What can I do to get my child ‘school ready’?

Parents sometimes ask me what can I do to get my child ‘school ready’?

There’s no checklist of what your child must be able to do before they start school - every child is an individual, but co-ordination, fine and gross motor skills, and balance is necessary for formal learning.

Co-ordination

The brain’s ability to control different body part movements at the same time.

Fine motor skills

Involve the use of the smaller muscle in the hands. (At school think of holding a pencil, writing and drawing neatly, cutting, opening a lunchbox.)

Gross motor skills Involve the large muscles across the whole body.

(At school think of sitting upright on the mat or at a chair at their table, putting their hand up, throwing a ball, running.)

Balance The ability to keep a controlled position or posture during a specific task.

If a child is putting their energy into these physical demands and it’s not coming to them easily, then they haven’t got as much energy or attention for the formal learning task or request given to them by the teacher. They can become more tired, irritable, and distracted from the task.

The best way to develop these skills is to let your child have plenty of time playing outside.

So to answer the question what can I do to get my child ‘school ready’?

The answer - Give them a lot of opportunity for movement.

Head off to lots of playgrounds, the beach, exploring the parks and general outside play.

Big movement (gross motor skills) comes before fine motor skills. So to prepare for school you’re better off getting your children outside moving than sitting inside practising writing their letters and numbers. Think of the strength they’re building in those fingers clinging onto the monkey bars! That strength is needed when they’re learning how to write.

Things like climbing trees, hanging upside down, balancing on logs and rocks, bouncing balls, skipping, hopping, jumping on the trampoline, swinging, hoola hoops, twisting and bending around corners, or changing to different heights, crawling through tunnels, roly poly’s down a hill, bushwalks, exploring rockpools at a beach, climb a mountain… We’re lucky in NZ - there’s so many beautiful outdoor spaces.

So I encourage you to get outside and enjoy lots of movement with your child. You don’t learn to sit still by practising sitting still. We know we need to instinctively do all these movements like bending over and twisting and balancing on one leg to get our brains ready for formal learning.

For more tips on how to get them outside have a read of this article. https://letgrow.org/get-kids-to-play-outside/