Independence skills for Kindergartener

[Anonymous]

I hate the idea of accidentally babying my kids, but my oldest is in K, and the other night I was prepping dinner for all three and just unthinkingly used 360 sippy cups for everyone, to which my 5 year old responded with an ardent plea to let her move on from sippy cups (she does use an open cup, I swear! That was just me having a moment).

Anyways, she still struggles to pull her school uniform tops on by herself, so that’s on my list, but what other things can I do to help encourage independence?

[Anonymous]

Wiping butt and nose. Washing and drying hands properly. Zipping and unzipping coat, lunch and backpack. Opening and closing anything you put in her lunch. Opening and closing car and house doors. Washing hair and body. Combing hair. Brushing teeth properly.

I’m sure there are many more.

[Anonymous]

My 5yo picks her clothes out the night before and helps pack her lunch, gets dressed in the morning, gets her breakfast most days (yogurt, fruit, instant oatmeal, cereal, pulling hard boiled eggs out of the fridge), uses the bathroom and washes her hands, gets her coat and shoes on, puts her dirty clothes in the hamper, can switch the laundry from washer to dryer (front loaders), wipes up her spills, brushes her hair and teeth, waters her plants in her bedroom window, feeds the dog.

We're working on thoroughly rinsing out her hair in the shower, tying her shoes, she's really interested in cooking so she's learning basics like scrambled eggs and pasta, folding laundry.

[Anonymous]

How To Raise an Adult (great read by the way!) has a good list for this:

Ages 4-5:

-Know her full name, address, and phone number
-Know how to make an emergency call.
-Perform simple cleaning chores - dusting, clearing the table
-Feed pets
-Identify monetary denomination and understand the concept of money
-Brush teeth, comb hair, wash face completely independently
-Help with basic laundry chores like putting away clothes and bringing dirty clothes to laundry area.
-Choose her own clothes.

And in case you're behind, here's 2-3:
-Put his toys away
-Dress himself
-Put dirty clothes in hamper
-Clear plate
-Assist in setting the table
-Brush teeth and wash face with assistance

[Anonymous]

Agree with a lot of the suggestions so far, but I do want to note that K is a major transition year for a lot of this. I too worried about my kindergartener not being independent enough, but later discovered that a lot of this was age-related -- she couldn't do some of the stuff peers could do when K started because she was one of the youngest kids in class. By the end of the year, she'd "caught up." So especially with stuff that requires fine motor skills and hand eye coordination (buttoning buttons, tying shoes, brushing or rinsing hair) as long as you consistently give her opportunities to practice, she'll get it in her own time. I was definitely still doing some of DD's buttons and zippers well into K, but she's in 1st now and 100% independent on most "getting ready" tasks. So it happens in its own time, to some extent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How To Raise an Adult (great read by the way!) has a good list for this:

Ages 4-5:

-Know her full name, address, and phone number
-Know how to make an emergency call.
-Perform simple cleaning chores - dusting, clearing the table
-Feed pets
-Identify monetary denomination and understand the concept of money
-Brush teeth, comb hair, wash face completely independently
-Help with basic laundry chores like putting away clothes and bringing dirty clothes to laundry area.
-Choose her own clothes.

And in case you're behind, here's 2-3:
-Put his toys away
-Dress himself
-Put dirty clothes in hamper
-Clear plate
-Assist in setting the table
-Brush teeth and wash face with assistance

Lol, my 6 year old knows HOW to do all these things, but many of them are hard to get her to do anyway. You quickly segue from teaching them how to dress themselves to reminding them 6 times a day to please put the dirty clothes IN the hamper and not on the bathroom floor, in the hallway, under their sheets, etc.

Sometimes it's random what they are motivated to do. My kid won't put toys away to save her life, it is a constant battle. But she's been making her own bed since she was 3 and I don't think I even taught her how -- she just started doing it. Same with setting the table -- she loves it. Yet I'll remind her to clear a small plastic bowl from the table after a snack and you'd think I asked her to lift thousand pound stone tablets across the ocean.

[Anonymous]

Here is my dirty secret: I’m a preschool teacher AND my kids used sippy cups until age 8 if they were EVER drinking out side of the deck, kitchen or dining room. Milk stinks if it gets on anything fabric and wont’ come out as does juice, so I made it a rule. It made me stress less and let the kids have popcorn and milk snacks while watching a movie.

