Readiness Skills to Practice for Kindergarten

By: Christine Cox, The Choosy Mommy

I can’t even believe these words are coming out, but next year I will have a child in KINDERGARTEN! Time has gone by so fast and I just can’t get over that my oldest child will be going to full-day school next year. As a parent, I lay in bed at night and wonder if she is even ready. She seems so young to be in school all day, but she loves going to pre-school. She says it is one of her favorite things to do (besides soccer and swim class)! How are parents to know if their child is ready, besides being the right age? I attended a meeting at my daughter’s pre-school and here is a list of readiness skills to practice for kindergarten (as recommended by teachers).

ABC’s

It is all about the alphabet in kindergarten. From identifying all 26 capital letters, to knows their sounds from beginning to end, the teachers agreed that the ABC’s are most important for kindergartners.

1,2,3…

Numbers rank high on what they should know, but according to these teachers, they only expect a kindergartner to know 1-12 (verbally and identifying). In pre-school, my daughter learned up to 30 which is a lot, but once you get past 20 it is pretty easy.

Colors, Patterns & Shapes

Yes, these three things are what you would expect a kindergartner to know. But my child, my natural born leader, doesn’t “learn” from me. She thinks she is always right, even if I try to correct her (we are working on this.) Thankfully, she did go to pre-school to learn these things from her teachers. I can say, however, that flashcards helped her a lot with color recognition and shapes.

Puzzles also work wonders! My 18-month old son is just getting into puzzles. We have a shape puzzle that actually says the shape when you place it in the correct spot. Needless to say, 'oval' is a new favorite word around here!

Fine Motor Skills: Writing & Cutting

Here is the biggest one in my book. Writing is a skill that takes more than memorization. Children who are ready for kindergarten need to be able to print their first name with the first letter being capital and the rest lower case. This takes practice. In the first year of pre-school, my daughter learned all of her capital letters and how to write her name with those. And this year, she is reviewing the capitals and learning lower case. In the beginning it was confusing to her that she had to write her name with the lower case letters too, but she is getting much better at it. Luckily her name isn’t long!

Also, writing and cutting are fine motor skills that are not being learned as quickly with this generation. This article about learning fine motor skills says that children aren’t learning the art of holding a pencil/crayon/paintbrush/cutting with scissors like they used to because of the touch screen technology that is now available. I mean, my 18 month old does know how to open the iPad, touch and swipe!

Words

All I have heard for the past week was, “Is snowflake a compound word? What about basketball? Butterfly?” Kids soak up knowledge fast and are curious about words. As a piece of advice, be their teacher at home and go with the flow when they are interested in something like this. I found books that had compound words in them and pointed them out as we were reading.

They are also expected to know rhyming words in kindergarten. So same thing. I would fine books that rhymed and we’d practice those words. Dr. Suess is the best for this!

Once we were done reading the story, I’d ask her to retell it to me because the teachers also expect this. It has to do with understanding!

Last Note from the Kindergarten Teacher

One of the kindergarten teachers made these points at our meeting:

• Teach your children to tie their shoes. This is a fine motor skill that is being learned later in life and should be learned before kindergarten. 
• Get your child off of video games and touch screen technology and read a book together instead. Read to your children every day. They will learn more than just the story they hear.
• Teach your children how to use the water fountain. Pushing that button might be hard, but they will need to know how to do it!

If you have a child who is in kindergarten, or is already past this level, what were they expected to learn that I haven’t mentioned? How did you or your child deal with the stress of this milestone?

About the Author: Christine Cox is the blog master for Choosy Kids and owner of The Choosy Mommy. She has always had a passion for writing and is honored to contribute her work to this blog. Most of her writing inspiration comes from her daughter, Capri, who is fun-loving and full of energy, and son Cam, who is learning new things everyday. Click here to learn more about Christine.

