The transition to kindergarten is a big adjustment – both for children and their parents. If your family is going through this transition now, or if it’s on the horizon for you, you’ll surely learn a few things from Allison’s conversation with Meg Franco, a Kindergarten teacher at Ivy Elementary in Charlottesville, VA.

Meg has been teaching kindergarten for 22 years and strives to instill in her students a love of school and learning. Throughout this episode, she offers a glimpse inside a kindergarten classroom with plenty of anecdotes and tips.

Allison and Meg touch on these topics:
– The importance of letting your child be independent and learn to solve problems for themselves
– Language to use when responding to a child who says they can’t do things on their own
– Specific tasks you can teach your child at home that will help them be more successful in kindergarten
– Strategies for helping young children build and practice their fine motor skills
– How you can help your child build their social emotional and interpersonal skills
– Whether or not to encourage a child to say they are sorry and how to make an apology more effective for both parties
– Modeling to a child that it’s ok to make mistakes and avoiding perfectionism and the anxiety that often follows
– Encouraging a spirit of lifelong learning
– The value of keeping a strong line of communication with your child’s teacher
– Fostering a child’s empathy and kindness
– Subtle mindset shifts parents can consider to improve their communication with this age group
– How to prepare a kindergartener to become a reader and a writer: what and how to read at home, ways to encourage letter recognition, learning to hold a pencil or crayon

Meg and Allison mention this book – Have You Filled A Bucket Today?

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Scroll down for a full transcript of this episode. Click on any part of the text to be taken to that part of the episode to listen in or use the time markers to find that section with the player below.