A beginner’s guide to surviving kindergarten

Chances are if you are the parent of a 2 or 3 year old, you've already researched extensively and visited numerous playschools as a prelude to starting your child's learning journey.

Once you've waved off your little one you find

yourself torn by doubts-

 Was it too early to start playschool?  Shouldn't I have spent some more quality time with my baby? 

Will my munchkin be happy away from his favourite toy?

And of course, you don't need a playschool to teach your child to play, thank you very much!

Let me set your hearts at rest, playschool is really a space where the child learns how to navigate physically and emotionally in a social environment.

So here are my top tips for surviving kindergarten.

Kindergarten Survival Tip (KST)1*Making friends* 🤝

Remember the primary reason for your child to be in playschool is for developing social behaviour  and for building emotional resilience. Prosocial behaviour such as sharing, helping and cooperation which children use during play will help your child become a fully realised human being. No matter how they play, by themselves or exuberantly with a group they are learning how to work in a group, how to control their impulses so as to not hurt someone else, how to express in acceptable ways their emotions.

KST*2 

Everything is play for a child🤸

If you wonder is this the right program for my baby? use this yardstick from Maria Montessori who said, "One test of the correctness of educational procedure is the happiness of the child.” If your child is happy you've made the right decision!

Everything in a playschool arouses the child's curiosity- new environment, new faces, new routines, new language, new emotions- making this phase in a child's life the best for multisensory learning. 

KST* 3 Band-aid for a broken heart.☕

If you feel a piece of your heart break as you leave your toddler at playschool, there's only one remedy- go back home, cry if you must, then brew yourself a nice cuppa , put your feet up and savour the quiet interlude- for in a few short hours your little bundle of joy will be home again!

KST*4 Parent love vs. Teacher love🤜🤛

For awhile it might seem that you have been ousted from that pedestal in your child's heart, but no worries it's only temporary. Preschool teachers take delight in helping children become the person they will grow up to be, even though we may never see that wonderful person. Whereas you will always be a part of their lives! You are their first teacher, thank you for your hard work for the first 3 years of their life! Now, let us do what we do as kindergarten teachers, experience joy!😍

KST*5 Don't be a worry wart!😞

As a first time kindy parent, you may experience enormous anxiety about your child's safety. But rest assured, your hovering and offering experiences that are safe and without risk only gives your child an unnatural and sterile activity and ultimately a joyless one. Let them scrape their knees, let them do their own risk assessment, let them sort out a disagreement, let them fail, let them be noisy, let them be kids! 

KST*6 Tear down the behaviour chart!📃

We always expect children to follow the rules we set, but some of them are downright silly!

Here's a sampling of the things you might say

Sit still.

Play quietly.

Eat fast.

Don't run. And the all encompassing 

Be good.😣

Don't  expect that once your baby is in playschool, these rules will be followed!  Preschool teachers know it's useless to try and keep a preschooler still or quiet because their need for movement is an important facet of their understanding of letter identification and formation once they start writing. 

Face it, many of the rules are made for our convenience. Fling that rulebook into the wind and embrace the messiness of childhood.

What your child will learn in playschool however, is to listen, to share, to wonder, to investigate, to cooperate, to seek help, to trust and to question.

There you have it, my guide to surviving kindergarten! 

Then again you might just decide to fling my tips to the wind and do as you jolly well like! 

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sports for preschoolers

Preschoolers like to play familiar and repetitive games till they are confident and ready to try a new activity. Sports day in playschool has fun, spills, thrills, chaos management.At the sports day in our little kindergarten we decided to test them not only for speed but for nimbleness and agility, quick and logical thinking. I can tell you it was nothing like anything....but something I would do again in a flash!

Learning Styles

As a  child I had a constant  need to move, to fidget, to always be playing with something  and my mother would constantly worry about how to reign in my athleticism and propensity for tom boy activities. If only I had been born later , and she had the benefit of modern psychoanalytic methods she would have known that I was showing the learning traits of an athlete , an actor or a surgeon.

Studies show  that children who are fidgety, love the crash and bang of exuberant play, speak animatedly and are full of energy, uses expansive gestures and are interested in everything around exhibit the learning styles of future Athelete/Actor/Surgeons. They  are skilled at controlling their body movements and tend to learn best by doing,  touching and manipulating objects to facilitate understanding. Like me, they might fidget and be continuously feeling and tinkering with objects but that is how they learn and we would do well not to label them attention deficient. They  tend to learn best by doing, such as building or constructing projects. The Athelete/Actor/Surgeon learners as they manipulate objects are understanding precise movements and how to utilize objects with skill and precision.

If your child loves books, and creating characters and scenarios during play, has a bigger vocabulary and uses more feeling words than other children in the same age group, and is able to imagine and act out these imaginings; then your child fits many of the traits of a Writer/Storyteller. Children with this learning style may be avid storytellers, have a strong vocabulary, and may be good at formulating verbal arguments. They  learn best through reading, taking notes, listening to information, and engaging in active discussions.  Writer/storyteller children often read books as a source of both comfort and entertainment.  Your child may use books and stories as a means to socialize or make connections with adults or other children.

