Inspiration for a post on kindergarten readiness fun and learning came from the Super Bowl ad where a little boy in the back seat asks where baby comes from. His dad tells a great story about a planet called Babylandia and the whole journey to get to Earth. Of course, the little one in the back seat isn’t buying it so the dad turns on the song Wheels on the Bus and the family sings along.
Explaining to kids about where babies come from is not just a part of kindergarten readiness, it’s also very important for their own safety and protection. On a Learn and Play with Mrs. A radio show, I was able to talk to Kerri Isham, who is a teacher with special training in children’s healthy sexual development. She explained the words safe-touch, unsafe touch, and secret touch. Safe-touches are the ones that feel good, like hugs, tickles, and snuggles or sometimes not so good, like getting dirt out of a scrape or having the doctor check out a sore tummy. Kids seem to know quite early that unsafe touches, such as kicking, hitting, biting, and scratching, are not just unsafe but hurtful, too. Secret touch is private and for adults only. Discussing where babies come from and different kinds of touching helps children understand and build boundaries and gives them the words they might need to use to tell us about any problems.
Kids also need to know the correct words for all body parts, including the private ones. By treating all body parts as special we are not drawing extra attention to the private ones. We can also let kids know that since some parts are private, we’ll talk about them in private spaces, like home, not middle of the grocery store. That doesn’t always work, tho, as many of us know!
Talking about this with your kids before they come to school and hear it from anyone else will establish you as the go-to source for information and concerns. Unfortunately, the dad in the car in this Super Bowl ad is now competing with “But Jake said”. Does this give you some better ideas than The Wheels On The Bus?