Why You Shouldn’t Use Baby Talk When Speaking to Your Children About Their Bodies

By: Molly Luke, Early Intervention Specialized Instruction Teacher, Montgomery County Intermediate Unit, Norristown, PA

At age 29 I gave birth to a beautiful little boy. The first weeks were exhausting to say the least. My husband and I were sleep deprived, hungry, and it felt like we constantly had a revolving door with family in to visit the newest member of the family. And along with all of those initial parent experiences, my husband and I were making first time decisions as parents! When to feed the baby, how many baths a week to give the baby, who gets the baby next when he cries, should we start putting him in the crib…and then, what do we call his private parts? This makes me laugh, but triggers a larger discussion that I believe is important for all parents, whether first timers or season pros.

Everyone goes gaga for babies, but that doesn’t mean you need to talk that way to them. Baby talk can be a great way for newborns and infants to learn what words sound like (“Whooooo is that prettttttty baaaaabaaay?”) but when it comes time to get serious with our body parts, it is just as important to go straight to the real name for a penis or vagina just as it is to call your nose and toes by their proper names.

Maybe my parents were just not comfortable with themselves to discuss the body with me OR maybe their families raised them shy of these discussions as well. Regardless, this was my turn to hold the reigns and make decision for my growing family. Many pediatricians urge parents to use proper terms for body parts to children for a number of reasons but the big one is so that we all know exactly what a child is talking about should there be a problem with that certain area.

So my husband and I decided that we shouldn’t shy our son from his body and these words were not of a laughing matter. We would use REAL names from the beginning so that we got comfortable with saying these words aloud and hopefully this will make things more comfortable down the road when we need to speak about sex to our son.

Now our house was filled with dirty diapers, couch naps, cries and PENIS talk. At first we just laughed when describing the inch sized penis when changing his diaper, but now the word just rolls off our tongues in a professional parenting manner when potty training our son. The comfort has set in and the giggles fizzled away. My mother still has a hard time with this. When babysitting him in the beginning and now, she still talks “baby talk”. The nonsense words used to label food and body parts drive me up the wall. Not that I don’t spoil and act silly with my now 3 year old, but my husband and I just have an honest way when talking to him. No bribing, no nonsense terms (i.e. “wawa” for water)…and some family members still have a hard time accepting this and playing by the “rules”.

We all travel through these developmental stages. Some ideas are more stressed and pinpointed from certain theorists than others. Regardless, as we grow our minds and bodies grow as well. It’s up to us and our surroundings if we can accept and acknowledge what occurs, and how we adjust and mature. As a parent, I am trying to make this growth as “normal” to other every day routines. This way when my family is at an age and stage where support is needed, some of the stress from words and terms will be familiar and hopefully I can pass on as much comfort as he needs.

Choosy Kids has a bunch of songs about your body. To name a few, you can check out:

• This Is My Body
• I'm The Boss
• When I Move My Parts

Purchase the CDs at www.choosykids.com.

About the Author: Hello! I have been teaching for about 10 years now, ages Pre-K through 8th grade…needless to say, I am a life-long learner and always looking for new thing to challenge my body and brain to do in a classroom! Outside of the classroom, family comes first! My husband Dan, baby Marshall and basset hound Penelope enjoy my naturally caffeinated personality on a regular basis. The whole family enjoys traveling, and I personally have a goal of visiting all 7 continents! 2 more to go! 

Health Needs a Hero!

By: Dr. Linda Carson

When I was growing up, a sailor with big arms and a gruff voice had an influential message about getting strong by eating spinach. Popeye was so influential that he increased the sale of spinach by 33% in the 1950’s. I understand that there is an effort under way right now to bring him back for a new generation of children, but this time without his habit of smoking a pipe! A new Popeye and other children's characters with health messages are desperately needed in our country and around the world.

Currently, American children see an estimated $1.6 billion a year worth of food and beverage marketing, and many of those ads are foods that are high in calories and sugar, but low in nutrition. Some of our cereals and other processed foods in a box are so depleted that they have to be “fortified” and even then, the nutritional value is extremely compromised. For some products, there is not much nutritional difference between the contents in the box and the cardboard the box is made from.

