Mary Poppins says that we say supercalifragilisticexpialidocious when we don’t know what else to say. So it’s a great word for you to use when your little one heads off to school for the first time. “Have a supercalifragilisticexpialidocious day!” Hard to believe, isn’t it, that for many parents (maybe you?) the start of school is almost here. There are still weeks of summer ahead though, and there are many things you can do to secure a perfect “goodbye” moment. - Read lots of great stories about going to kindergarten so your child has a sense of what’s going to happen to and for him. Here are a few: Look Out Kindergarten, Here I Come by Nancy Carlson (Puffin); I Am Too Absolutely Small for School by Lauren Child (Candlewick); Sam and Gram and the First Day of School by Diane Bloomberg (Magination Press); When You Go to Kindergarten by James Howe (Harper Trophy); and Welcome to Kindergarten by Anne Rockwell (Walker and Company).
- Anticipate questions your children might have and talk about them. Visit the school with your child, if possible. Here are a few questions that might be on your child’s mind:
Will there a bathroom and when can I use it?
What if I have an accident?
Will there be snacks if I get hungry?
Will they make me take a nap? What if I don’t want to?
What if you don’t pick me up on time?
Will my teacher like me? Will the other kids like me?
Dr. Ruth Peters, Ph.D. provides suggestions with regard to these questions (and more!) in this article. - To promote early literacy skills, visit your local library and read alphabet books together. Sing rhyming songs and share as much poetry as possible, to promote the idea that words are made of sounds. If you’ve got a Tag Reader, the following books are great to share with your to-be kindergartener: Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, I SPY™: Imagine That!, Olivia and Miss Spider’s Tea Party. The activities at the back of each book will further help your child understand that words are composed of sounds, that letters stand for sounds, that words have spaces between them and that writing goes from left to right.
During the last weeks of summer, have a supercalifragilisticexpialidocious time!
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