, shapes and being able to count to ten.

You should also work with your child to make sure she knows her phone number, address, birthday, and age.

Some emergent literacy skills also include being able to identify his own name in writing, writing his own name, answering questions about a story, understanding that words are read from left to right, knowledge of some nursery rhymes, recognizing written numbers, and vocabulary.



Listening and sequencing are also important skills and this includes the ability to follow simple directions, paying attention, retelling a simple story in sequence, repeating a sequence of sounds, and repeating a sequence of numbers.

In addition to the emergent literacy skills connected with cognitive skills, there are also language skills connected to relationships such as big and little, short and tall, more and less, up and down, top and bottom, in and out, over and under, front and back, and slow and fast.

While we often associate school simply with cognitive skills, it is important that children also have fine and gross motor skills as well as social emotional skills.

Fine motor skills include being able to tie shoes, hold crayons with fingers, copy a straight line, copy a vertical line, copy a circle, hold and use scissors correctly, cut on a line, button buttons, work a simple puzzle (six pieces), and zip clothing.

Gross motor skills include hopping, jumping, walking a straight line, skipping, galloping, throwing a ball or bean bag, catching, clapping hands, and kicking a rolling ball.

Social emotional skills include sharing with others, getting along with others, maintaining self control, verbal self expression, and the ability to take care of toilet needs independently.

If your child has all these skills mastered then they are well on the road to success in kindergarten. Don't worry if your child has not yet achieved success with all these skills. You can continue to work on the skills right up until the start of school and certainly after school has started you can team with your child's teacher.

Is Your Child Ready for Kindergarten?

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.

But there are other areas of competency that you would do well to gauge in your child as she prepares for a day without you there to do everything for her. And if you start developing those check lists in the last full year before kindergarten, you have time to help your baby develop those skills well in advance. For example, when your child goes to lunch at school, she will probably go through a line to get her food, find a table on her own to sit with relative strangers to eat and have to get through meal time without guidance or encouragement. You can give her some of those experiences by eating at buffets where you let her handle her own tray and even pick the table and “be a big girl” by making all of the decisions.

The more independent your child becomes in that last few months before kindergarten, the more that feeling of self reliance will pay off when school starts. Being able to dress and undress herself is a basic skill that we work on with our children. And while this will not be necessary at school, there may be times when your child needs to go to the bathroom to adjust his or her wardrobe. And not having to have a teacher there with him will make this a much smoother operation.

The basics of being able to perform simple student tasks such as how to hold a writing implement, how to draw the basic shapes, how to color a picture and how to answer questions from the teacher without mumbling are things that can be worked on well before the first day at kindergarten that will make that transition much smoother for your child and for the teacher as well.



There are also mental or intellectual talents that your child can pick up just from being part of your family but they will be of great advantage in school. This includes being able to listen and understand a story and then ask intelligent questions about it, being able to understand humor and even make simple and appropriate jokes when the time is right in class and knowing the fundamentals of alphabet, numbers and vocabulary that will equip the child to start the curriculum at kindergarten without need for remedial help.

Observe and help your child develop the simple social skills of being able to enter a room and meet new people, understanding authority and rules and learning to live with them and making friends and identifying and avoiding problem personalities in class. These are skills that will go a long way toward facilitating a happy social life at school and learning to stay out of trouble which is a lifetime skill your kiddo will need throughout a long school career.

By thinking through not only the academic but the physical, hygiene, social, language and logical skills that are sometimes taken for granted, you cut down on the surprises that wait for your child on that first day at school. And the smoother that first day goes, the better her entire year at kindergarten will go which will lead to a happy and creative attitude toward school and education for life.

Health Needs and Kindergarten

One of the fears parents often have of sending their children off to kindergarten is the exposure to a public place where the protection of the home is no longer possible. It is true that when your child goes to school with other children, the opportunities for illness and contamination are much more frequent. But the value of being in school with others and the social and educational value mean that we as parents must prepare our children to begin to spend time in a public place and that we do all we can to help them stay healthy and safe each and every day.



Part of preparing your child to stay healthy even in a public venue like kindergarten is to enlist the aid of your child’s pediatrician. She can make sure your kiddo is up to date on shots and that any vulnerabilities are well known. A good check up and getting all necessary shots before school starts will insure your child’s immune system is well equipped to deal with the additional exposure to germs.

