The closer we get to the holidays, the longer grow the to-do lists. Could you use an idea to support your child’s early learning and kindergarten readiness that fits in especially well at this time of year?
This might sound like the exact opposite that you would expect to hear from a teacher, but it’s important to help young children learn social skills. Surprisingly, social skills have more impact on later success than academic ones. Feeling anxious can interfere with learning, and feeling comfortable and confident can make it easier.
An early social skill for kids, is learning to share. There are actually quite a few parts to sharing with someone else. Sharing can be for just a little while or it can be for much longer. Wee little ones will hold something out to another person, but haven’t yet figured out the letting go part. Like other skills, sharing takes time to learn and gets easier with practice.
Instead of being the broken record that tells kids something over and over, we can use stories. For instance, at the table, you can be the voice of the bowl: “There is lots of food in this bowl, for everyone to share. Each person needs to take some and leave some. That way everybody gets a share. Good thing I am such a big bowl and hold so much.” The toys can share space in the toybox and move over to make room. Stuffies can have a pretend tea and share with other stuffies.
Helping kids share can also be done as they play. There will likely be lots of opportunities in a day to practice sharing. What are some other ways to support learning to share?