When your child starts school

posted by Kate - 11:50 30/08/11

It’s quite amazing really that one moment you are holding your new baby in your arms and then in next to no time at all you are standing at the school gates waving him/her inside with a knot in your stomach.

My youngest is now 30 and an accomplished reception class teacher in her own right, but that memory lives on for me today.

So how can you prepare your child and yourself for the big day? The following are a few tips to help you make the transition as smooth as possible for yourself and your child:

• Teach your child how to put their coat on and fasten it up.
• Encourage your child to use the toilet independently; this will help to avoid unnecessary accidents.
• Put a coloured spot in each of your child’s shoes, a red spot in the right shoe and a blue spot in the left so your child is able to put their shoes on the right feet.
• Avoid shoes with laces, stick to Velcro or buckle fastenings as not many four year olds can be expected to fasten their own shoe laces.
• Put a special mark that your child can easily recognise or write their name in their school clothing. This avoids them getting lost or mixed up.
• Show your child how to keep their clothes in a tidy pile so they are nice and easy to find and then they can get dressed in the right order after P.E.
• Write your child’s name often so they begin to recognise the shape, always start with a capital letter followed by lower case e.g. Kate.
• Write your child’s name in bigger letters and help him/her to trace over it by guiding their finger as they follow the letters.
• Count together, you can do this as you walk along the street, in the car, when you are putting the shopping away, or simply sitting on the sofa, counting fingers and toes.
• Read a story, show the pictures and talk about each one together e.g. who is in the picture? What are they doing? What might happen next? Use the pictures to develop language skills as well as colour recognition.
• Sing together, share nursery rhymes and action rhymes you know, or sing along or dance together to the radio.
• Do some jigsaw puzzles together, this helps your child match shapes and develops their concentration skills.
• Fill the washing up bowl with warm soapy water so your child can have fun filling and emptying lots of different sized plastic containers. Make sure they are wearing a waterproof apron first!
• Answer any questions as honestly as you can and if you don’t know the answer, find it out together- we never stop learning, no matter how old we are!!!!

For more creative ideas to help you support your child click here.

Don’t worry if you are short of time, the Mouse Club is always at hand to help. The teacher parent pack has plenty of readymade supportive materials you can download and use and it’s all FREE. Click here for a range of activities from snap cards to alphabet and number cards and lots more.