But you can also teach your child good hygiene habits at home and engrain them in her lifestyle so they will stick with her even when she is at kindergarten and she doesn’t have you there to protect her. This includes good bathroom habits, an obsession with washing her hands as often as possible, being aware of others who are sniffing and who may not be taking good care of themselves to avoid contamination and using good table habits so the foods your child eats are clean and safe for consumption at lunch.

Good lifestyle habits at home will benefit the child at school as well. This includes a well developed schedule of getting at least eight hours of sleep each day and a regular diet of all the major food groups, particularly fruits and vegetables as these foods will give your child’s body the defenses it will need to ward off illness if there is an exposure to germs. Good dietary habits will be something that is taught as well as enforced at home. You can send your child a lunch to assure that at least she is taking the right kinds of foods. But the best defense is to make sure your child is aware of her own nutritional needs as it pertains to resisting illness so she also eats well when getting food from the cafeteria and stays healthy and regular every day.



You don’t want to send your child to school paranoid or afraid of other people. But some simple rules of how to interact with others in a way that is social but not risky should be part of your training as you raise the child. Just as you know not to eat after someone else using the same utensil, not to eat anything that has been on the floor or not to eat anything that you don’t know the origin of, these are basic health rules that children may not know if they are not taught. So be a conscientious parent and equip your child to avoid hazardous hygienic situations. Even if they are innocent dangers, they are dangers none the less.

The health preparations for kindergarten includes things parents can control at home such as check ups, getting good sleep and nutrition and gong to school healthy and clean. But they also include things you teach your child so she can keep herself safe and healthy even in the middle of a large group of other kids. By giving her these skills from the first day of school going forward, you are doing your job as good parents to assure she is ready for school each and every day from kindergarten all the way through to college graduation.

Getting MOM Ready for Kindergarten

When that first day of kindergarten is approaching, every effort is put against getting the youngster heading out on his or her first big adventure out of the home. There is a lot to do. Between meeting with the teacher, buying clothes and school supplies and preparing the little one for the big challenge of being away from mom and dad for a few hours to a day at school, it’s a big step for the kiddo and for the family.

But what is often overlooked in this rush to prepare for kindergarten is there is a very important participant in the process who also needs to do some preparing. That person is mom.



When you think of it that five years from the birth of that angel from heaven until he or she walks out that door for kindergarten is a pretty intense period of closeness and bonding. For virtually every waking minute of those years, mom is aware of that child, helping her, taking care of her and keeping her safe and healthy every step of the way.

Now the time has come to let that little one be away from home every day for several hours a day and start the road toward independence. Mom wants the right thing for her child and beginning the move to be her own person is the right thing. But there are a lot of emotions and mixed feelings that a mother goes through even in getting the little guy or gal ready for kindergarten much less on the day you let that child go off to start that uphill road toward higher education and success.

One of the people who can do a lot to help mom get ready for this big day is dad. If he is a sensitive dad, he will be aware that there is going to be a lot of anxiety and worry along with good old selfish desire not to let that kiddo leave the house. But dad can be the voice of reason for mom and for that kindergartner as both cope with the new way of life. By gently counseling mom that the road to independence is what will make that child a successful young person and eventually a healthy and well adjusted adult, that logic can filter its way down to the emotional system and start to convince the heart that the head in this case is right.

Other moms who have gone through this before are also a tremendous resource of comfort and advice for how to get through that separation, especially those first few days and weeks when the house seems empty and far too quiet. The friends can counsel that mom on how to fill that time, on things she can do to ease the anxiety like volunteering at the school and on the wonderful victories that the family will celebrate together when the little one comes home from kindergarten full of excitement about what she learned that day.



There are a lot of ways moms can get involved with the school to help out. That energy being felt in emotions that you are going through because of the change can be energies for good to benefit the school and to support your kids while they are in class learning to become good students. There are programs like Moms in Touch and volunteer organizations to benefit the library, to raise funds for new furniture and equipment for the school and to help teachers buys supplies.

