Kindergarten Readiness

We know summer just started but it’s never too early to start preparing for school! In September, many of your children will be “leaving the nest” and going off on their own for the first time. No, not to college…to kindergarten!

For many kids, this will be the first time they spend away from their parents for an extended period. Furthermore, this is the first time they will really get a taste of how school operates as they begin to learn and grow very quickly! At the Children’s Museum in Easton (CME), we spoke to Michelle VanVoorhis and Krissy Cannizzo; both are CME educators and are involved in the Outreach Program. Keep reading for more info on your child’s kindergarten readiness and how the CME works to help with this preparation.

The camps at the Children’s Museum in Easton play a huge part in child development. Michelle says, “Children become better prepared academically, socially, and emotionally for both school and for life…and they have a lot of fun!!”

Each summer the CME offers a series of Summer Mini-Camps. Designed to meet the developmental needs of children ages 3 - 8, the camps offer activities that immerse campers in the theme of the session.  Programs are geared for hands-on exploration and provide open-ended opportunities for children to build understanding and knowledge. Your child will learn while having fun!

 

At camp, children learn a lot of skills: “fine motor skills (cutting, writing, using manipulatives for small motor tasks), large motor skills (large group games, balancing, climbing), social skills (taking turns, sharing, good manners), language skills (speaking in a whole group setting, asking for assistance, appropriate ways to address adults and peers, vocabulary development) reading skills (rhyming, recognizing patterns in stories, print awareness), math skills (counting, patterning, measuring), getting used to school routines, and separating from parents,” Michelle explains.

These skills are honed through camps but also individually. The teachers at camp assist your children in learning, but it’s up to you to continue this learning and preparation!  Michelle suggests, “Encourage discussion of what you did in camp today [and] use newsletters that come home each day for ideas. Encourage further investigation of the topic of camp, for example find some books at the library about that theme. [Furthermore,] Model good reading habits! Read to your child daily. Have other kids over to play. Don’t let your child always go first/ always win/ always get his way. Encourage your child to ‘investigate’ things to learn more about them. Allow plenty of time for free, imaginative play, engage in lots of discussion, count, compare, and sort things when the opportunity arises.”

Krissy expands on these notions, “As a former director of a child care center that offered full day kindergarten, I would tell our enrolling families to focus on the self-help skills like being able to zipper or button their coats/clothes, use the bathroom without any assistance, and be familiar with cooperative play, taking turns, sharing etc."

The goal here is to get your child thinking and doing things on his/her own. Teach them enough so that when they get to school, they can expand on that knowledge on their own. You want to build their confidence so that they are secure in themselves when it’s up to them to continue learning on their own. “[At camp,]” Michelle explains, “A few children have to be peeled off their parent on the first day of camp, but by the end they proudly walk through the door on their own.”

It is important to realize that you do not have to worry about every single detail of kindergarten readiness. Krissy says, “Sometimes parents or families put too much pressure on themselves and their soon-to-be kindergarteners, believing he/she should know how to write, read, and recognize all upper and lower case letters.  These are the things that will be learned in kindergarten.”

Everybody wants to do as much as they can to make their child’s life easier. The best thing to do is give them the tools they need to grow and then have faith that they will succeed on their own! Krissy reminds you, “The next year will be incredible!  [Parents] will be amazed at how much his/her child will grow and strengthen their skills.”

Summer Social Skills

As the seasons change, our children grow and prosper. Summer is a wonderful time to help children develop the social skills necessary to grow into confident adults.

Social skills are those skills which help us interact with others in positive ways. It may be surprising to know that people not only communicate verbally, but 85% of what we communicate is actually non-verbal. Thus, our mind, body and language work together to create interactions with others.

When you evaluate your child socially, keep in mind that there are many inherent factors that play a vital role, namely your child’s personality. Personality is established through a combination of our temperament and our environment. What is temperament? Temperament is part of your child’s innate personality, which is apparent early in your child’s life. Your child’s temperament will help determine how they interact socially with other children. Are they extroverts or introverts? Do they thrive in social situations with many children or do they do better small groups?

Temperament is one of the things that we cannot change about our children. However, we can help our children manage their temperament and learn to adapt to different situations. The question becomes, how do we teach our children?

Children learn and process the world around them concretely. This means that their perceptions about the world are based upon their concrete experiences. Therefore, as parents, you should model proper behavior with consistency and predictability.

One of the essential factors is to set your child up for success as much as is possible. Therefore, when thinking about your social goals for your child, consider where he or she is currently at. For instance, when choosing a camp, think about whether your child would be over-stimulated by a camp that has too many activities. Perhaps they would prefer a camp where children spend a great deal of time in nature. Would your child benefit more from a structured camp that is academic in nature or a sports based camp? What is the ratio of counselors to students? How would the camp respond to your child’s temperament?

