Nursery school or daycare is the first place for most preschool-aged children where they are with peers in a group.
How was your child’s first day of nursery school or preschool?
And how is it going now?
In the classroom, your child is not the only one who gets all the attention and care and there are other friends to think about.
Is your child dealing with this okay?
This change might not be easy for some children if they were never exposed to this kind of environment before.
In the last two years, while we are in the pandemic, virtual classes made this adjustment even harder for young children.
It’s hard to feel that you belong to the class when everyone is just in their screen box, and it’s hard to be social and caring for others.
Good social skills are not only needed in the virtual class as you know. They are one of the most important skills that young children need to learn as they start their social life beyond their families.
In their new world, children will face differences, difficulties, frustrations and other negative feelings, in addition to the positive things of course. And I believe getting ready for these is a true school readiness that preschoolers have to have.
So this week, I want to introduce a book and an activity that will develop your preschooler’s social skills.
Growth Mindset: “I can handle it” mindset
Do you know this book?
I found this book as I was researching about the topic and thinking about what I can teach.
This book shows different situations, situations that cause negative feelings. And it shows how the boy comes up with ideas to deal with the negative situations.
I recommend reading this book with your preschooler. This book is actually a really good book to keep it for a long time. Read it again and again until this growth mindset becomes a natural thing for your child.
After reading the book,
You can try this with your child as an activity.
These are problem cards of the Happy Cat Koko.
There are 7 different situations that can happen at school and cause negative feelings in children.
How To Play
- Sit together with your child.
Look at each card and talk about the situation. Give your child time to think about the ways to handle the situation. You can give your advice.
- Your child can play by her/himself.
Your child can just play with the cards by her/himself. Just looking at the situations and being reminded of the “I can handle it” phrase will help your child be familiar with the “I can handle it mindset”.
Also, whenever you find a situation that you child is in distress because of a negative event, take out these cards, play and help your child to think about his situation with the “I can handle it” mindset.
Let your preschooler learn how to do things and let her develop the skills through repeated play.
You can make your own problem cards with problems that are found in your child’s world, or you can use my cards. They are available in the Everyday Funday Shop.
Happy learning and quality time!
Teacher Gela 👩🏻🎀