educational tips for kids Archives - Mother 2 Mother Blog

Today, I’m sharing parenting tips on getting ready for kindergarten tips. Your child’s first day at school is a tremendous milestone. You need to make sure that you understand the challenges that you could face while preparing your child for kindergarten. You might have heard about children screaming and crying at the gate on their first day at school. Believe it or not, there are steps that you can take to avoid this situation.

Getting Ready for Kindergarten

Independence

Your child’s first day at school is a massive step in their movement towards independence from you. Children can find being apart from their parent difficult. As a result, crying and screaming becomes their way of dealing with their fears.

Preparing to embrace being away from you before their first day of kindergarten. First, it’s important to ensure that your child engages in independent play before attending kindergarten. They should not be with you every second of the day. Setting up play dates or having them spend time with trusted family members will guarantee that they get used to the idea.

Furthermore, another way that you can build up their independence is by making sure that they spend time at other places. For instance, you might want to think about sending them to preschool or nursery school. You could also consider getting them involved in little clubs and activity groups as well. This will help them develop more independence.

Getting Ready for Kindergarten Basics

Start teaching your children their colors, numbers, words and how to write before they attend kindergarten. In addition to teaching children basics, kindergarten helps socialize them. As a result, they feel comfortable as an active member of the class.

Teaching them prior to kindergarten gives them the right building blocks to succeed. One of the ways to build a strong educational foundation is to read to them. Read to them before bed. Setup a story time during the day before they take a nap.

Furthermore, teach them to understand the importance of letter-sound correspondence too. Kids are going to find it easier to grasp basic information that they need to read effectively. From an early age, make sure that you are talking to your child regularly and speaking clearly. This is going to make it easier for them to pick up how to use language effectively. That’s just one example of how you can help kids grasp education basics.

Eyesight And Hearing

Have your child’s hearing and eyesight checked before they start school. You may find that your child needs glasses. It is best to find out before your child struggles in class. Usually, there will be signs if there is a problem. For instance, they might be complaining that their eyes are sore. Or, they could be blinking more than usual. If you speak to a professional, then they will be able to explore the issue.

Sensory Issues

Some children do start to show signs of sensory issues around the time that they are starting school. For instance, it’s quite common for children to have issues with school uniforms because the collar on their shirt feeling constrictive. Make sure your child is comfortable in their uniform a few weeks before they start school. If the issue continues, ask your child’s principal about an alternative that they can wear.

Some kids will find the noise at school difficult. There are ways to deal with these issues head-on. For instance, if you recognize that your child has trouble with loud noises you might want to consider seeking professional help on the best method to help defuse the problem before they start school.

I hope these getting ready for kindergarten tips help prepare for your child’s first day at school. They will help them to have a great first day. This can be incredibly reassuring for any parent and their child. The more proactive you are in this situation, the easier you will find it when they walk through the school gates for the first time.

Of course, you need to prepare for their first day too. You need to make sure that you are ready to take the first step towards real independence for your child. The better prepared you are, the better prepared they will be.

Today, I’m sharing parenting advice on homeschooling tips for beginners. Unfortunately, the Covid-19 has affected the world in a detrimental way. Especially, our children’s education. Having a formal classroom setting is beneficial to children from an intellectual stand point as well as socially and emotionally. However, many parents have opted to homeschool their children rather than take a chance on sending them back to a formal school setting and getting sick.

So, we opted to homeschool my grandchildren during the last 3 months of the school year. We made a few mistakes, but for the most part we were successful and they loved being taught at home. I have a few tips on what we did to make the new endeavor successful.

Here are a few homeschooling tips for beginners:

Keep Their Regular Schedule – First, if your children attended public school previously, but you have decided to homeschool for the upcoming school year, keep their current schedule. Get them up the same time you would normally get them up to attend school. Have them eat breakfast, brush their teeth, wash their face and get dressed as if they are going to school. Give them a time on which they need to be down stairs and ready to start their day. We had them get their clothes out the night before and have their bath, teeth brushed and PJs on by 9:00 pm.

Prepare a Space for Them to Learn – Just like we as adults need an office space to work in, kids need a comfortable environment where they can learn. Look for classroom desks for cheap if you can. I found several on yard sale sites. Good Will and Salvation Army are a few other places to look too. A coat of paint will give them new life. If you are unable to locate classroom desks, purchase a card table. Many come with chairs and they are great when the kids need to spread out. If that is not an option, clear the kitchen or dining room table.

Also, make sure you have good lighting and windows in the room if possible. Turn off the electronics unless they will be used for research or on-line activities. You want to create an environment where they can concentrate. Pencil sharpers, highlighters, crayons, scissors, pens, notebooks, notebook paper etc. should be available. Empty cans from dinner products make great houses for the pens, highlighters and pencils. Check out baskets or trays at your local Dollar Tree or Goodwill to hold paper and other craft products.

Purchase a chalkboard if possible. You may be able to find one at of the on-line yard sale sites. Brides who used them for their weddings are great sources. These are great for working out math problems or writing the assignments where they can reference if needed.

Organize Lessons – Furthermore, get creative and think of ways that will engage your children. Check out this post on putting together Strategic Homeschool Lessons. Planning lessons and activities will make it easier to convey goals to your kids. Furthermore, decide if you want to do printables, watch videos or do on-line activities for the assignments. Print any printables out the night before. Make sure videos work before class.

Choose Quality Lesson Plans – Check out sites that offer quality curriculums for the grades that you will be teaching. The site should be geared toward complete homeschool curriculums. You will want lessons in math, science, history, reading, spelling & more. Also, look for sites that offer arts and crafts too.

Consult Other Homeschoolers – If you’re new and unsure of yourself, join a homeschooling group. If you don’t want to join a group, consult another parent who homeschools and ask for tips. Homeschooling is not new, there are parents who have been teaching their children at home for years.

Make Lunch Fun – Next, get as creative with lunch as you do with their lesson plans. Review on-line menus from school and ask what their favorites meals were. Make them. Find ways to make sandwiches interesting if you have small children. Have lunch outside on the patio or picnic table. Check out these yummy carrot recipes for kids.

Include Outside Activities – This can include walks, nature hunts, jumping on the trampoline or just relaxing for a few minutes. But, set a limit just like they have in school. If the weather is nice have them plant a garden, feed the birds or make a snowman if the weather is cold. Why not make snow ice cream or find cold weather experiments to add to your science agenda. The possibilities are endless. A car ride can be a great activity too.

Create a Zoom Account – Last, set up time for your kids to interact on-line with other homeschooled kids. It doesn’t have to be for a long period of time. Just a few minutes to break the monotony, and make sure they are interacting socially with other children. They can play or just have a conversation. This is a great way to remove the feeling of being isolated from other kids. If possible, coordinate with other parents on having a Zoom class. This can be set-up for spelling, reading etc. Again, get creative.

Most importantly, make learning fun. Nothing will distract your children faster than boredom. My daughter actually made Fridays a half day. That really excited my little darlings. They were able to use that time to play educational games on-line or release their stress however they wanted. The kids loved Mrs. Clark’s, their mother, school. Finally, I hope these homeschooling tips for beginners have been beneficial, and you will implement a few.