How to prepare children for the first day in kindergarten – from apps, role-playing and school visits, to holding back those first-day tears
- Both parents and pupils can have mixed emotions of excitement and nervousness, but early preparation can help make the big day one to remember
- Experts from Hong Kong’s Fairchild Kindergarten, Nord Anglia International School and Jadis Blurton Family Development Center weigh in with strategies to avoid separation anxiety
The first day of kindergarten is a momentous occasion. For a young child, it represents a new stage in their life, outside home and away from mum and dad. For some, starting school is an exciting experience, full of new and wonderful possibilities. To other children it can appear scary, full of unknowns they are not yet equipped to understand and process. Similar thoughts and feelings are not just confined to the kids, either. Parents often have their own mixed emotions. Swelling pride sits beside sadness and apprehension when they wave goodbye on their child’s first day at school.
“First days are always hard, even for us as adults,” agrees Fairchild Kindergarten School principal Betty Yau, who goes on to say that, for children, the biggest anxiety on the first day of school will be separation from their main carer, in most cases the parents, or their helper.
“There is also the lack of familiarity with the school environment, and with the new teachers in the class,” she adds.
As well as the unfamiliarity of new people and places, communication can be a stressor in the beginning of school life. The relationship between a child and parent is often so strong and established that sometimes a child does not have to speak in order for a parent to know how they feel or what they want. “But with a new adult [teacher] this bond may not have been established yet – and this could cause the child to feel anxious if not handled carefully,” explains Ruth Hanson, head of early years at Nord Anglia International School (NAIS) Hong Kong.
“Also, a child may have worries around the setting and being able to know and understand the environment. Where is everything, the routines, knowing the other children, the unspoken rules – all of these are new and therefore need to be considered carefully for each child.”
To ease these nerves, Yau suggests parents do a form of “soft marketing” ahead of the first day at school by explaining to their child that they will be joining a new school and meeting new friends, where there will be many new things to explore.