Kindergarten-fearful of change

My boy/girl twins turned 5 last month and will enter Kindergarten in a few weeks. They attended preschool for 3 years and loved it. This summer Ive tried a few different camps-one at their elementary school and this week a gymnastics camp- and while my daughter comfortably walks away my son has cried and clung to me. He has made it through the day but isnso distressed that I haven pulled the plug on camp. It pains me to seenhim this upset by what should be a fun experience. I believe this stems from being fearful of change. I'm talking upnKinddrgarten like crazy, nreading books etc with hope that the transition will be an easy one for him. Can you pleased share any advice or tactics that have helpednyou?! Thank you

 

Relax. He will be fine. I'm wondering if since you keep on talking it up, he thinks it is something to get nervous about?

 

Agreed - he will be fine. I would take the approach of telling him a bit about kindergarten and then asking him if he has any questions. Answer as needed but leave the ball in his court. Also, I would acknowledge and validate any fears or concerns he shares and help him brainstorm ways to address those fears and concerns.

 

I would tell him that it's okay to feel nervous, everyone does, especially on the first day of kindergarten. My twins start Sept 10th. They have a solo meet and greet with their teacher a week before, which I think is a fantastic idea. It will just be me and them and she will show them the classroom, what they have going on and they'll do a little activity with her. I think it's a good way to help ease some nervousness about starting kindergarten.
We have two books about starting Kindergarten-Kindergarten Rocks, where a little boy starts his first day and he's nervous, but all of his anxiety is expressed though his stuffed dog. The book shows his older sister, a third grader, calming his anxiety. And the other book is Wemberly Worried. My two enjoy these books and we talk about how the characters feel and how normal it is to feel that way. That change, even when it's good, can make us feel nervous and anxious.

 

Hi:

Mine are rising 2nd graders now, but here's some of the things that we did to make kinder easier:

1. Did some playdates at the school playground with other rising kinders.
2. Stopped by the school the week BEFORE classes started, but when teachers were back, and just looked around -- poked our heads into the kinder classrooms.)
3. Our school has a back to school morning the week before school started, so we went to that.
4. We did some "role play" at home about kindergarten -- circle time, putting stuff in your cubby, saying goodbye, raising your hand.
5. Mine are bus riders, but the first morning, we walked them to classrooms.
6. We had friends over whose kid was a rising 1st grader -- he talked about kinder and how great it was and what fun things he did.

Also, just a heads up that after full day kindergarten, my kids were TIRED (and hungry and crabby) -- it took about 6 weeks for them to adjust. I was told to expect that, but I still wasn't prepared for the crabapples that got off the bus from kinder.

Good luck!

Meg