If you channel those good energies of love and caring that used to be used only to take care of that one child toward good causes like this, the school will benefit and so will your child’s teacher and her class. So in a way you are continuing to nurture and care for that baby by nurturing the environment that is making her a better person. And that is a good way for mom to get ready for kindergarten before the little one goes off to school and each and every day of this important year in your child’s life as well.

Facing Kindergarten with a Little Help from Her Friends

For a young child, making friends with children her age is probably the most important step in developing relationships outside the family that your little one can do. Psychologists tell us that about the time most children begin to go to kindergarten is also the time when they first begin to understand the separation of the world from family and that relationships outside the family are desirable.



When a child is in infancy, the entire world revolves around mom and dad and her siblings. They want for little else and the love and approval of parents, brothers and sisters is all that baby lives for. But it is about the age she is ready to go to school that the interest in friends separate from family begins to surface in most children. This is helpful because the development of friendships at school will also be the one thing that will most ease the difficulty from the life of living at home and going off to school each day.

You as parents can encourage your child in bonding with youngsters his or her age long before you send that child off to kindergarten. Sometimes we as parents can be a bit protective and see the home as a sanctuary where we want to shelter our children for as long as possible. But while that is a natural emotional reaction to parenting, particularly with your first child, you know intellectually that it is healthy for your youngster to develop friendships outside the home and learn to socialize as soon as she feels ready to do so.

The first week that a child goes to kindergarten is a big step for a child. Anything you can do to get her ready for the change in schedule, in food, in what she will do all day and who she will be around will help your little one adapt and succeed in school from the first day going forward. And for a very young child to whom the security of knowing everyone and everything in the home has been central to her sense of well being, any familiarity that can be introduced to the classroom when you take her off to kindergarten will help establish that classroom as a place of safety as well.



In a way, while you may not have thought much about it, if you have had your child in play groups as an infant, that was a very good start. The more your little one has learned to adapt to new people, to get to know someone different from her and different from mom and dad and her siblings, the less that first step into the world of education will be for her. One thing a child will learn at playgroup is how to be outgoing. This is not a natural instinct in a lot of children. While we are used to youngsters being “shy”, many times that shyness is just insecurity at not knowing how to go up to another child and make friends.

By including as many new people in the playgroup experience and also encouraging your child to interact with others within the family, at church and at the park, that feeling of security that making friends is a fun and rewarding experience will be engrained in a child from their earliest experiences with the world. And it will be a skill that will stay with them for life.

In addition, if you can do a bit of research to find out if a few of your child’s friends from playgroup are going to be in the same class at kindergarten, you might even meet with the other moms before school and go over together. When that small band of friends enters that new world holding hands, they will feel secure in each other and that bond will enable them to open to new people and new experiences. And when your little one is open to learning, their experience in kindergarten will be fun and fulfilling for her and for you because you enabled your child to go to school and make friends every day.

Don’t Sweat Out Kindergarten

Preparations for Kindergarten can get pretty involved. They would include making sure your child has the right clothes, looking into the right schools for your little one and helping the teacher have all the school supplies she needs. But preparing your child emotionally to set out on this big adventure is one of the biggest challenges of preparing for kindergarten.

Actually, the task of making sure your little one goes off to have a great first day at school experience doesn’t start with the child. It starts with you. Children take their clues from mom and dad. And very often it is mom who is on the front lines of this first step of guiding her baby through the many twists and turns of public education. And as much as a child might experience some nervousness and anxiety about the big change that is coming, mom may be the one that feels anxious about this next big step in the life of her child.



There are many emotions that come with parenthood. And unfortunately worry and fear are two that seem to be constant companions of moms who feel it is a big job to protect this precious life that has come to live with you. There is a big secret you should know that will help you tremendously in making sure your child is excited about that first day of school. And that secret is your child should not be able to tell that you are afraid for her or that you have any anxiety at all. If your little one feels you are confident both in the school and in her to go to kindergarten and be a big success, that confidence will translate into a strong self confidence that she can live up to your expectations.

Children take almost all of their emotional cues from their parents, particularly at this early age. If there is a momentary time of insecurity such as a car mishap or a problem with the house, if mom and dad stay calm, the children will stay calm. They trust you to telegraph the right emotional response to change and challenge in life to them and they will mimic you faithfully.