Until food and beverage companies are using children’s characters to market only healthy products, it is up to each family and the other significant influencers to share and repeat consistent health messaging with children and families. The research (samples noted below) confirms that children’s characters are profoundly influential, whether positive or negative.

And a very positive thing that the family and/or preschool teacher can do is take advantage of what we know from research---create or introduce a familiar character to help deliver messages about healthy nutrition, physical activities that help make your body healthy, and appropriate dental health behaviors. Plus, having a character as an influential “assistant” helps with the consistency factor that we humans have trouble with at times.

I have spent my career promoting healthy choices, and advocating for parents as the best play partners ever. After teaching in public school enough years to appreciate the needs and barriers of that context, I spent the next 30 years teaching University students who wanted to be teachers. While methods of delivering the content has changed over the years, one thing has remained constant---the need is great for dedicated, well prepared teachers who collaborate and engage with parents on the profoundly important task of getting young children ready to make responsible decisions about learning and life.

In recent years I have had the privilege of developing resources for parents and teachers who are laying the foundation for healthy decision-making by children and entire families. Long before Popeye was given a do-over, we introduced CHOOSY as a health hero for this generation of young children. Choosy’s name stands for Choose Healthy Options Often and Start Young.

If you want to use Choosy as a health hero in your home or classroom, see www.choosykids.com for examples of unique, easy to use resources, especially children’s music that contains health messages. There is such a thing as stuck song syndrome that can work like reminders. If children (and adults) can’t get that song out of their heads, health messaging is working!

Bottom line: If a character promotes it, whether in a story book, on a window cling, or in music, a young child is likely to be influenced by the character’s preferences! What a concept and what a big help to busy Mom’s and Dad's.

**Research examples supporting the influence of children’s characters on health 

  choices and preferences:

Kotler, et al Journal of Health Communication (2012); 

Roberto, et al Pediatrics (2010); 

Lanigan, J.D. Child: Care, Health and Development (2010) 

About the Author: Linda Carson, Ed. D, is the founder and CEO of Choosy Kids, LLC, and the Ware Distinguished Professor Emerita at West Virginia University. An award winning, nationally recognized expert, Dr. Carson has devoted her career to promoting healthy preferences for young children and the adults who make decisions on their behalf. Click here to learn more about Linda.

The Powers of a Purple Cape: The Choosy Story

By: Christine Cox, The Choosy Mommy

Super heroes come in all shapes, sizes, colors, genders, so on and so forth. They have different sources of power and types of weapons. And for many of our heroes, a cape is part of their costume, and they too come in a wide array of colors and designs.

Did you ever think about the powers of a super hero’s cape? Some capes help heroes fly and others shield them from villains. But the cape that I specifically want to tell you about is worn by a super hero who is green and has antennae and fur! You may have never heard of this super hero before, but believe me when I say that this super hero’s powers help us all, especially when it comes to health, brushing your teeth and eating fruits and veggies!

Choosy is our super hero’s name and Choosy means Choose Healthy Options Often and Start Young. It is really up to you to decide if Choosy is a boy or a girl, or really what “life form” Choosy is. When interviewing children, we have learned that sometimes Choosy is referred to as a bug or an alien. Some children think Choosy is probably a boy because of the red backwards hat upon its head and others (usually little girls) think Choosy is a girl because of the purple hair. Regardless, what we do know is that Choosy harnesses a special power – the purple cape.

Choosy’s cape symbolizes empowerment. The power of making healthy choices even though unhealthy options are available everywhere. When children make healthy decisions about physical activity, nutrition, and dental habits, they are overcoming massive media marketing and sometimes even family preferences. Choosy is a messenger and a motivator and the cape empowers young children to be champions of choice ---- the healthy choice.

Choosy is a health hero. Do you know of other health heroes? Not since Popeye has there been a health-hero for children. Research has demonstrated that children’s characters are profoundly influential – like the super heroes you were thinking of earlier! Choosy can help promote healthy habits in your family, agency, classroom, clinic or community, which is really a super power! Choosy’s uniqueness includes health messages and reminders embedded in lively music. When used consistently, health messages paired with the image of Choosy can become familiar and favored.

