Until the school line is left … very soon, in general, on September 1. It’s time to get ready for the fact that your child is no longer an ordinary child, he is a first grader! Read the advice to parents of a first-grader from teachers and psychologists of the Klever publishing house.
1. Prepare for teaching
For some reason, many parents think that readiness for school is determined by the ability to read, count, write. In fact, teachers usually even ask especially active mothers NOT to teach their child to read and count before school, because the school has its own teaching method. But it is important to prepare your child for learning. So that the hand is ready to learn how to write letters, you can study with your child using educational aids – draw straight lines, draw shapes, paint, adhering to the outline, and so on.
You can prepare for mathematics by developing logic, and not at all by solving complex examples. Physiologists recommend that the future first-grader study more often with coloring-development and unraveling labyrinths, trying not to drive on paper with a finger, but tracing the path with his eyes. It is also important to be able to generalize (separate all vegetables from all animals or select only objects with the letter “A” in the picture).
2. Teach to live, not read
At school, the child is not only waiting for numbers and letters.
The most important thing is communication with dozens of new people, both children and adults. Discuss what the child will do to make friends with classmates (smile, share candy, discuss his / her enhancements …), and how he will refer to the teacher (using “you” and by name and patronymic).
Explain, too, that the teacher is not a mother. She will not hug and feed, she will teach, this is her job. And she treats all the children in the class equally. It is important to teach a child, with any difficulty and feeling unwell, not to be shy about approaching the teacher.
Check if the child knows how to dress himself, change the “shift”, whether he copes with laces on sneakers, with zippers and fasteners on the uniform and briefcase. Remember that at school the child will cope on his own, do not complicate his life by buying a difficult-to-close portfolio and pencil case.
Train your child to take time off from the lesson to the toilet saying “you can go out” without details. After all, this is exactly what is customary among students.
3. Introduce the teacher
It’s good if you manage to do this in advance, before September 1. Then the child will go to school without fear of the unknown. Teachers start working in mid or late August, try going to school, watching the class, walking down the hallways, talking to the teacher.
4. Stop controlling everything
You, of course, want to spread straws, protect the baby, accompany him to class, do all the lessons for the first grader, tie his shoelaces in the morning and shout after him: “Do not forget to eat!” But it’s time to stop. The child is growing, he has HIS business. Let him be self-reliant. Help only when he himself definitely cannot cope. And do not dishonor your classmates by tying your shoelaces.
5. Teach to resolve conflicts
At school, the child will have the first “colleagues”. These are not friends in kindergarten with whom you can eat sand and fight over a shoulder blade. Here everyone is already big, and everyone has their own character, and everyone believes that he is the best here … Conflicts are inevitable. But do not rush to the first complaint to a child that he has been offended, rush to school shouting: “I will show them how to offend my masik!” Masiku needs to learn not to avoid conflict, but to solve it. Discuss, help with advice, say that you understand, and it was the same with you, but do not solve the issues for the child.
6. Let the child choose a briefcase and pencil case
A briefcase and pencil case (well, also notebooks and all sorts of little things) – this is what a child should like. Buy these things together. You will look at the practicality and convenience, and the child will choose “his” knapsack. After all, he should walk with him.
7. Do not give directly to the section
In the first year at school, the tension in the child is unthinkable. It seems to us that he is doing something stupid there – sticks and hooks … And for a first-grader, the need to sit for several lessons in a row, to be silent, to concentrate, to work in a large team is hard work. Therefore, psychologists and teachers very much ask parents not to burden the child in the first grade with sections and classes. It is better to take a walk once more after school and before going to bed, it is better to play at home than to spend all your free time in art and music schools. One exception – sports sections are always welcome. After all, sport just helps to change activities and gives strength.
8. Don’t be scared by school
There are some funny parents who remember when their child was their teacher beat with a ruler, how they ran away from school, how classmates threw away their schoolbags and what a terrible school … Remember that your child perceives every word you say as true. Mom and Dad didn’t like school, which means that it’s bad at school and I don’t want to go there. Better still tell positive stories from your school life.
9. To teach that books are friends
A child who loves books will be more successful at school than someone who is used to tablets and TV. A child who knows that books are interesting will learn with pleasure. Let the child have his own low shelf with books in the room, read aloud to the first grader (and don’t stop just because he already knows the letters himself), buy coloring books and educational programs with various interesting tasks, try to prepare reports for the school using encyclopedias with pictures. And always discuss what you read. So the child will understand that books are knowledge, entertainment, emotions and development.
10. Buy a uniform from natural fabrics
The school uniform is different for everyone. And, as a rule, to make it last longer, it is sewn from a practical fabric, in which synthetics are at least 30-40%. Practically, yes. But it’s hard for a small child to sit all day in synthetics, to rush around in a hot acrylic jacket during breaks. If there are no options for the form, at least choose T-shirts, shirts, tights and vest-jackets from cotton.