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Thursday, July 15, 2010

Kindergarten Prep: Boundaries

There are several things I wish my kindergarteners knew when they walked through my door.  This category will contain skills to teach your child that will make them their teacher's favorite.  Okay, maybe not, but it will be one less thing standing between your child and the actual education you want them to receive.  

Kindergarten Prep:  Teaching Your Child Boundaries
In this case, specific physical boundaries.  At home, your kiddo can probably take their toy cars and have an adventure all over the house.  In school, he'll be confined to a rug in the corner of the room.  Teach your children ahead of time that certain toys have certain areas they need to stay in.  Not all toys. I mean, that's one of the best things about being a stay at home kid-you get to use your whole house as a playground!  This builds imagination and creativity.  But choose some toys that are required to stay in certain areas.  Make some areas of your house off limits, and tell them why. (Safety, this is Mommy's space, etc.)  Have your kids put toys back in the same place every time when they are cleaning up.  I find buckets of varying sizes to be great for this.  Maggie has organization down to an art. She knows where things go and is really good about putting them back there.  As anyone who knows me personally can tell you, she didn't get this from me.  A positive school environment has taught her this.  

Having a toddler will make this difficult, but kids as young as 18 months can understand this concept if it's taught consistently.  Keep at it... it will pay off in the end!

What this will translate into is this:  Your kid will be the kid building a lego fort at the table instead of the running around the classroom flying their lego airplane.

What this means for their teacher: One less child to run after, redirecting them back to the right place in the room.


This is part of our toy organization system.  Maggie gets a few buckets, plays with the toys in the living room, and ideally puts the bucket back where it goes.  Ha ha-as you can tell, we don't really hold to labels very much around here.

This is the kids' room after a Jack attack.  So our expectations for him are a little lower, but at least it all stayed in the room!  

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