My 3.5 year old son doesn’t really have friends. He plays with other kids in his class and calls them his friends, but no besties really. He still often prefers to play on his own, in his own way. Is that typical? He seems a bit behind socially. I see other kids his age much more engaged in associative play. He can and does, but is also very content to be with his parents or other adults.
When do you open birthday presents? Kids birthday is during the week. Morning sounds like a bad idea. But we are going out to eat so won’t be home until close to bed time. Neither time leaves enough for him to explore the toys. Is doing it on the weekend a bad idea? Or maybe some of them?
My kid came home yesterday with a “robot” made entirely out of cardboard, bottle caps, and random classroom scraps. It had one googly eye, one missing arm, and was held together with what I’m pretty sure was half a roll of tape. What made it funnier was the function section of the label: it apparently protects the house from homework monsters and cleans your room when you’re not looking. I asked how it works and got a very serious explanation involving secret school science.
I’m genuinely curious what’s the most creative or chaotic thing your child has ever brought home from school?
A five year old in our class is a very social animal and helps everyone. She's very verbal and developmentally ahead in meta-cognition, always being a very good child in class. She might be gifted but lacks the drive to learn ahead and is more social. But she can get overwhelmed and then sometimes cry on longer days. Afterward she feels bad about it as she doesn't want to cry and the teacher wants her to "get out of the emotion". But i noticed that after a short cry she actually feels better and can proceed independently.
So one day I noticed her tucked in a corner, during a group game, being hardly involved. After the game was over I told the others to go back to class and talked to her for a bit.
So I asked: "How does your head feel?"
Her: "Buzzing and it hurts. I feel tears."
I asked: "Do you think you need to cry? Would that feel good?"
She made this very wide nodding motion with her head as her face got tense. I offered her my lap and she got on, laying against my shoulder in the fetal position, and the tears came quickly. So I told her: "Just let it out. You'll be okay." It was a very soft and quiet cry, with some sobbing and mostly a lot of tears.
After about three minutes she said she wanted to go back to class. She got up and slid off my lap, dried her tears and went on with her day.
For most kindergarteners tears mean they need help to deal with the emotion, but sometimes it's a pressure valve. And a very damn healthy one as well. If anything, I mostly wanted to share this experience here to show in how many ways kids can behave and how possibilities can be missed. Kindergarteners learn about emotion daily and it's about finding what works for them in my opinion.
Thanks for reading <3
I'm curious what everyone thinks. Do your students (or children) learn phonemic awareness better through worksheets, games, or hands-on activities? Which approach has given you the best results?
I'd really appreciate some advice because I'm not sure if I'm overreacting or not. My son for the past couple of weeks has been coming home talking about a couple of kids who keep bothering him. At first I thought it was just normal playground disagreements, but he started saying he doesn't want to play with them because they're mean to him. I ended up speaking with the parents their response was they're just kids playing. I know kids are still learning how to interact with each other, and I don't expect perfect behavior. But at the same time, I don't want to dismiss my son's feelings if this is more than just rough play. I'm trying to handle this in a way that's fair to everyone, but also makes sure my son knows I'm taking him seriously.
What is “in” for kinder/elementary girls right now?
I feel very unprepared for the social aspects of my only child starting kindergarten in the fall, and her Sunday school class isn’t the best reference for what kids like/wear/etc.
So what are kids into? What are the cool things? What is the “style” right now? Backpacks, shoes, clothes, all of the things!
Edit: These responses are crazy. My child has already experienced “bullying” for not having certain items in her sports and she isn’t even in school yet. I don’t care if my child follows trends, but I’d love for her to have some of the “popular” things if she likes them so she doesn’t feel left out. She’s allowed to like whatever she wants, but I’m sure we can all remember how crummy it was to be left out in some aspect.
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My child is starting kindergarten soon, and I want to make sure we're prepared without buying a bunch of unnecessary stuff. What are your must have kindergarten supplies or items you found surprisingly useful? Any tips are appreciated!
My friend's 5 year old was sitting next to me today while i was having one of those days where everything felt stressful. Completely out of nowhere he looked at me and asked why grown ups always look so serious. I laughed and told him that adults have a lot to think about, and he just shrugged and said, maybe that's why you forget to have fun. I know it's such a simple thing for a little kid to say, but for some reason it hit me harder than I expected. I've been chasing work, paying bills, and worrying about things that probably won't even matter a year from now, and hearing that from someone who hasn't learned to overcomplicate life made me stop and think. I honestly didn't have any response in the moment because it felt like he accidentally summed up something I've been missing for a long time.
I’m getting ready for my first year teaching kindergarten! What are your must-have classroom items that are actually worth buying? I’m looking for recommendations on organization, classroom management, student supplies, centers, or anything you use every day.
