How to prepare your kid for the first day at school /
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10 Tips for preparing children for their playschool
If your child is 2+ and if you are planning to send her to a playschool, here are some useful tips for their preparation to make their journey comfortable. School is totally a new environment for kids as they meet new people and make new friends. Changing the atmosphere at home to resemble that at playschool before they start going, will help children in adjusting well in their first school. Getting used to school depends upon the toddler’s nature too. Some take just one day and some a month’s time.
1) Talk a lot about the school: toys, games, children, teacher, outdoor games: Create an enthusiasm in the kid for the school by telling her about the playschool. Visit the school and make a note of all things that are going to amuse your kid. Let your kid know about the toys, colorful pictures, see-saw or slides that are available at the school.
2) Show her school going kids: Introduce her to some elder kids who go to school. You are lucky if you know children going to the same playschool. Let them talk to your kid about the excitement they have at school.
3) Introduce them to books: Buy colorful board books and make them acquainted with pictures of animals, birds, vegetables, fruits and alphabets. They will be interested to find the same in playschool too.
4) Create a routine and change their timings: Children should be made to change their routine at home according to school timings at least fifteen days before they start going to school. Wake them at a time suitable for going to school at the right time. Change their diet timings according to the lunch or snack timings at school. Sudden changes in timings of rest and food will add to their initial resistance to school.
5) Play CDs: Children usually at playschools are taught rhymes etc by playing different animated CDs. As children love animations, play some CDs at home and tell them that they can have more of them at school.
6) Visit the school a few times with your kid: Take her with you to the school a few times before her first day to school. Make her acquainted with the teachers, so that she does not find them as strangers on the first day.
7) Leave them at someone’s place: Try to leave them at a friends’ or relative’s place for a few hours for a few days so that she gets used to staying without you. She will know that you will be back in school after sometime. This will decrease separation anxiety.
8) Try different food items: Make her taste different items and varieties and see what she likes best. In this way you can be prepared for making arrangements for their tiffin box.
9) Buy new items for school: Take her for shopping and buy all new things like bag, shoes, tiffin box and water bottle and tell them they can use them on their first day to school.
10) Be with her on the first day: Many playschools allow parents to stay with their kids on the first day. You can spend some time with her and show her the toys, outdoor games and introduce her to other kids in the school.
What ever the preparation may be, children do cry on their first day to school. After all, they are being left at a place full of strangers when only you mean the world to them. It is a common site to see mothers shedding tears after sending their child on the first day to playschool. This is all about “letting go” thing. Fine with it, just do not show your emotions to your kid. Remember that it is only a temporary phase.