If your child loves the puzzle tray during play, can understand and follow instruction easily, is more engaged with the order and pattern of things, is quick to grasp numerical concepts and exhibits an interest in the logical aspect of play rather than the whimsy; then your child is likely a Scientist/Mathematician. These children tend to be strong in reasoning, number, and critical thinking and may be naturally able to recognize  patterns. They excel in classifying and grouping information and enjoy  building and ordering objects. They enjoy helping in the kitchen where they can help to measure, pour and mix. 

While playing if your child is usually dabbling with colors and paint,  and learns well with visual inputs, spends a lot of time and effort to present work in which the  joy in the creation is evident; then your child probably learns in ways similar to the Architect/Artist. Learning is easiest for these children when it involves working with pictures, drawing, or imagery.  Being  visual learners they benefit from organizing things visually, such as through a mind map, or chart. Learning is easiest for Architects/Artists when it involves working with pictures, drawing, or imagery.  They demonstarte great pride in their artwork and have very good fine motor skills for their age.

Parents and teachers are privileged nowadays to have the insight of the best psychologists and read the wealth of information available online about various studies done in early learning and child development. Knowing the way your child learns allows you to give them the freedom to learn the best way they can, without labeling them as attention deficit, or bookish or untidy or a dreamer.  Even from very young ages, children learn in different ways.  By becoming more familiar with your child’s learning profile—the dominant way your child can most easily absorb and understand information—you can best support and facilitate your child's development. 

The Death of Chocolate

Chocolate, that sweet addiction, liked by people of all ages and across borders, touted as an aphrodisiac, glorified as a sacred offering in the old Americas, valued as a currency in some eras and a key ingredient in the beverages industry, may well be a memory come 2 October, 2020, by which date the world’s chocolate manufacturers will see the supply of cocoa come to dwindling halt.

Did your heart miss a beat at the announcement of this bittersweet meltdown? Not just chocoholics but also parents and grandparents, kindergarten teachers and dentists must have sat up in horror at this apocalyptic statement! How could chocolate survive more than 2000 years, first as a beverage and then as a confection, become hugely popular, only to join the ranks of the species that are approaching extinction?

I’m laying the blame squarely at the door of the chocolate companies who keep dreaming up newer, more delectable confectioneries to tease our taste buds. 

And what do we tell our children, when we have no foil wrapped chocolate bars to quieten a tantrum?

How many times have we bargained with kids for good behavior, with the promise of a chocolate? 

How often do we try to sugar-coat a painful experience with a sweet indulgence?

Or dig in to a mouthful of chewy goodness for a chocolate high?

Only last week in the playground at school, the little ladies had set up their 'mud kitchen' and needed someone to play daddy. They pleaded with one of the boys pedaling in the yard ,"You be a daddy and go to the market on your scooter!" When he refused and went his merry way, one girl followed him to whisper this hard to resist offer,"If you play daddy, I’ll give you a chocolate!" Needless to say , he succumbed- there’s not many who can resist the lure of this sinfully intoxicating addiction.

"Death by Chocolate" - been there, done that....but the Death of chocolate is something I don't want to believe will happen.

How do we explain Mahatma Gandhi on Gandhi Jayanthi to children in a playschool? He is honoured most importantly for his practice of non- violent resistance, which finds a resonance even today, in struggles that people have against unjust governments the world over.

But for the 3 and 4 year old's for whom even yesterday can be a long time ago, these events are hard to comprehend. We try to tell the kids about his humility , his service to the marginalised and his ability to GIVE!

Well, that’s the new buzz word- givitism. Activism with an emphasis on gifting -as when we celebrate October 2 to 8 as the Joy of Giving week in India; as in the experiment in generosity by Karma Kitchen or Jon Bon Jovi’s Soul Kitchen,where there are no prices on the menu card; or the 'sospesso' ( suspended coffee) where a cup of coffee is paid for in advance, as an anonymous act of charity; or as seen in this cartoon by Ruth Krauss & Maurice Sendak, where you are surprised by, not the dream catcher, but the dream giver!

So we tell the little ones in kindergarten to give away a smile, a hug, love, cause it comes right back to you. We’re celebrating the Mahatma and his life by giving- to show compassion and empathy, to get people to support and encourage one another and  to remind you – life is beautiful.

Happy Teacher's Day

I’m not just a teacher,

I’m also other things.

Not least, a story teller,

When books to life I bring

Always, I’m a reporter,

Keeping a journal for the year.

And a photographer who captures

On film, their laughter and tears

I’m a doctor who detects,

When a child is feeling sick

Sometimes, a psychic, who knows

Someone's up to a trick.

Often, I’m a decorator,

With pictures to fill every wall.

Then, I’m a fitness instructor,

Showing them how to stand tall.

For times when they stray from values

Like a preacher, I frown.

When they’re sad, to cheer them

I act like a clown.

I’m a policeman, now and then

As the playground I’m patrolling.

When they fuss with their food

I’m their dietitian, gently cajoling.

Some days, I’m a confidante,

Who keeps their secrets close.

Or a detective, solving mysteries

As their antics I expose.

If you say, I’m only a teacher,

It’s only 'cause you don’t know

How when I’m with children,

I’m always so much more.

Adapted from a poem by Stacy Bonino

This Independence day, Friends decided to wear our patriotism where it can be seen.  

Flaunting our independence!

Explaining Independence Day and it's importance in India's history proved too arduous, and so we made  a long story short and explained how the children show independence, pointing to their growing maturity.

Back to back, cheek to cheek, shoulder to shoulder.......working as a together.

Making choices, thinking independently.