Choosy is my toddler’s super hero. She always points out what Choosy would say if we made an unhealthy choice or is positive in stating that Choosy would be happy that we are brushing our teeth. Day care, pre-school and even kindergarten teachers love to use Choosy in their classroom, and physicians and dentists love to show off how strong Choosy’s muscles and teeth are in the office.

Super heroes are around us everywhere. What we need to remember is that it doesn’t matter what they look like but rather what their super powers harness.

Check out more about Choosy on our Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest and view videos of Choosy dancing on our YouTube page!

About the Author: Christine Cox is the blog master and The Choosy Mommy for Choosy Kids. She has always had a passion for writing and is honored to contribute her work to this blog. Most of her writing inspiration comes from her daughter, Capri, who is fun-loving and full of energy, and newborn son Cam. Click here to learn more about Christine.

Summer Fun!

By: Molly Luke, Early Intervention Specialized Instruction Teacher, Montgomery County Intermediate Unit, Norristown, PA

I know teachers typically say that “summer is their favorite time of year”, but since I teach all year long- yes, this is still true! Summer is my favorite season to teach, because you can almost guarantee to get the kiddies outside moving and learning each and everyday…with sunblock and water of course! Below is a great infographic which includes ideas for summer fun that you as a teacher or parent could incorporate with your child during the season. 

Summer Fun

I hope these ideas start your motivation that summer is a GREAT time to keep your children actives. If you still need specific ideas, please feel free to “follow” me on Pinterest. I have folders labeled “Summer”, “Outside Play” and “Rainy Day Activities” that I’m sure could come in handy!

About the Author: Hello! I have been teaching for about 10 years now, ages Pre-K through 8th grade…needless to say, I am a life-long learner and always looking for new thing to challenge my body and brain to do in a classroom! Outside of the classroom, family comes first! My husband Dan, baby Marshall and basset hound Penelope enjoy my naturally caffeinated personality on a regular basis. The whole family enjoys traveling, and I personally have a goal of visiting all 7 continents! 2 more to go! 

Choosy Has It All – A Message from a Preschool Teacher

By: Molly Luke, of www.cciu.org/mollyluke

Salutations Choosy friends and family!

My name is Molly Luke. I am a preschool online teacher, as well as a regular education teacher in an inclusion preschool setting for children of ages 3-5 years old.  Every year, I am ALWAYS looking for new music and movement activities to keep the little ones moving and grooving! Choosy Kids provides a wide variety of themes, and I am mostly impressed with the “honest” vocabulary language within the lyrics.

Do Choosy Kids songs get stuck in your head just like me? They are addicting! Music is a natural mnemonic device for the brain…for television commercials, pop 100 songs, acronyms for an exam, etc. I always start off my year with the token “I’m Moving, I’m Learning” Choosy song. It’s a great way to get the jiggles out before settling students for a circle time activity, AND… of course to incorporate new vocabulary.  Spatial reasoning concepts for preschool age children are tough enough since they are learning body awareness, but Choosy makes learning free and easy. After dancing and singing using the vocabulary action and spatial words (fast-slow, high-low, forward-backward, twist-turn), I then continue the skill in action activities to place objects as well as give directions during our handwriting curriculum. These are every day terms and independent skills that students need to succeed and apply to situations outside the classroom.

Choosy provides a song for almost every theme or special event covered in our classroom. Click and hear what we listen to when we are cooking and trying foods or covering Community Helpers and visiting the dentist. Choosy has it all!

THANK YOU for making our heart say “thanks” each and every day!

About the Author: Hello! I have been teaching for about 10 years now, ages preK through 8th grade…needless to say, I am a life-long learner and always looking for new thing to challenge my body and brain to do in a classroom! Outside of the classroom, family comes first! My husband Dan, baby Marshall and basset hound Penelope enjoy my naturally caffeinated personality on a regular basis. The whole family enjoys traveling, and I personally have a goal of visiting all 7 continents! 2 more to go! Wishing everyone out there in cyber land a safe and merry holiday season!