New Kindergartener - Read This!

Last year my oldest child went off to kindergarten. We had a rough start, including a brutal throat infection that caused him to miss his first day, a heavily pregnant and therefore emotional mommy, and bus challenges. I tried to be prepared but between my pregnancy exhaustion and the fact that I was still working full-time, I didn't do as good of a job as I should have. Here's what I'd do different if this year was his kindergarten year!

The first thing I'd do is read some books about kindergarten. My favorite books are the Junie B. Jones books by Barbara Park. If you are just starting them get the Junie B. Jones's First Boxed Set Ever! The series starts with Junie going off to kindergarten, so it's a great way to introduce kindergarten to your child. We were introduced to the books by Isaiah's kindergarten teacher and I wish we had read them in the summer before kindergarten instead of during the school year. I know that reading about Junie taking the bus might have helped ease some of the bus stresses we experienced.

The second thing I'd do is practice the kindergarten drop off more. My son found being dropped off to strangers a bit traumatic and missing his staggered start day (when only half the kids would have been there) certainly didn't help.

On the point of missing the first day - I would try really hard to avoid that last summer cold if I could! Have your little guy or gal eat well, take some extra vitamins and get plenty of sleep. Nothing is a guarantee though and some things you just can't control!

I would also take him to the school the last week of August and explore it a little to familiarize him with the layout. My son is pretty shy and I know he was hesitant to speak up for the first couple of months, so better to fully prepare him than to assume he'd ask his teacher for help if needed.

Another thing would have been to work a little more on recognizing 1) his full name, 2) his phone number and 3) our address. I think this would have given ME more peace of mind when dealing with taking the bus. Nothing ever happened thankfully (they actually have great safeguards in place, but I'm paranoid!), but the more prepared you are the easier it is to let your little one go off to school.

Hopefully this will be helpful to any of you parents out there getting ready for kindergarten this fall!