Kindergarten Self Care

What are self-care skills?

Self-care skills are the everyday tasks undertaken so children are ready to participate in life activities (including dressing, eating, cleaning teeth). They are often referred to as the activities of daily living (ADL’s). While these are typically supported by adults in young children, it is expected that children develop independence in these as they mature.

Why are self-care skills important?

Self-care skills are one of the first ways that children develop the ability to plan and sequence task performance, to organize the necessary materials and to develop the refined physical control required to carry out daily tasks (e.g. opening lunch boxes, drawing or standing to pull up pants). Self-care skills act as precursors for many school related tasks as well as life skills. 

What are the building blocks necessary to develop self-care skills?

• Hand and finger strength: An ability to exert force against resistance using the hands and fingers for utensil use.

• Hand control: The ability to move and use the hands in a controlled manner such as cutlery use for eating.

• Sensory processing: Accurate registration, interpretation and response to sensory stimulation in the environment and one’s own body.

• Object manipulation: The ability to skillfully manipulate tools, including the ability to hold and move pencils and scissors with control, controlled use of everyday tools such as a toothbrush, hairbrush, and cutlery.

• Expressive language (using language): The use of language through speech, sign or alternative forms of communication to communicate wants, needs, thoughts and ideas.

• Planning and sequencing: The sequential multi-step task/activity performance to achieve a well-defined result (e.g. dressing and teeth cleaning).

• Receptive language (understanding): Comprehension of language.

• Compliance: Ability to follow simple adult-directed routines (i.e. doesn’t demonstrate avoidance behaviors where the child simply doesn’t want to do it because an adult is telling them to do it and interrupting what they were doing).

Skills to work on before entering Kindergarten:

Washing hands

It's important to teach your kids the importance of washing hands properly and when to do it. We all know how rampant those germs can run during the school years!  Make this fun and on their level. Sing songs like the alphabet or twinkle, twinkle little star (or another favorite) to help them stick with the sudsing for the appropriate amount of time.  Have them make bubbles on the tips of their hands as well as the bottoms and in between their fingers so they clean their entire hand.  Don’t forget proper drying techniques (ex, not their pants or shirts)! Remind them to use a towel or a dryer.

Using the Restroom

It is important that your child is independent using the bathroom and uses the restroom appropriately.  This may be the first time your child is wearing a uniform.  Have your child wear their uniform over the summer so they know how to button/fasten their pants and tuck in their shirts.  (Tucking in shirts is part of our uniform policy.)  Don’t forget to flush!  Kids can get really caught up in whatever is going on in the classroom and they may be in a hurry to get back to their activities. So, they might forget essential steps of the bathroom process. Practicing at home can help strengthen these habits.  Sometimes the students use the big bathroom in the hall.  There are several stalls and urinals in those restrooms.  When you are out with your child, you are encouraged to model and discuss appropriate behavior such as one person in the stall, not looking under the stall, be patient while waiting for a stall and always flush. If your child is a boy, please teach him that he will lift the seat up and make sure all body fluids stay in the toilet not on or around it.  Additionally, the boys will see urinals.  We ask that you practice with them on how to use the urinals appropriately when you have the opportunity.

Lunch time

Your child will eat lunch in the classroom.  We ask that all lunches are healthy/balanced and have a dish towel for the children to put their food on. 

The children will need to learn to unzip/zip their lunchboxes, unpack their lunches and open/close containers including ziplock baggies, juice boxes (and straw wrapper), and milk cartons.  This is a wonderful skill to work on over the summer.  Lead by example, have them watch you do and have them practice with you so they can guide them.  Discuss restaurant manners including sitting nicely, using kind words, using an inside voice, saying “please and thank you”, and being a good listener.  Practice cleaning up their lunch including throwing their trash away and packing their lunchbox up when it is time.  Lunch is 25 minutes long.  So, if you have a little one who takes a little longer in eating, this is also a good skill to eat in an allotted time.

