Time sure does fly! In just a few weeks our oldest will be heading off to elementary school to attend kindergarten! This won’t come as a surprise to her as we’ve been discussing the change and creating excitement about this next step for months now. Here are the 5 things we’re doing to prepare our preschooler for this next milestone of Kindergarten:

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• Talking about it. Except for things that are meant to be surprises (like our winter trip to Disney) we tend to give our girls lots of notice about events coming up, especially something as life changing as going to a new school to attend Kindergarten! We have been talking about the changes A LOT to get her prepared on how the day will progress (reminder that she doesn’t get fed a second breakfast there like she does at daycare) and how she’ll be making lots of new friends. We call it “Big kid school” and she’s very excited to be considered a big kid!
• Visiting the school. Attend any Kindergarten Tea get togethers, school socials, orientations or scavenger hunt visit days the school offers. If you aren’t able to attend, call the office and see if you can arrange a private visit to get your child familiar with the location. We also often make detours when doing errands so we can pass by her school and see it from the outside to get the excitement going.

• Reading books about it. There are lots of great books out there talking about this new adventure called kindergarten, heading to school, or trying something new. We happen to love Pout Pout Fish Goes to School and The Berenstein Bears Go To School for this particular topic and have also been recommended First Day Jitters and The Night Before Kindergarten.

• Getting the gear.  We got the supply check list and worked the last few weeks to get everything on it from the EXACT brand of pencils they prefer, to the headphones for her chrome book to her actual backpack she picked out herself. She’s had practice wearing the backpack and get used to the idea of it being hers for school.
• Labeling the gear. Chances are your child isn’t the only one with the Peppa Pig backpack or Paw Patrol lunch bag. To make sure it’s not accidentally mistaken for a new best friend’s, add personalized labels to it. We happen to LOVE our Name Bubbles labels and have been using them on Brielle’s things since she was a wee baby! They have dishwasher safe labels and ones you can put on clothes that don’t come off in the washing machine. I’ve always LOVED the shoe labels that helped Brielle learn which shoe went on which foot! In most cases we have had to manually remove our Name Bubbles labels only when passing down the item to her younger sister as they have held on tight for years!

UPDATE: Discover what I learned after this first year!