The Kissing Hand: First Day of School

Brayden will be starting full-day school this year and is expressing some nervousness over it. He hasn't had an issue with starting preschool or Kindergarten. He says he doesn't want to leave me all day. All I can do is hug him because I feel the same way!

I wanted to come up with an idea to make the first day seem a bit easier and to do something special to let him know I love him and am thinking of him. As I said last Monday, I love the book The Kissing Hand. I think it is great for the first day of anything, especially school. We have been talking about that book and how I always love him even if I am not right with him. 

I saw this R & M Heart in Hand Cookie Cutter pictured above on Amazon and thought that was a great idea! Wouldn't that be a fun treat in his lunchbox the first day? 

I plan to do this for the first day. Either that or just do heart shapes I have already and just do the heart. 

*sniff.* My baby is growing up.

Five Great Back to School Books

Here are five book that are great for back to school (or first time at school).

Miss Bindergarten Gets Ready for Kindergarten by Joseph Slate

There are several of these Miss Bindergarten books, from starting, 100th day celebration, to the last day. So check these out all year long.

Mouse's First Day of School by Lauren Thompson

This is from the author of the "If You Give A ____ a _____" books (give a mouse a cookie, moose a muffin, pig a pancake, etc.). If your child loves those books, she will love this one, too.

I'm Your Bus by Marilyn Singer

If your child will be riding the bus, this is a great book! It is also helpful for other children if your school uses buses for field trip transportation.

First Day Jitters by Julie Danneberg

This book helps those children who are nervous get over their jitters.

The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn

By far my favorite. This is a must-own in my opinion. This is such a cute story that gives parents and children alike an idea for helping each other feel each other's love all day long.

Preventing (or minimizing) Summer Setback

What is "summer setback"? Simply put, summer setback is the lack of learning that happens to kids over summer break. A two year study found that all students had a slower gain of knowledge over the summer. The study also found that some students still have scores rise while others actually lower scores.

So how do you prevent the loss of skills?

As has been discussed on this blog, even we parents don't want to put all the gung-ho effort into learning activities that we do during a normal "school year." We are busy and we want a break. But taking a full break from learning activities can be detrimental to children.

There is good news.

I recently read The Read Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease (which I absolutely love and 100% recommend...but more on that in another post). In it, he briefly discusses summer setback and ways to prevent it. Here are the factors that prevent/minimize summer setback (pages 87-89):

• Model: model reading. This means that you read when your kids can see you read.
• Offer reading space: provide space for reading.
• Variety: provide a variety of reading materials. Examples are magazines, newspapers, and books.
• Bookstore/Library: visit the bookstore and/or library. See Library Day!
• Vacation: a vacation or summer camp out of town provides new experiences. They meet new people and see new things. This increases background knowledge and teaches new vocabulary words.
• Educational programs: when you watch TV and videos (and even listen to the radio), watch educational and informational programs.
• Read to child: Read to the child daily. See Simple Summer Fun: Reading. See also literacy blog label for more posts.
• Encourage child to read: even if your child can't "read," he or she can sit and look at books or magazines.
• Field Trips: visit the fire stations, museums, the zoo, etc. See Simple Summer Fun: The Zoo and Simple Summer Fun: Museums

Do many of those look familiar to posts from the "simple summer" series, as well as other posts from the summer? I have linked related posts in each bullet.

Why write this post now, at the end of the summer? Several reasons. One is that I just read this book last week, so the subject wasn't at my forefront. Another is I know if I wait until next May, I will forget all about it. Another is I hope that you will read this now and somehow remember it next summer and turn to it. Finally, because I know I am kind of a little nervous about summer setback in my own child. I do remember being aware of summer setback in myself. But this is a simple list. It involves easy things to do, and many of them are on the Simple Summer list, so perhaps it can help ease our (or my) own worries a bit.

Back to School: Glitter Germs

When we prepare our kids to go off to daycare, preschool, or kindergarten we usually think of telling them to be nice, share, and obey the teacher. But one thing that is a chronic problem in classrooms is sickness! The fact is kids get dirty, they of course get sick, but they are not very good at basic hygiene, especially at school without mom or dad in the bathroom reminding them to use soap or dry their hands afterward.

So, this is a fun and useful way to teach our kids what germs are, how easily they spread, and how we can keep from spreading them to ourselves and other people. Hopefully this can keep your kids healthier and develop good habits as they start preschool or kindergarten.


Materials:

• Glitter
• Paper Towels
• Soap
• Water
  
• Hand Lotion
• Plate (to catch glitter when pouring it on the kids' hands)
  

Activity:

1. As you apply lotion to your child(ren)'s hands ask them, "do you know what germs are?" If they answers 'no' or incorrectly, tellthem "germs are very small, so tiny we can't see them, and they are one thing that makes people sick. If you have a cold or a fever you have germs that can get onto other people and make them have the cold or fever. When we play in the dirt or use the bathroom we also get germs on us then that can make us or other people sick."
   
2. Now poor glitter over each child's hands and tell them that we are pretending glitter is germs.
3. Ask your kids to try and rub or shake the glitter off. The glitter won't come off.
   
4. Then hand them a paper towel to rub the glitter off. The glitter won't come off very well.
   
5. Next try to get the glitter off with just cold water. It still won't come completely off.
6. Finally, have your kids scrub their hands with warm water and soap, then dry them with a towel.
7. Point out that shaking the glitter off didn't work, rubbing it didn't work, running cold water over it didn't work. The best way to get rid of the glitter was with warm water and soap in the sink. Germs are the same way. So whenever they wipe their nose, go to the bathroom, or play in dirt they need to wash their hands with warm water and soap to make sure all the germs get off and they and other kids stay healthier.

Extensions:

• singing the ABC song while washing hands is a good tool to remind kids to be thorough and not simply rush through. I always told my Kindergarteners they needed to spend the whole song washing their hands, no more and no less.