What is both comforting and a bit disturbing about this trait in children is that they can sense if you are afraid or nervous even if your words are confident and reassuring. Children learn how to read body language long before they learn spoken language. So in order for you to telegraph confidence and a sense of excitement about the big change that is coming, you have to feel it too. And that can be difficult if you are experiencing anxiety about being without your child and seeing her head out into the unknowns of life without you being there to protect her.



The earlier you get a grasp on this concept and begin to discuss it with your spouse, the more successful you will be at quieting your own fears and anxieties so you don’t pass them along to your children. There are a number of ways you can help yourself calm down and begin to feel that excitement you want your child to know. You can go to the school and watch a class being conducted so you get a feel for the talents of the teacher and the warm and creative environment in class. Then if you meet the teacher after class and discuss your thoughts with her, that will help a lot.

By thinking through this big change and getting excited about the big adventure your child has ahead, you send a message of fun and excitement to her as she heads out to kindergarten. And that attitude can be the key to her success in this next big phase of her life.

Day One of Kindergarten and No Surprises

Getting prepared for any big new event is all about eliminating the element of surprise. That is why soldiers go to boot camp, why athletes practice for months before competition and why actors rehearse nonstop before show day. And it’s what drives parents like you and me to start months, maybe years before your child goes to kindergarten to remove any element of surprise in what will happen that day and so you know your child is prepared in every possible way for that day she walks into kindergarten.



Some of the aspects of that first day are easy to get ready for. You know your child will need new clothes and probably more clothes because he or she will be at school every day. You don’t want your offspring to be embarrassed by having to wear too many older items. So you might buy them the fashionable kindergartner things so that first day is one of fitting in and looking just like the other kids.

School supplies, medical forms, books and backpacks are all standard fare for the first day of school and they always will be. So you will have ample checklists either given to you by the school or from other parents who have gone through this before. And your own child may become quite opinionated about what he or she will need when that first day of school finally gets here. You will want some level of common sense to go into the preparations for kindergarten, particularly when it comes to the spending but at the same time anticipation is part of the fun so you can afford to give in to it a little bit just to make the event one of excitement and joy and not dread.

When the big day comes, you may even have gone through some drills with the family on getting up, getting dressed, showers, breakfast, making the bed, making lunch and when you need to be out the door to be heading toward the school for the first big day. For you as a parent, the more that first morning feels organized and like a well oiled machine, the more you feel like you have removed every element of surprise from the morning.



Of course, it’s always smart to have some flexibility in your ability to respond to crisis. Even with the most well oiled machine and best preparations possible, it’s within the range of possibility something could go wrong. As you move into the final exit for school, keep in mind that there is an emotional element of this moment and your new kindergartner is watching you for how you react to sudden change.

So be prepared to react calmly and maybe with some humor if something goes wrong. Remember, if you are late or, god forbid, your child doesn’t make it at all to that first day, she can still show up on the second day. Kindergarten classes and their teachers and administrators are well acquainted with the jitters and things that happen to parents so don’t panic if something goes wrong. By not freaking out if there is flat tire, a sudden outbreak of nerves related hives or some other “crisis”, you are teaching your child to handle crisis when she is at school and you are not there.

So model flexibility and adaptability. After all, that is what sending your child to kindergarten is all about for your child. And if you show your little one that being prepared is always the right thing to do but being able to handle change is just as important, she will be well trained to take on kindergarten in good form and to go on to much success in first grade, second grade and throughout her academic career.

Dad’s Role in Making Kindergarten Great

In the traditional family structure, the role of father is clearly unique. Perhaps it is because dad goes off to work and comes home with that big booming voice or maybe it’s that he is a soft touch for ice cream or an extra ride on the Ferris Wheel at the State Fair but dad has a special place in the hearts of the kids. He is both the voice of authority and sometimes the voice of wise counsel when children need someone to guide them and direct them.

On the other hand, it is mom who is there every day, guiding every event, making sure the children are safe and cared for. Both jobs are crucial and beloved by the kids, even if they don’t know it or say so. So when the time comes to get your little one ready for kindergarten, it may be that both parents can have a big role in this transition as well.



