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.

Nourishing a Growing Body

Cam had his 18 month checkup yesterday and we received good news! He is now being charted on the average 18-month old growth charts. Basically, his growth was being tracked on the preemie growth chart since birth because he was born at 33 weeks. This meant he was being compared to babies born at the same gestational age. That was fine, but I couldn’t wait for him to just be compared to other kids his age – 18 months, born between 36 and 40 weeks. Cam is meeting all of his growth expectations and the doctor is happy to see his progress and growth.

Kids Grow Fast

We all know that children grow up in a blink of an eye. There are days that I can’t even believe I have a 4 year old and an 18-month old running around. Blink… I make sure they eat well and I know that has contributed a lot to Cam’s progress. As parents, I know we fight the same dinner table battles. We struggle to get our children to eat their fruits and veggies. Sometimes we just can’t get children to eat at all. I don’t know why some days my kids run like crazy and aren’t hungry come dinner time. It blows my mind.

So here are two tips to help you: When your child wants a snack, ALWAYS offer a fruit or veggie first. This is how I got my children to love them! Once they were used to getting them as a snack, there typically wasn’t a problem getting them to eat it during meal time. And if they wanted to skip meal-time, at least I could get them to eat a good snack. My second tip is to empower your child with options. When it’s snack time, allow your child to choose between two healthy snacks. Choice is a motivator for children and adults.

Water is Best, but Drink Milk Too

Drinks loaded with sugar just slow kids down in my opinion. I have noticed this first hand. That’s right, my kids don’t get hyped up on sugary drinks and run crazy. Instead they tend to get lazy. In addition, my kids don’t digest sugary drinks well at all so I know they need a lot of water every day.
Cam’s doctor also made sure he was drinking enough milk each day because milk helps our bones stay strong. Young kids need a lot of calcium in their diets. If your child isn’t a milk drinker, there are other options. My kids eat yogurt and cheese almost daily. And a nice treat is a small serving of ice cream, which is a dairy product!

Pack on the Protein

You can find protein in many different foods. I grew up eating a meat, veggie and another side for dinner. I have tried to follow this same plan with my kids. My daughter, Capri, requests steak and corn on the cob for dinner daily, no joke. But they both love to eat chicken and rice, tacos, fish, etc. When you provide kids with a variety to choose from, their palates will grow with them and expand upon new tastes. They will also be more open to trying new foods.

Don’t Give Up

Capri won’t eat red spaghetti sauce or red pizza sauce. She will eat plain spaghetti with a little oil or butter and some garlic and white pizza. I always will offer her a bite of my red sauces when we have them because some day she may like it. I don’t force her to eat things she doesn’t like. We all have different tastes. But I don’t give up on those “yucky” foods either. Just consider them food options that your child doesn’t like yet. Sometimes preparing foods a different way helps kids to realize they are good.

Cam didn’t like oatmeal since he could eat it. But every time Capri or I had it for breakfast, I would offer him a bite. And guess what? He gave it another try the other day and realized it was really good. Our tastes change as we mature so keep offering those “yucky” foods they don’t like yet and continue trying new foods and new ways to prepare old favorites.

Did your kid’s eating habits change as they got older? I’d love to hear your stories!

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.

Dealing with Loss

By: Jenn Ripepi, MD, The Choosy Pediatrician 

The loss I am referring to is not small losses but eventual big losses. But how we handle small loss can be building blocks to bigger losses. Resiliency is the catch word I'm talking about and there is more research about how important resiliency is to become well-adjusted adults.

Let's Start With a "Little" Thing Like a Lost Toy

What we say to our children is important for them getting prepared for larger disappointments. For example, if we downplay the loss by calling the child's concern unimportant, we are not showing empathy for their attachment to the object. Conversely, if we spend an inordinate amount of time looking for the object or, worse yet, replacing the lost toy whatever the cost, then we may give more importance to the object rather than to the feelings about the object. Tricky, huh?

So How Do We Go About This Task? 

One way is to ask children to try to express their feelings about the loss. Maybe using an example of your own. Using words like sad, lonely or worried may help. Ask about what children think they can do to help get over those feelings or what you can do to help. Older children may be able to imagine what they can do to recover from the toy being gone from their daily life. Maybe they could draw a picture of themselves playing with that toy as a reminder of the fun they had. Or maybe it wasn't really that important and they move on quickly. No need to fret that they have not dealt with it. They have moved past it. They have shown resilience!

Now Something a Bit Bigger Like a Pet

Whoa! That's pretty big to some families. Or maybe it's not a pet but a bird or bug which you notice on a walk. Sometimes that can be a powerful encounter. Again, consider asking questions of children or telling them your feelings of sadness, emptiness or loneliness for the death or physical loss of an animal. These feelings of grief may go on a while if your pet was deeply involved in your family life. Let children know that whatever they feel is OK. Sometimes recalling memories or looking at pictures of your pet and telling happy stories about how the pet enriched your lives is helpful. Stating gratitude for having known your pet whether it is a fish or cat or dog or horse shows children that you accept that sometimes animals are in our lives for just a brief time or a long time.

Now On To People

Heavy subject. Maybe it's not people who have died but people who have moved away or who we've moved away from. Sometimes the person is still with us physically but is unreachable emotionally--like the loss of a friendship. These are very difficult topics and many of us have trouble discussing them at all. But giving voice to these concerns is the way that children learn how to express those whirling churning feelings inside themselves. Saying things like "Mommy is crying because she feels achy inside since Gramma is gone." or "Sometimes I get frustrated because I can't understand why my friend Pete won't talk to me anymore." Apologizing for our feelings does not show resiliency. Denying what we feel inside is not a healthy adjustment. Expressing those emotions and showing our children healthy ways to deal with them like taking a break for vigorous exercise when we feel frustrated, a walk when we feel overwhelmed or helping someone else out when we feel detached from others are great ways to deal with strong emotions. Drawing, writing, pretending and physical activity are ways children can begin to deal with these. Overeating is not a good way to deal with emotions. It can be difficult to lose sight of that sometimes.

Healthy Responses is Key

Teaching children to deal with loss by not trying to "fix" it, overreact to it or blame it on others does not help them to become resilient. Using healthy responses, giving voice to our emotions and supporting children to find their way through loss can go a long way to them becoming healthy, adjusted adults.

Has your family had to deal with a loss of any kind? I’d love to hear your story so we can all help each other with healthy responses.

About the Author: I have been a pediatrician for over 25 years. My husband and I have been privileged to raise 4 bright and healthy children. I have tried to gather wisdom from the families I have been blessed to meet during my journey. I believe in practical and flexible parenting to help raise healthy adults. I love to garden, hike, travel and cook and I am looking forward to hearing from Choosy followers.