Here are some tips I used to help her ease into the new routine and school life. I hope it is useful for you to prepare for the new milestone in 2021.
Tip #1 Two wake-up calls
Walking up as early as 5.30a.m can be a challenge as she needs to wash up, change into her uniform and have a light breakfast before she boards her bus at 6.20 a.m.
I am now giving 2 wake-up calls after knowing that she will request to sleep in for another 10 mins based on my first experience waking her up. First wake-up call will be at 5.20 a.m, followed by 5.35 a.m, the latest she has to wake. When she knows that she has been given another 10-15 mins more to sleep in, she wakes up a happy girl.
I did not get any cries so far except for once when she slept really late and had to wake really early the next day. She was on all smiles again when I suddenly thought of dishing out a smiley face to her, hoping to make her smile. Thankfully, it did! It made her broke out into chuckles! Do you know that she is very well motivated by food! I will use the food she requested for the night before to entice her! It works for her especially using fruits!
Tip #2 One hour nap after school
Trust me that their bodies are so used to the routine in childcare, some kids may or may not be able to wean off their noon nap. Having to wake so early for Vera, I would not be surprised if she still needs the afternoon nap.
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| Very rare of her to fall asleep on the way home |
Usually, I allow her to nap for an hour after her lunch and shower. Sometimes, she insisted to tell me that she is not tired at all but when I asked her to lie down on her bed, in just 10 minutes, she dozed off. But right now, after 6 months, she seemed to get the hang of it again and yet not so because of the circuit breaker as she did not need to wake as early as 5.30am.
Tip #3 Counting Money
It is always good if you can spend some time to teach how to count money. I will prefer to use actual coins and notes. Go slow and start from 10 cents if you need to, Vera is unable to add that well yet, I am still giving her allowance in dominations of 10 cents.
I came across an activity which 2mamas4kids shared, you might want to try it out too!
I am still keeping the kids at home due to Covid19, they do not follow me to the Supermarket at all as I want to keep them away from crowds. But what I have been collecting was empty packaging of different products. I plan to make my own price tag and stick on them for Supermarket pretend play. Vera can play the role of a shopper and learn to pay for her purchase.
Tip #4 Go through the canteen menu
The 1st three days, a P4 buddy was assigned to guide her in purchasing of food in the canteen and to bring her around the school. After the 3rd day, she refused to buy from the canteen anymore. She told me she was too shy to do so, I guessed she is not ready on her own yet. Hence, on certain days, I gave her mini lunch or snack boxes.
On days if I run out of ideas or too tired in preparing the lunchbox, I will encourage her to buy from the canteen stalls. Before that, I have already got the menu of the different stalls on hand. I will run through the menu with her and allow her to decide what food she would like to buy, get her to remember the stall number as well as knowing how much she has to pay and if she has enough money. I will allow her to practise counting money by starting her with 10-cent coins only and slowly work on the different domination of that certain amount. In this case, the daily allowance I gave her was only $1.50.
6 months later, she did buy her food but I foresee she will be only buying bread, steamed corn, fried rice and fruits from the canteen. I did not hear her mentioning about other food apart from the above.
Tip #5 Learning the days and months
Repetition never fails. She told me that her teacher will get them to read out the spelling for the current month (JANUARY) daily when she surprised me by spelling it out while we were making our way back home.
So how did I try to start her on learning how to spell the days of the week was, to write down the days beside the dates in her school handbook on a weekly basis.
Being new and adjusting to new routines, new rules, new environment and new friends, these are stresses to the little beings. Hence, do not add-on more anxiety for them. If the dismissal is at 1.30pm, I make sure that I will be at the gate 3-5 mins before she comes out. I have also instructed her to stay put in the holding area if she does not see me appearing at the gate after she is dismissed.
Even after not attending school due to the circuit breaker, she has no issues to transit back to the normal school hours, I sent them to bed at 9pm without fail. Personally, I feel that putting the kids on a structured routine can prep them better to follow through
what should be done for the day without much fuss.
Tip #7 Keep connected to the Teachers
There are communication channels to reach the teachers, once a while I will ask the teachers for feedbacks with regards to her attention issue and learning issues as she is being pulled out for Learning Support Programme (I will share more about this later). Personally, I feel that teachers and parents should work closely together but bear this in mind, to stay connected and not to bombard the teachers daily asking for your child's performance.
Tip #8 Daily Revision
I know she will have some struggles based on what I know about her learning pace, hence the daily revision is very important for a child like her who needs repetition. Having to eyeball the elder who is doing his PSLE this year and to make sure I keep up with Vera's learning journey can be challenging. If she has school homework, I will let her complete the school's work first, otherwise, I will spend 15-30 mins revising every subject with her just to keep her engine going.
Hope the above gives you a rough idea on how you can help your little one adapt to P1 life next year.
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