Thanks!
I have a son who just finished kindergarten and a neighbor friend's daughter who is about to start so I figured this was the best place to tell this story.
I haven't been feeling the 250th spirit but I decided last week to try for the sake of my kids. I bought a quill pen and ink, colonial hats, and a replica Declaration of Independence. I wanted to talk a bit about the Declaration and then have them practice their "John Hancock" on some paper that I bought that looks aged. I described the Declaration as a letter to King George.
Well, the kids wanted to write their own letter. I asked, "do you want to write it to King George?" "No, he's dead! We can't write to him, silly." But they still wanted to write a letter to "the King." I told them that the current King of England is King Charles. OMG I blew these kids' minds. "What do you mean there is still a King of England? Are you saying that England people still have to do what the King tells them too? Oh no!" This is what they asked me to write.
"Dear King Charles,
We, the kids of ______ city, Arkansas really like being able to vote. Look at the back of this letter. (This is a prank included by the 4 yo who wanted the king to turn the letter over and see that there wasn't anything there.) Let your people go! Stop being King! We ❤️ your people. You and your people should be able to make their own decisions.
Signed,
(Children's names)
Now my problem is that these kids fully expect me to mail this letter as soon as possible to the King so that the citizens of Britain can be free.
I guess this means that they took something from my lesson lol. If you live in the UK, congrats on your newfound freedom.
Hello my child is going to kindergarten in september. What did u use to mark the clothing as ur child's? I personally would use tape and write the name in it. My wife thinks that's a bit ugly
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My kid has been asking to play Roblox because it seems like so many classmates talk about it. We tried letting them play for short periods with us nearby and I can definitely see why kids enjoy it but I also started wondering if there are tradeoffs Im not noticing yet.
For parents who have allowed Roblox at this age, what changes did you notice over time? Im curious about things like behavior, attention span, screen time habits, friendships or anything else that caught you off guard, whether it was positive or negative. Is there anything you would do differently?
My kindergartener has been doing this Frequent tantrums lately, and I'm not sure if it's typical for their age or something I should pay more attention to. Has anyone else experienced something similar? I'd really appreciate hearing your experiences or any advice.
I'm looking to build a great little library for a kindergartener. What books do you think every child should own at this age? I'm interested in timeless classics, fun read alouds, and books that help with early learning, creativity, or emotional growth. What are your must have recommendations?
Has anyone use this app to teach math? I have used reading.com to help teach reading, and has been way more successful than I thought it would be. But my little is resistant to learning math, so I was hoping to find a similar approach.
We don’t do screens in general, so using them a little bit for learning is novel and exciting lol
If not, this app, is there another one that people are using?
I’ve never been strict about screens with my 6 year old but I think I’m going to start banning some shit. Some of her brainrot favorites I can’t take even just being exposed to them by proxy.
My daughter’s absolute favorite genre of videos is kids playing video games (often Roblox) while narrating along and saying absolutely nothing substantive. It’s complete drivel for the entirety of the video; no enrichment to be had whatsoever. I don’t know how this kind of content captures her attention, to me it’s just pointless verbal diarrhea, but it drives me crazy listening to it even passively. It’s so…empty. Vloggers in this genre:
Lankybox
Cherry Pop Productions
Foltyn
I’ve also noticed videos that look like familiar cartoons such as Peppa Pig but that get weirdly inappropriate all of a sudden at random times. These are allowed on Kids YouTube too which is unfortunate.
I don’t know a lot about this stuff, admittedly. What should
I keep away from her? She already has behavioral challenges due to severe ADHD.
She plays Roblox and I’ve never seen anything terribly sus there but I also don’t know what she’s doing when my back is turned. I do think it’s probably fine in moderation with supervision or active parent involvement though. I don’t feel like it’s completely evil BUT admittedly I haven’t seen the full gamut of what it has to offer. I have witnessed people who seemed to be predators but we turned off the chat and she’s good now.
My son has been telling me he doesn't want to go to kindergarten lately. I asked his teacher if anything happened, if another kid was bothering him or if he's having trouble making friends, but he said none of that seems to be the case. One thing he did mention though is that whenever another kid starts crying or the classroom gets really loud, my son covers his ears. I had no idea he was doing that. The teacher said he eventually goes back to whatever he was doing once it gets quieter. but he's a really outgoing kid. He'll talk to anyone. He loves playing and being silly. He's definitely not the quiet kid so I don't think it's social anxiety or anything like that. The only thing I can think of is he's never really been around a bunch of kids his own age. Before school it was mostly me, his dad, and his two older sisters. Has anyone had a kid like this? Did they just get used to it after a while? I feel bad because I don't want to brush it off but I also don't want to make it into something bigger than it is.