There is no doubt that in terms of the physical preparations for kindergarten, mom is a big decision maker. The clothing that your new student will wear, buying the right school supplies and even buying the extra things that will be needed in the classroom are all good jobs for the primary shopper in the family which is often mom. But if you can get dad in on the act particularly in the mental and emotional preparations for kindergarten, that can be a huge help because he can use his mentoring role to give the child permission to begin to accept this big change.

This is especially true in the case of dad’s little man. A young boy often idolizes his father and admires him as a hero because dad is brave and able to go out and conquer the world each day. When the family goes on the trip, it is dad who is leading the way, slaying the dragons along the way, saving the fair maiden (mom or sis) and hunting food for dinner (paying at the restaurant). In the child’s imaginary world, dad is a combination of mighty warrior, master hunter and mighty wizard. These are some powerful images that you can tap to help that little guy see himself as ready to the big adventure of going off to kindergarten on his own for the first time.



If you can get dad to be the one to drive that slightly frightened little one to school, he often knows just what to say to change fear into excitement and to motivate his son or daughter to want to go in there and do great to make dad proud. That is the nature of the father’s role in the lives of his children. So why not use it to help your child through this very important day in his or her early childhood development?

Very often dads have a special bond and a special language they speak to their sons. To an outsider when dad says, “Get in there and be a man” to his little boy, that may sound harsh and not nurturing. But what the little guy hears is, “I know you can do it. When you go to kindergarten like a man, you are being a brave warrior like daddy.” And that is just the right language to motivate that little guy to face his fears and go to that first day of kindergarten and be a big success to live up to that strong affirmation and high expectation of daddy.

The Secrets To Getting The Right Protection For Your Nursery, Pre School Or Kindergarten

For many people and businesses Insurance is something they would rather not have to purchase.

Most people don’t want Insurance. Most people don’t like Insurance.

What you probably do want is protection for your family, your loved ones, your business and the things that are most important to you. The mere mention of Insurance may very well make a vast number of people think of words like:

Rip-off, too expensive, waste of money, doesn’t pay claims, annoying, boring and some much worse!



The truth is though for most people and businesses Insurance is required as it provides them with protection and peace of mind.

With literally thousands of insurance companies, brokers and providers you are faced with a massive choice. So faced with decisions at every turn finding the right cover for you, your Nursery, Pre-School or Kindergarten is sometimes difficult.

This article will therefore give you some free advice that insurance providers rarely share with their customers. These few steps should help you in your quest to find the cover that is best for you at the right premium and with the best service.

Secret Number 1

The first secret to making sure you get the right cover at the right premium is perhaps the one that most people will find hardest to believe but it really works.

Are you sitting comfortably??? Here it is:

When you find yourself ringing around for quotes (and for anyone looking for Nursery Insurance I would recommend buying face to face or on the phone rather than online) the chances are you will be asked “What’s your current premium?” or “What’s the best price you’ve had?”



The single biggest mistake people make when asked this question is to not tell the person asking the question. That’s right, when you are asked the best price you’ve had TELL THEM.

Most people assume that by telling an insurance provider your premium you are at a disadvantage. The truth is the opposite is true. Let me explain:

If you tell a good insurance provider your premium they should pretty much know straight away whether the premium is too high, too low or about right. Armed with this information they could give you an immediate indication if they can get a lower premium. If they know they can’t they can tell you and save you time.

Another reason you should tell the person if they ask your premium is because the vast majority of insurance companies won’t give you the best price unless they have something to beat. Let me say that again, if you don’t give your broker or company a price to beat, the chances are you won’t get the best premium. However, if you do tell them, they can use this information when dealing with the insurance company which ultimately can save you money.

One final tip on this matter is, don’t be tempted to make up a price. For example, Mrs Blogs is looking for Nursery Insurance and she has a best price of ฃ2500.00. She thinks it’s too much money so when asked the magic question of “What’s the best price you’ve had so far?” she decides to go in low at ฃ1800.00. By doing this most companies will know the price seems low and many won’t even provide a quote. Whereas had Mrs Blogs been up front and said ฃ2500.00 there’s every chance she could have saved some money.

Therefore Secret Number 1 is be totally honest when looking for insurance as it’s the best way to make sure you get the best premium. Give it a go...it really works.

