Preschool Graduation, Kindergarten Prep!

Today we experienced our first graduation, and have our first graduate! Marin graduated from preschool. She has been in preschool for two and a half years. We have loved our preschool experience, learning to work in community, going from letter recognition to the beginning stages of reading. 

Our little graduate

Marin draws herself graduating in her end of the school year Psalm in Sunday School

As we leave preschool I have been spending a lot of time and energy on preparing our graduate for the next stage, KINDERGARTEN!  

Kindergarten Prep Part 1
One of the ways I have been doing this is by asking lots of questions. I ask every "professional" I meet (her pediatrician, other teachers, parents, etc...) "How do we get ready for kindergarten?" "What should I be teaching her?" "What does she need to know." The most common response I got was, wait for it...

WIPE HER OWN BOTTOM!

No joke, of all the things, wipe. Yep everyone said that. Know your letters? How to count? No everyone just said "wipe". But you know me I won't take that as the only answer. So I sent a friend who taught kindergarten for many years a letter asking very specific questions. Here are my questions:

1. What can I expect when my child enters school?
2. What did you find parents worried about?
3. As a teacher what frustrated you the most? (In relation to what kids needed to know from their parents)
4. How can I advocate for my child's teacher?
5. What can I help my child learn between now and school starting?

Below are her answers:  

I loved being a kindergarten teacher! You get to see such growth in the course of nine months. Children come in a bit tentative...they have to learn all the ropes of a new school, a new teacher, a new set of friends, and by the time they leave, they have such confidence.

First off, I think it is a really good idea to visit Marin's school. Maybe you've already done this. Try to meet teachers, and if there is one you connect with or one you've heard great things about, go ahead and request her or him. Some parents seem to hesitate to request teachers, assuming that they'll get the label as being "high maintenance". Teachers and administrators don't really care. Of course, in some unique situations, requests can't be made, but in general, pairing your child with a teacher that you think will "get" them is such an advantage. Plus, the teacher will be flattered!

 I had one room mother who always made me fill out a little questionnaire at the beginning of the year...questions like "what do you like to do in your free time?", "your favorite takeout lunch?", "what is on your wishlist for your classroom?". Then, for any kind of appreciation gift, she would go to these answers. Sometimes, she would just surprise me with a lunch. I cannot tell you how appreciated I felt by her. It was just little things, but they meant so much.

As far as what Marin needs to know or do by the time she enters kindergarten...I would say to work on these things:

1. tying shoes (teachers have to tie an insane amount of shoelaces)

2. zipping up coats (same explanation as number 1)

3. cutting paper and gluing (crafts are not as prevalent as they once were in kindergarten, so this is a skill that kids need to work on at home)

4. holding a pencil correctly

5. having some letter recognition (kindergarten will be when most children start reading and writing, so a familiarity with letters is quite nice to have upon entering kindergarten, but not required)

6. writing his/her name...letter formation in general is something to practice at home as well...especially lower case letters.

7. other basic skills - knowing colors, shapes, rote counting to 20

8. the ability to leave your parents this one is hard! but, maybe a little class could help or a Sunday school class. or preschool, of course.

9. this one is also a bit harder, but the ability to use words to talk about problems as opposed to crying/screaming or hitting/pushing
 
I know this is a lot and really, it is rare to have a kid come to school with all of these. So, do not stress, just do the best you can.

The only other thing I'd tell you is to try not and linger on the first day of school. Get her settled, take a photo, give a hug, and then leave....it's so much easier on everyone...you, the kid, the teacher. 

This letter was very helpful. I hope it is helpful to anyone else getting ready for school. I will write a second post about this topic and the other ways we are getting ready for kindergarten. In the meantime Happy Summer! School is OUT!!!! 

Owen, by Kevin Henkes

This is a book about a mouse named Owen. Owen has a yellow blanket that goes everywhere he goes. 

Owen loves his blanket so much. 

Everywhere!

 

Taking it on walks was completely necessary.

And the busy-body next door, Mrs. Tweezers can just keep her opinion to herself. YOU CAN STAY A BABY FOREVER! Don't listen to that crazy mouse next door.

We Have Two Year Old!!!

While his birthday was over a week ago, I wanted to share some birthday pictures

I'm really two! Todd came home early from work so we could all go swimming before the big birthday celebration.

to keep with tradition we made an "O" pizza

Ice cream chocolate cake

with a "2" on top. Owen carried his "2" around for a few days and showed it to everyone we met.

dig in!

Can I please have more ice cream?

When you're two you need a lot of rest because you play so hard, and eat ice cream cake, and swim, and jump off the bottom stair, and watch for buses and dump trucks, dogs and bikes. You throw balls, and chase your sister, and like to swing higher on the big swing, and sing loud songs and growl like a lion. Whew its a lot of work to be two!

