In this brand new year, will your child be starting kindergarten? Are you asking, “Will my child be ready for kindergarten?” “What is kindergarten readiness anyway?” Could you use some answers?
This is a series of posts that looks at some of the basics of getting your child ready to start kindergarten. For children’s safety and well-being, they need to have some general knowledge about health and bodies.
We are all aware that life is far more complicated for children now than ever before, and that includes kindergarten. An early concern for young children is the correct names for all body parts. Children also need to understand that all body parts are equally special, including the private parts of the body, that is those that are covered by underwear or a bathing suit. Once children begin to have an understanding about privacy, we can talk to them about private spaces and public spaces.
Before children go to school, it is important that parents and caregivers have given children some basic information about reproduction. Where babies come from is a common question for preschoolers. To help protect children from child-abuse, you can use the words of safe touch, unsafe touch and secret touch. Safe touch can be good: such as hugs, bouncing, holding hands, washing and wiping, or bad: like pulling out slivers and getting stitches. Unsafe touch includes hitting, kicking, biting, scratching, etc and children know that this kind of touching hurts others. Secret touch or private touch is for adults only. If parents have discussed this with young children they have a better understanding of boundaries and have the words to tell their parents and teachers if there are any problems.
For children’s safety and well-being these are important issues to address at home before children come to school. It’s much better for parents to provide this information to children than let them hear it from someone else. Plus, this establishes the parent as the “go-to person” for the child. Kindergarten readiness includes so much more than academics, doesn’t it?
(To help you with ideas for supporting your child’s early learning and development, each day there is a learning and play post on the blog: https://123kindergarten.com/blog/)