Secret Number 2

Secret number 2 is common sense but so many Nurseries fail to make sure it happens because they are focusing on the price. The second way to ensure you get the right cover is therefore to use an insurance provider who has an understanding of your requirements.

You can establish this by listening to what questions they ask, how they ask them and how they react to what you are saying. If they enter into a conversation about your Nursery it’s likely to be because the more information they have about your circumstances, the better cover, the better premium and the better service they can provide you.

If the conversation is very scripted and they either don’t understand what you’re looking for or don’t ask the type of questions you would expect there is every chance it’s because they don’t have a real understanding of your business. If this is the case you risk not getting the right cover and ultimately not being correctly insured.

Secret Number 3

Secret number 3 is ask questions. So many people ring around looking for Nursery insurance, Pre-School Insurance or Kindergarten Insurance and spend the entire conversation answering questions. Secret 3 is therefore ask questions to find out if they provide not only the right cover and premiums but also the right level of customer service. Types of question you might want to ask are:

In the event of a claim what will they do to help you and to ensure your claim is settled as quickly and as favourably as possible?

Do they just give you a telephone number and leave you to it or do they offer help when you most need it?

Are they experienced? How long have they been trading? If it’s a Broker, which Insurance companies do they use?

Again, if they are Brokers are they independent? That is, do they have access to numerous policies and insurance companies or are they tied into just one?

By getting answers to these questions you can then a make a decision on whether you would like to deal with them (and whether you trust them to act on your behalf.)

Secret Number 4

The fourth and final secret to making sure you get the best from your insurance provider is another which may not seem right as Insurance is one of the most price sensitive purchases a Nursery, Pre-School or Kindergarten will make.

With this in mind many Nurseries, Pre-Schools and Kindergartens make the decision on where to place their insurance on price alone. I would advise anyone looking for Nursery insurance, Pre-School Insurance, Kindergarten Insurance or indeed any kind of Business Insurance is NOT TO ASSUME THAT CHEAPEST IS BEST.

Whilst getting a low premium is one of the most important things to look for, a really cheap premium without a combination of other factors is probably cheap for a reason. Things you may want as well as a low premium are:

Are they local?

Are they friendly and approachable? (we all prefer doing business with people we like) Who are the insurance company? Have you heard of them?

What is the excess? Make sure the excess is one you agree on and not one given just to give you a low premium

Do they have a good reputation?

Do they listen to you and explain things in a way that you understand?

If you follow these 4 simple secrets there is every chance your experience when dealing with Insurance for your Nursery, Pre-School or Kindergarten will improve. And whilst I cannot guarantee that Insurance will become your number 1 hobby (in fact I’d be a little concerned if it did!) there is every chance the cover you get will be what you want, the premiums you pay will be less than you’ve paid before and the service you receive will be one you would be happy in giving and one you would be happy to recommend.

Kindergarten Homework

Whatever happened to the days when kids were actually kids, and didn’t have to start worrying about things like homework until about third grade? The other day, my sister called me and said that her daughter had homework. I was flabbergasted. She’s in kindergarten! Kindergarten homework? What on earth was going on?



Come to find out, kindergarten homework is not all that uncommon. I belong to some online communities (why, yes, I am a dork), and they have verified that their children have come home from kindergarten with worksheets that had to be done as homework. Now, granted, kindergarten homework isn’t exactly algebra level of concentration, but for a kindergartener it is pretty comparable. Some of the items seemed fun, and like the homework was meant more to get the parents involved in their children’s education, but good lord. Is it really necessary to assign kindergarten homework in order to get parents involved? I mean, apparently it is and that is just sad. However, having a young five year old have to do worksheets seems a little insane.

While most kindergarten homework seemed to be pretty simple and observational work, there were some that seemed to be going overboard. One mother said that her child was doing about an hours worth of homework just about every night. Now that is just insane. The kids are five years old! Shouldn’t five year olds be playing and learning in their play kitchens and dress up trunks rather than homework on how to spell words? In first grade I was learning to spell words. Kindergarten was more of an introduction to school and rules. Now, kindergarteners are expected to enter knowing more than my generation did after they completed kindergarten. Now there is kindergarten homework on top of that?



