Saturday 10 September 2016

So many skills in such a short time!

This is our daily routine, established on day 3.
Here I am 7 days in to a brand new term and with 24 of the 26 children having started, I am taking stock of all the new skills that they already taken on board in such a short time:


  • To wear a uniform.
  • To be part of a group of 12 other children.
  • To share 2 adults with 12 other children.
  • To walk through a room full of enticing toys & go outside.
  • To say goodbye to their parents or carers (not everyone's at this stage just yet)
  • To make a good attempt at taking their own shoes off.
  • To put wellies on to play in the sand.
  • To find their shoes & then take their wellies off.
  • To pull their sleeves up before washing their hands
  • To find their ticket for snack
  • To put a straw into a milk carton
  • To take the peel of a banana
  • To use a recycling food bin
  • Learning staff names
  • Learning peers names
  • Turn taking in a large group
  • To climb over lots of obstacles in the playground
  • To put a page on the easel before painting using magnets
  • To find their name & putting in on their finished art work
  • To take their page off & put it on the dryer
  • To leave a painting overnight before taking it home
  • To tidy up in small groups of 4 or 5
  • To listen to a short story
  • To sit in the story room
  • To wait for their parents or carers to come back
  • To have fun & make new friends
  • To walk away from all the lovely new resources, knowing they can come the next day
  • To take just 1 sweet from a full box on a Friday
When you see them all listed like that it is quite incredible and no wonder the children are tired! 
I am so adamant that preschool should be all about developing these important life skills and allowing young children to develop them at their pace. 
Here's to a fun filled year with all 26 children exploring and enjoying making new friends and learning lots of new skills.