Preparing for Kindergarten

Let me just ask- have you started yet? You know, searching Pinterest for cute “I’m starting Kinder” picture ideas, buying all school supplies, and all the generally cute and fun stuff we parents get sucked into doing when Kindergarten is just around the corner. Chances are, if you have a 4/5 year old, you’re prepping for that transition either this upcoming August or in the upcoming year (feels far away but it’s not really). And while there’s usually a bunch of excitement for this huge milestone, you might have noticed something that a ton of parents go through around this time. Your child is…what’s the word…emotional to say the least. Everything is a dire situation for them it seems. It’s a meltdown over the smallest things. Big emotions over every inconvenience or change. You probably feel like you’re walking on eggshells wondering what’s going to set off the next outburst. This is a pretty common developmental stage that I like to call The Limbic Leap and the good news is that it’s completely normal. I have a whole episode that goes in depth about what’s happening in the brain during this stage but essentially, their brain’s “alarm system” is growing and recalibrating. And until it gets it shit together your child is hypersensitive to the unexpected and to change. Which brings us back to Kindergarten. No, in most cases parent’s don’t need to be concerned about their child entering Kindergarten as a menace. But this is a big change for children, even if they’ve been in daycare or preschool and they’re going to need some extra help and support navigating this new change. Grab the Scripts to Manage the Top 10 Crazy-Making Behaviours: prnt.link/scripts Watch the video recording here: Join the Parenting Posse: prnt.link/group the Mudroom is recorded live every Wednesday at 1:30pm ET/ 12:30pm CT/ 10:30am PT on Facebook: facebook.com/arfamilyservices