KENORA — Kewatin-Patricia District School Board has been offering families throughout the Kenora, Dryden region opportunities to register their child for their fall kindergarten program.
The Board recognizes that this can be both an exciting and stressful time for parents, guardians, caregivers and of course their children. Preparing and entering kindergarten will be filled with so many firsts and at times added stress and uncertainty.
To help minimize this and to offer helpful tips for preparing for kindergarten, Kewatin-Patricia District School Board offered some helpful tips. The goal is to help make the transition to kindergarten for families and their child easier.
Here are some key steps that are aimed at creating an easier transition:
- Become familiar with the school. Parents, guardians, and caregivers should take the time to visit the school with their child to familiarize them with the route, building, classroom and surroundings before the first day of school. The Board is there to arrange for these visits and just remind their school community that some of the interactions during these visits will have to be virtual, due to some still remaining COVID-19 restrictions.
- Begin establishing your school routine early. This may mean putting the child to bed at a normal time for a school night. Start this at least a week before school begins and that way they can also get used to the morning and the time needed to get up, get dressed and be fed a well-balanced diet.
- Encourage a positive attitude and habits. Help your child learn to be a positive contributing participant in the classroom by helping them learn to be responsible for books, toys and clothes at home.
- Provide your child with opportunities to interact with other children. Help them learn to share, wait and take turns so that this will help your child make friends, which is what school is about.
- Help your child develop good communication skills. Teach them the importance of listening and speaking so that they can practice skills such as looking at who is speaking, waiting their turn to speak, thinking and better understanding what is being said.
- Encourage your child to speak and ask questions. Give your child the confidence to ask questions so they can learn that it is okay to tell the teacher if something is hard to understand or that they need help.
- Learn at home. Include learning in your child’s everyday life by reading package labels, weighing produce while shopping, sorting laundry, counting dishes, playing board games or cards.
- Choose clothes that are durable, easy to clean, and easy to put on, take-off and fasten independently. Encourage your child to practice putting on and taking off their jacket, snow pants, boots, mitts and hats. Be sure to label everything.
- Stay active. Give your child every opportunity to exercise and develop healthy muscles by running, climbing or playing with a ball. Smaller hand muscles can be developed by playing with play-doh, pencils and crayons.
- Be involved-You will always be your child’s number one teacher. Keep in contact with the school about your child’s program and progress. All children develop and learn at different rates, so it is important to be involved in school activities and to be connected to the school community.
Entering kindergarten and helping your child with this stage of development is a time of joy, pride, and excitement. Remembering that this is a new time for each of you and a new time of transition, by considering the great tips from the KDSB it should help make this time of transition easier.