I’m all for teaching children while they are most receptive and able to learn, and the kindergarten age is prime time for this. However, kids can learn so many things through fun games, songs and role playing. Doing homework is not something that a kindergartener should have to struggle through instead of playing after a day of school. Are kids not kids anymore? They are already growing up too fast, losing their innocence and trying to be much older than they really are. Let’s cut the asinine kindergarten homework from the lesson plans before we make the competitive parents start to do flash cards in the hospital right after birth.

But I Don’t Want to go to Kindergarten!

That phrase is the one we least want to hear either the day of or the night before the big moment when your child is going off to kindergarten. The last thing you want is for your child’s first day at kindergarten to be the result of a power struggle. That kind of unpleasant start to what is going to be a very big change in the life of a child will only put a cloud over the day and perhaps his year at school and that is exactly the opposite of what you want.



Of course, if it comes down to a pushing contest, you are going to win. And sometimes children test your borders with a comment like, “But I don’t want to go to kindergarten”. You know your child best and if that is what is going on, you also know how to maintain your authority so they know that going to school is not option and that not only will they go today, they will keep going every day for the entire school year.

Sometimes just laying down the law is sufficient. Children are tremendously adaptable and once your little one realizes that this is just the way it is going to be, you might be surprised how quickly he figures out the system at kindergarten and becomes a big success there. If that is the outcome, you are to be congratulated because you won the confrontation and established in your child a healthy respect for authority and learning to work within the system.

The key is, one way or another, you want to make them want to go to kindergarten. However, it could be that there are some methods that can be used to provide some inspiration for the child to want to get out there and be part of the fun and go to kindergarten along with the other kids. Peer pressure can be a good force as much as sometimes it is negative if it takes our children into the wrong behaviors. But if you give your child the chance to be with kids his own age and in the neighborhood and those kids are going to go to kindergarten starting that same day, that could be a huge motivation to go to school because the child sees it as extended playtime.

The age kids go to kindergarten is about the time they begin wanting to be with friends and get away from home a little bit. Their curiosity is high and they want to experience new things so you can tap that desire by creating the image that this will be a big adventure and that there will be lots to do there and that kindergarten will not be as boring as staying home day after day after day.

If your child has siblings who are already in school, there is often a desire to go to school to be like older brother or sister. So you can enlist the aid of those siblings to get the youngest in the family who is about to enter school to want to get out there and find out what the world is all about. Often the kindergartner to be also sees that sports and social activities are a big part of school life too.

The important thing is to use whatever motivation is naturally there to help your child get a real enthusiasm for school. You do want to talk to them about obeying the rules and working hard. And there will be lots of chances to do that long the way. But for day one, let this big step into kindergarten be all about excitement and fun. Your kiddo can figure the rest of it out as the school year progresses.

An Active Partnership – Parent Kindergarten

Pre-school learning is an educative partner of the family. Here are some reasons that make kindergarten an extremely important educative factor:

- it creates an environment adequate for children and it puts them in contact helping them become social

- assure a good debut for primary school

- is an environment of protection and passing time with pleasure



Form one kindergarten to the other there are differences regarding the closed and open space children dispose of, the didactic materials, the level of qualification of the teachers and their wish for doing the best they can. Any state or particular kindergarten that is authorized is obliged to offer a good learning process. From the managerial offer of the kindergarten or school, the parents have to find out what are the conditions of life and the environment of the unit, as well as the potential of the personnel.

Directly or indirectly, kindergarten teacher conduct the entire activity of the children. Part of the educative activity is done with the whole group of children, and part is done in stages, with one at a time or with little groups at a time.

The partnership between parents and teachers has to happen. The problems that can come up in such situations vary a lot. Children can come to the kindergarten and have trouble adapting, socially and intellectually both or esthetic and physical. The causes for these things can be discovered by the teachers and parents together. Both the parents of children with difficulties and the ones of children with a normal evolution must be contacted to settle educational programs that involve the family.



Parents can continue at home the educational games their children played in the kindergarten hours, so that the children gain confidence in their power and in the future they can have the initiative when giving answers or volunteering for a game.

The purpose of kindergarten is to make children become social persons, to prepare them for school and to allow them to have fun while they learn. They must be introduce to learning and classrooms at this age, or it will be harder for them be harder to adapt and maintain control once they start primary school.