Organized games

We were at a birthday party that had a lot of kids, some a little older (like 7 yrs old) it was a combined b-day party with the older brother's birthday. So the mom tried to do some organized games like potato sack races and musical chairs, mainly for the older kids, but some of the younger ones joined in too. Ainsley actually loved the potato sack race, even though it wasn't so much a race as just kids hopping around in potato sacks. Bea just freaked out! She cried when I tried to get her to climb in the sack, just couldn't handle it. At musical chairs, she was fine with going in a circle around the chairs, but did not understand to hurry up and sit down. So she was out the first round, got upset, then Ainsley got upset that Bea wasn't playing, but I think she probably would have done OK otherwise. There was another game too but I don't really remember what it was, but she freaked at that too.

Bea tends to have a lot of trouble with getting overwhelmed easily, like large crowds, unfamiliar situations. She was fine for most of the rest of the party, which was good. Any time they've had little performances at preschool, she just stands there and does nothing. The teacher has told me that she rarely sings when they have like group songs.

I'm so worried about how she is going to handle Kindergarten. Her preschool class is only 10 kids, one of which is her twin. I don't know if she's just going to freak. I'm sure they do a lot of group type things in K.

I know I'm sort of veering OT, but just seeing how she reacted makes me concerned.

 

I don't know how my girls would do in organized games as they've never really participated in any. I would think they probably wouldn't get the hang of it right off the bat either. I'm not sure how mine would react, but I'm sure they're reactions would not be much different from your girls.

 

We tried playing musical pumpkins (instead of chairs) at the kids' Halloween party at school. Even with all the kids in K, most of them had a hard time grasping the concept. The whole party felt more like crowd control than a totally mapped out party with centers for playing games.

I also feel like there is a difference in how a mom generally explains things and how a teacher explains things to the kids for activities. Like for the musical pumpkins. I was helping, but not the lead mom. She gave general directions about walk in a circle around the pumpkins and then sit down. That resulted in more of a mish-mash of running, walking, weaving in and out and just not really understanding. I tried to think how to better explain what we were doing and since we were using a carpet with colored circles going out from the center. I moved the pumpkins to the center. I told the kids to walk following the leader around the blue circle and then go to the closest pumpkin when the music stopped. The game instantly got calmer and the kids understood when I could couch the directions in precise terms like what the teacher uses and use the carpet in a similiar way to how the teacher does.

And we've had performances with "Muffins with Mommy" day. Most of the kids stood there and at least pulled out the props. A few sang. And maybe one kid totally got it.

My Sarah can get really overwhelmed. What helped going into kindergarten was we had several days to go up and see the room and get used to the teachers before they started school. We actually had a day where the kids went to school in May before they started in August. We had a meet the teacher before school started where they just got to go to the room and play. Then we had a screening session where they met the teacher and then got to play in the room while I talked to the teacher about the results.

If you were here in our school system, I could assure that your Bea would do just fine here. Our kindergarten is steered toward social. It's geared to getting the kids familiar with the school in a fun way. It's geared to getting the kids into school routines like taking a folder between mom and the teacher everyday. They have a routine at school with how the day is structured which has brought alot of comfort to my kids.

Marissa

 

Yeah it was kind of organized chaos at the party, the mom just kind of shouting the directions over the noise. So maybe that wasn't the best intro to games.

I do need to see if our K does something like that, letting the kids visit, meet the teacher, and really what kind of environment it is.

 

As Marissa said, I think it has a lot to do with how the adult in charge handles the situation. Kindergarten teachers (if they are good ones) know how to ease kids into things, and are aware that starting K may be a shock to them. It can be a tough adjustment (and I do share your anxiety about it on a general level), but I don't think a chaotic mixed-ages birthday party (especially if some of the kids were considerably older) is a good predictor of how your kids will respond to kindergarten.

 

I wasn't necessarily using it as a gauge, just popped into my head like "oh my, what is she going to do in K?" I'm just having a general panic attack about K anyway.

 

I understand completely. My kids would do something and I would just watch thinking "I can't believe they'll be at K next year". The day I left them at school in May was just the weirdest day. I left my babies at school for 2 hours. But they were so excited when we picked them up. They had a snack, colored and wrote their names, played with the toys in the room and went on a bus ride around the town. I think that experience gave them the confidence to know that they could handle K.

And our teacher has been really great about communicating with me about class. Even yesterday, I had an email from the teacher because Timothy wouldn't tell her that something was wrong with his computer and sat the entire computer time looking at a frozen screen. She said he teared up when she told him to let her know when things don't work. She was letting me know so we both could address it on both ends. A great kindergarten really can help the parents and the kids make it through the transition.

Marissa

And after the first week of school when you start getting things done or can go to the grocery store in 1/2 the time, you'll start liking kindergarten alot more.