Clean Up

It’s important to help children understand their responsibility of cleaning up when an activity ends.  Students will be expected to clean up efficiently. Here are some of ideas to make clean up time more fun.  Make a game out of it. Place a basket out and see how many toys they can toss into it. Make it a race and see if they can beat the timer.  Ask them to pick up items by their size, color or a different category.  Talk to them about how good they feel after making that big accomplishment.  Allow your child to help with house chores. After you vacuum, let them vacuum an area while you move onto the next area. Let them help you sweep a pile onto the dustpan. Give them a small spray bottle with a little bit of mild soap and water with a towel to wipe walls or furniture down. Let them stand with you to help wash the dishes. Children love to help and take a lot of pride in helping! It also teaches them responsibility and how to clean the correct and safe way.

Getting Dressed and Being Ready

School-aged kids need to be able to manage their buttons, zippers, and shoelaces. If your child wears a belt,  he/she should also be able to buckle the belt.  Most of this comes along with fine motor skills development, so allowing your child plenty of opportunities to play with toys that develop these skills are helpful.  Beads, ribbon threading, and drawing are good fine motor skills activities.  To help develop the muscles and concept understanding of a zipper, try threading plastic bread bag ties on a long, wide ribbon to help kids grasp how to hold one end down and engage the other hand on the zipper.  There are many roads to a perfectly tied shoe nowadays beyond the bunny ears, so check out some YouTube tutorials and see what strikes your little one’s fancy!

Sorting it out

This might be a somewhat overlooked, simple, yet important task for preschoolers to master before kindergarten: knowing how to sort objects into groups. Kids love doing this kind of thing already!  While you’re playing with them, suggest they sort their toy cars (or other toys) by color, type, or size.  Let them put away the silverware and sort forks, big spoons and little spoons.  Give them a pile of coins to sort by size and color (you know, like when you're waiting somewhere, they're getting antsy, and you've got a handful of coins in your purse!).  Let them sort the clean laundry by tops, bottoms, and socks.

Open and Close

Do you often open your kids’ snack containers and water bottles?  Do you unlock your child's car seat?  Start giving them the opportunity to practice doing it themselves!  Between car line arrival, snack time, lunch time, getting drinks after recess, opening glue bottles, pencil boxes, and more, school-aged kids should be mostly ready to handle these tricky tasks. Again, this employs fine motor skills.

Right and Left

Your little one should be able to distinguish between his/her right and left by the time he/she heads off to school. If your child is right-handed, it’s easy enough to tell your child that their “right is the side they write with!” You can also show them that their left hand makes an “L” with the thumb and pointer finger to help them remember “L” is for “left.”

Sniffles, Sneezes and Cough

With ample time in a room with lots of other kids comes ample opportunities to catch whatever sniffly-sneezy bug is going around.  Please make sure your child is adept at knowing when a tissue is needed and how to use one.  Also show them how to sneeze and cough into their elbow.  We are uncertain of what the mask mandates will be for the upcoming school year.  Please make sure your child practices keeping his/her mask over the mouth and nose.

Listening and Respect

This might be the most important developmental skill of all for a child to be ready for kindergarten: being able to listen and follow directions.  Help your child practice “first time listening and following directions.” This means that when you give them an instruction, expect them to respond the first time you ask. If they don’t, give a calm consequence right away. Teach your child to look at you when you speak their name, and to address you politely when you call them (something as simple as “Yes, Mommy?”).  

Setting up a routine

Set up morning routines that will transfer into a school setting. Getting up around the same time every day, getting dressed, and having an early breakfast together is a great way to transition to school. 

Rest time

There is not a formalized nap time in Kindergarten; just a rest time to recharge our batteries.  So, if you child is currently napping, this is something you want to begin phasing out before we begin our new year together.

Practice Patience

Start requiring small doses of patience from your child.  It will be important for your child to understand that he/she will be in a class with 22-24 other students and he/she will have to wait their turn.  The only way to get better at this is to practice. If your child struggles with waiting his/her turn for the swings, make more frequent trips to the park to reinforce the need to be courteous and patient. The repetition will help him/her learn to cope with the wait.  Having patience is a matter of learning that a child can and should control their emotions and actions, even when they are anxious, eager, or tired. In a world where instant gratification is everywhere, we may need to purposefully delay some things for no other reason but to teach patience.