Prior to making any sort of commitments for your child, prepare and practice with them. You may want to visit the camp or any summer social situation prior to the start date. Make your goals very clear. In fact, most children are visual learners and will benefit from a chart or list of your objectives. You can choose to reward your child for any accomplishments that they may make.

When attending social gatherings with your children, there are things that you can do to prepare them as well. For instance, if you are about to go to a family dinner and your child’s goal is to use appropriate greetings, then first model the behavior to your child. Second, rehearse the behavior and “act” it out with your child using tools such as puppets or role-plays. Third, once your child has practiced and the child attends the event, reward them for any small accomplishments that they may have made.


If your child is sensitive or easily over-aroused, (again a type of temperament), then make sure that you work with this. Expose this type of child slowly to social situations. Prepare him or her for any uncertainties and recognize when he or she is becoming over-aroused. The only way to prevent over-arousal in social situations is through careful planning and being on step ahead. State your realistic standards for your child prior to the event. Again, you should prepare your child through visual strategies. Teach your child to warn everyone when or she has reached their limit. Teach self-calming techniques to prevent this from happening in the future.


A child who has a particularly intense or sensitive temperament may experience spill-over tantrums. A spill-over tantrum can be defined as an outpouring of emotion in a disorganized way. This type of child needs a parent’s direction to help them calm their body down and regain self-control. Often, after a social situation, these children need down time or need to process the day’s events with a parent. Make sure that you ask a sensitive child how their day was once they are ready to talk. Sometimes, as a parent, you can anticipate emotional reactions and offer advance empathy. After the tantrum, acknowledge to your child any bits of self-control that they did portray. Remind your child that emotional reactions are a choice.


Often children with sensitive or intense temperaments need soothing or calming activities after a social situation. Some calming activities may include water (bath time); Activities that involve using their imagination, which gives them a chance to process the day’s events (They may act our skits or stories.); Sensory activities (Play-dough, silly putty, marbles, sand, pom-poms, cooking). Often children are soothed by activities that allow them to touch, smell, taste, hear or see things; Reading (May be used to diffuse some children’s intensity); Humor; Time-out (not as a punishment, but rather as a safe place to calm down physically and mentally).
If you find that your child is still struggling socially despite all of your preparation and intervention, perhaps he or she would benefit from some professional help from a therapist or from a social skills group.

Natasha Edelhaus is a Marriage and Family Therapist in Stoughton, MA. She works with individuals, families and runs social skills groups. She can be reached at (781) 708-4504.

Selecting a Summer Camp

Have you been enjoying the warm weather? Thinking summer already? School’s going to be out soon enough and that means it is time to think about summer. Many parents look to summer camps to offer a range of activities and playmates for their children during the summer.

There are two basic types of camps – day and overnight. There are camps designed to meet almost every child’s individual interests and needs – parents have lots of choices when selecting summer programs for their kids. There are camp specialists you can hire to help you choose, websites that list camps and the tried and true – ask your friends where they send their children.

Think of your child’s needs and interests when selecting a camp. What do you hope for your child to take away from a camp setting? If your child is old enough, you might want to have a conversation with them about why they want to go to camp this summer; their ideas have probably changed from last summer’s reasons.   Do a little homework and you’ll find that there are themed camps to meet so many interests – camps that cater to age-groups, learning needs, sports and arts.

Camps should be licensed (in MA camps are licensed through the local board of health department) and have a set counselor to camper ratio. Camps are not required to hire teachers, and often just insist that the e camp leader be a few years older than the oldest camper. Camps often have daily and weekly schedules of activities. Camps run for different lengths – usually by the week, session or month.

Our friends at Home/Health & Child Care Services shared some great

resources for finding the right camp for your child with us. These include their

own FREE referral service – call 1-877-898-1667 or online at

http://www.hhcc.org/.  There is also the American Camp Association at  

http://www.acacamps.org/ or if your child has special needs, check out the Federation

for Children with Special Needs Summer Fun 2012 guide:  

http://www.fcsn.org/2012_camp_handout.pdf. 

Of course we would be remiss if we didn't mention the Children's Museum'

very own Summer Mini Camps!  They are a great "first time" camp experience

for your littlest ones or a wonderful chance to dig deeper into a great theme

for your older child. Here is the link to all of this summer's awesome

themes: http://childrensmuseumineaston.org/summer_mini_camp0.aspx

With so many choices and ideas to consider it is probably time to start

planning for the summer  - before you hear the “…but I’m bored…” the day

after school lets out!

Jane Rotondi has a Master’s degree in Special Education, a 

Child Development Associate certification and holds additional teaching 

certificates in Early Childhood Education and Elementary Education. She is
the Museum’s Outreach Manager and Director of Summer Camps. You
can contact her at jane@childrensmuseumineaston.org.