I was walking around the bookstore today and found a very interesting book by Amy Chua. I saw her being interviewed on the Today Show by Meredith Vieira not too long ago for her highly controversial book titled Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother…
I’ve only read the first 50 pages but it got me thinking…what should children know before going to Pre-K? I mean, most parents work on the alphabet, shapes, numbers and colors, but what about basic skills like buttoning their own shirt or cleaning up after themselves? Of course, I asked my favorite Pre-K teacher Ms. Jennifer and here are her top 10 Must-Know list:
1) Know: Name, Age, Birthday, Name of Parents, Telephone number and Home address.
2) Basic Manners like saying Hello, Goodbye, Thank You, You’re Welcome, Excuse me and Vocalizing needs.
3) Eat on their own.
4) How to properly wash their own filthy little hands with soap and water (at least 20 seconds of good scrubbing). How to dry their hands with a paper towel.
5) Sit Still.
6) How to Wipe their butts (Seriously,would you want a stranger to wipe your childs butt?). Open and Close the bathroom door. Flush the toilet. Pull up and down their pants. Little girls need to know how to clean a toilet seat so they don’t sit on someone elses pee (wipe the toilet seat if they twinkled on the seat).
7) How to zip and unzip jackets. Put on socks and shoes.
8) Use crayons and child-safe scissors.
9 How to share. This one is hard though, even for adults.
10) Following 2 step directions such as “please pick up the blocks and put them in the red box”.
*~*~*~Teach your children to strive for independence!~*~*~*