Come on Summer get here already!

I'm so ready for Summer to get here! I don't want to pack another lunch box, or wake up Owen from his nap to do preschool pick up... or that's what I think. I have been thinking a lot about "lasts" lately and I feel a bit split by it all. I don't want preschool to be over, I know I just said I do, but I want to return to preschool next year. I don't want preschool to end, its so fun and simple, no homework, its short, there are lots of snacks, crafts, and playing. Preschool, a good preschool, is not about school, its about learning how to work together in a community. It about learning how to make friends, and how to wait for your turn to be first in line, the door holder, snack set-er-up-er, or the star of the week, taking turns. Its learning how to be happy for others when they figure something out, how to tie their shoes, zip their jacket, whistle, blow a bubble, or do the monkey bars backwards (even though they are only four feet off the ground).

We are preparing for Kindergarten though, so be watching for upcoming posts, on how to prepare your child and yourself for Kindergarten. Notes from my teacher friends ready to help us out!

Summer Reading

I love Summer camp, I went to Summer camps as a girl. Girl Scout Camp, Church Camp, Horseback Riding Camp, Kanakuk. In college I worked at two different North Eastern camps, Camp Walden (yes the one where Parent Trap was filmed ) and Camp MerriMac in North Carolina. I loved my Summers there. In fact I love Summer camp so much I used to want to live at a camp and be some sort of year round director. At the very least when Marin is ready for camp Todd is going to have a hard time keeping me home that week.  So with Summer around the corner I started doing a little planning. I want to do a few things each week that make the days feel a bit "campy". The above books are awesome!

 

The Daring Book for Girls: byMariam Peskowits and Andrea J. Buchanan. This is a great book for learning how to tie knots, row a canoe and tie die a shirt, and a ton of other things girls need to know. 

The Kids' Summer Handbook: by Jane Drake and Anne Love. 

This is a great book to take with you to the beach, camping and also to remember things like how to swing a bucket upside down and keep water from falling on your head!

Make These Toys: by Heather Swain. She and Todd actually grew up in the same town. Its a fun book for making different things from junk you have around the house. 

Let's Go Outside: by Jennifer Ward. This book is full of outdoor group games. The official rules to Kick-the-can, tag, and other play in the yard until the sun goes down games. 

Summer is just around the corner, I'm having a hard time taking Marin to school. I just want to be home making things, digging in the dirt and collecting bugs. 

The Death of A Wild Thing

Today I want to make a post in honor of one of our favorite authors. Maurice Sendak has died today at 83.

What a joy to have been a child listening to my mother read his books and now be a mother reading them to my children. And not just his books but all the ones he illustrated too.

One of our all time favorite illustrated Sendak books is Little Bear, by Elise Holmeund Minarik. Reading those sweet stories about Little Bear and loving them not just because of the words, but because of how sweet he looks in each picture. The images of Mother Bear holding Little Bear or Father Bear looking at Little Bear are so tender and wonderful.  Owen has been obsessed with Lions and so Pierre: a cautionary tale has been read over and over, along with Chicken Soup with Rice which is almost memorized and the pages keep falling out. No one can forget all the adventures of Rosie, or the funny little people learning all sorts of definitions in A Hole Is To Dig.  And while we love and adore and really only know Sendak from his books, he was much more of an artist than just in the world of children's books. NPR has a great story that I encourage you to read here.  What a joy to have been a part of receiving his works. Thank you Maurice for valuing childhood and sharing your imagination with my kids and all kids.

 .

Little Readers

I'm not a big "early reader" mom. I don't think that we as parents need to push push push our kids to do things earlier and earlier. I love school, my daughter started preschool at 3 years old. But we did preschool for the purpose of learning to play in community. But Marin is ready to read, she's sounding out words everywhere we go. So I started a few little things around the house to help her out.

I learned this little trick when I worked at preschools. Labels! I made labels for lots of things in our home. Everything in the bathroom, living room, kitchen, bedrooms, hall, doors, floors, rugs, mirrors, colors... everything got named two weeks ago.

I would help Marin sound out the words, and then put the tape on it and she would run off and label the item.

A few have started coming down over time, like when milk got spilled on the "Table" or when Owen got mad and ripped "door" off and threw it in the toilet (next item on the list, better anger management for toddler). I found our writing card stock labels at the Dollar Tree. They have great learning supplies and they have a package of these with 50 in it or something. Kids love seeing words and this is a way to help them connect a word to what it belongs to. She was writing something the other day and ran around the house looking for words so she could write them without having to ask me how to spell it. "Mom how do you spell 'milk' oh wait... never mind I know." Having these words available to her gives her a lot of self confidence in being able to figure it out herself.