About Course
Starting kindergarten is an important stage not only in the life of a child, but also in the life of parents. It can bring up many emotions and concerns, from the question of mum or dad's own emotional readiness to how to deal with difficult situations that may arise in the process.
You may wonder whether you yourself will be emotionally ready for this change. You may be looking forward to returning to work, but you may be worried about whether you will be able to manage your emotions. How can you take care of yourself so that you don't cause extra stress to your child who is going through a big change of his/her own?
Being emotionally prepared also means being practically prepared. How to organise your daily life, from logistics to time management? How to cope with societal pressure not to send your child to kindergarten before the age of 3, when you feel you are all ready and want to go back to work?
It would be a mistake to think that these are just your concerns. Parents often ask me: Will the kindergarten environment meet my expectations? What to do with complaints from the kindergarten about my child's behaviour? How do I deal with the anxiety if my child is sad and doesn't want to go to kindergarten? What does a successful adaptation process look like for a child in kindergarten?
Parents may feel conflicting feelings and tensions at this time - wanting to do everything "by the book", but having doubts and fears. How to be supportive to your child when you are overwhelmed by doubt and anxiety? How to ensure that the child feels safe and comfortable despite the parent's tense emotions?
In this video course, I've put together practical tips and solutions to help you gently and as calmly as possible through the start of kindergarten. My aim is to help parents feel more prepared and confident at this important stage of life, giving peace of mind to both themselves and their child.
The course consists of three modules.
Module 1: Preparing for the start of kindergarten
In this module you will learn how to prepare emotionally and practically for starting kindergarten. Through practical exercises, this module will help you to gain peace of mind and clarity about both the need to start kindergarten and how to choose a kindergarten. You will also find out the possible reasons for your worries and where to find support to help you reduce them.
Module 2: Peaceful adaptation to kindergarten
This module is dedicated to how to promote a child's peaceful adaptation to kindergarten. We will talk about how to recognise your child's emotions, understand, whether they are related to transition or other discomfort. Here are practical tips on how to create a trusting environment that can help your child feel safe and comfortable.
Module 3: Solutions to challenges in kindergarten
Here I look at real situations you might face during your time in kindergarten. We will talk about complaints and how to respond to them. How to distinguish whether a child is just adapting or whether there are real problems? You will learn what to do if you have to change kindergarten and how to deal with other complexities that might arise in the process.
The course consists of 18 short videos and 10 worksheets to accompany the videos. Below you can see the topics of the video lectures. The course will be available to view/listen to on your profile for 90 days after purchase.
Course Content
Introduction
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Kindergarten: introduction
08:16 -
Introduction - worksheet
00:00
It was also useful to have a refresher on what the child needs. In our third week of kindergarten, my daughter started to protest against being taken to kindergarten. In the mornings in the kindergarten she was in great hysterics and picked on me so that I couldn't get away. The teacher always had to take Emily in her lap. One day, she was busy with the other children and Emily's hysterics lasted longer and of course just got worse and worse. I started to cry a little myself. And so I got the comment that I should let the baby go. But as I have done both BEA courses and this course, I repeat that this is absolutely not true. I was able to ignore the comment and write it off to the teacher's stress about the situation. We are now 5 weeks into nursery and in the mornings the little one asks to be taken to nursery.
What I missed the most is that the course became available at the moment when we were about to start kindergarten. Otherwise we would have been even better prepared. Some of the suggestions we didn't manage to try, purely because of lack of time.
I definitely recommend this to all parents who need to sort out their thoughts about starting kindergarten and understand themselves in the process.