self help skills

  • Preschool chores

    Using chores to build responsibility

    Starting a chore routine comes with so many questions – What chores are appropriate? Should I offer a reward for completing them? If so, what? It’s a little overwhelming, because we all want to get it right. Truthfully, it’ll take a bit to figure out, and there will be constant adjusting as your child ages. Here’s a list that I’ve shared previously about some chores that are developmentally appropriate for preschoolers: At home– Gathering dirty laundry– Folding t-shirts and towels– Matching clean socks– Feeding pets– Dusting– Cleaning up play spaces– Cleaning up small messes with a handheld vacuum– Use a damp mop or Swiffer on the floors– Making their own…

  • Household Tasks that promote Kindergarten Readiness Skills

    When parents ask me for things that they can work on with their children at home, I know that they expect me to encourage them to practice number and letter recognition, and writing their names.  So it often comes as a surprise when I encourage them to work on things like responsibility, independence, and self help skills. These are all important kindergarten readiness skills, and can easily be practiced at home by encouraging children to help with simple tasks, like the following: Making their bed Setting the table Helping pack lunches Cleaning their room Picking out clothes for the next day Dusting Feeding pets Watering plants Putting away clean laundry…

  • Kindergarten Readiness Checklist

    There are so many different Kindergarten Readiness Checklist out there (seriously, I just did a Google search and it returned 517,000 results) and some are certainly more developmentally appropriate than others.  My all-time favorite list, the one that I consistently shared with my preschool parents is the checklist that was developed by my state’s Department of Education. I love this list because it focuses on health, safety, and social emotional skills. I’m including the images below, but you can also view the list here. Parents are always surprised by the things that aren’t on the list; it doesn’t say anything about knowing their letters, numbers, or shapes.  It also doesn’t…

  • Preschool Activities that meet Social Emotional Standards

    It’s Wednesday, which means it’s time for some activities aligned to a specific standard.  This is the fourth week of this feature, and we’re still on social emotional standards. (The Standards that I use every day, and am most comfortable with are Ohio’s Early Learning Development Standards – you can review them here, however I’ve found that even if your State’s standards differ, many of these activities can still be aligned similarly). Here we go!Domain: Social Emotional DevelopmentStrand: SelfTopic: Sense of Competence This is one of those standards that can be difficult to plan activities for, because you can absolutely take steps to foster competence in your students, but often this happens…