Don’t stress OP- the list the PP gave is good. Sorting laundry, setting the table, putting clothes away, folding clothes for some, giving the pets food/water and getting their own snacks are all good ones. They can even sweep or vacuum/use a bona or swiffer style mop or can dust

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How To Raise an Adult (great read by the way!) has a good list for this:

Ages 4-5:

-Know her full name, address, and phone number
-Know how to make an emergency call.
-Perform simple cleaning chores - dusting, clearing the table
-Feed pets
-Identify monetary denomination and understand the concept of money
-Brush teeth, comb hair, wash face completely independently
-Help with basic laundry chores like putting away clothes and bringing dirty clothes to laundry area.
-Choose her own clothes.

And in case you're behind, here's 2-3:
-Put his toys away
-Dress himself
-Put dirty clothes in hamper
-Clear plate
-Assist in setting the table
-Brush teeth and wash face with assistance

So kewl

[Anonymous]

How can I teach buttons. She can seem to get it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How can I teach buttons. She can seem to get it.

Put a blouse jacket or whatever on the table and do this
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nMHmt0tDdFM

I would suggest large buttons if you have theme show her and then u do it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How can I teach buttons. She can seem to get it.

She'll get there. Encourage her to button and unbutton her clothes when you aren't in a hurry. Start by having her learn to unbutton things. This usually happens a the end of the day, so you won't be trying to get her out the door. Once she's mastered unbuttoning, start encouraging her to do one of her buttons in the morning. I'd have mine do the lowest one because it's way easier when you can see and it's not right under your chin. Then we just went from there. By the time she turned 6, she wouldn't let me button things for her because she was good at it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here is my dirty secret: I’m a preschool teacher AND my kids used sippy cups until age 8 if they were EVER drinking out side of the deck, kitchen or dining room. Milk stinks if it gets on anything fabric and wont’ come out as does juice, so I made it a rule. It made me stress less and let the kids have popcorn and milk snacks while watching a movie.

Don’t stress OP- the list the PP gave is good. Sorting laundry, setting the table, putting clothes away, folding clothes for some, giving the pets food/water and getting their own snacks are all good ones. They can even sweep or vacuum/use a bona or swiffer style mop or can dust

We had a rule that milk had to be consumed at the table or counter (while seated) if you wanted a drink anywhere else, it had to be water. Kids don't need to be sipping a drink for the duration of a movie, and if they are, it can be water. If they need anything else, it can be consumed seated in the kitchen or dining room, over 5 minutes or so.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here is my dirty secret: I’m a preschool teacher AND my kids used sippy cups until age 8 if they were EVER drinking out side of the deck, kitchen or dining room. Milk stinks if it gets on anything fabric and wont’ come out as does juice, so I made it a rule. It made me stress less and let the kids have popcorn and milk snacks while watching a movie.

Don’t stress OP- the list the PP gave is good. Sorting laundry, setting the table, putting clothes away, folding clothes for some, giving the pets food/water and getting their own snacks are all good ones. They can even sweep or vacuum/use a bona or swiffer style mop or can dust

We had a rule that milk had to be consumed at the table or counter (while seated) if you wanted a drink anywhere else, it had to be water. Kids don't need to be sipping a drink for the duration of a movie, and if they are, it can be water. If they need anything else, it can be consumed seated in the kitchen or dining room, over 5 minutes or so.

Haha! I know that is why it is my dirty little secret. We were being “bad” and having milk and popcorn in the movie room

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here is my dirty secret: I’m a preschool teacher AND my kids used sippy cups until age 8 if they were EVER drinking out side of the deck, kitchen or dining room. Milk stinks if it gets on anything fabric and wont’ come out as does juice, so I made it a rule. It made me stress less and let the kids have popcorn and milk snacks while watching a movie.

Don’t stress OP- the list the PP gave is good. Sorting laundry, setting the table, putting clothes away, folding clothes for some, giving the pets food/water and getting their own snacks are all good ones. They can even sweep or vacuum/use a bona or swiffer style mop or can dust

We had a rule that milk had to be consumed at the table or counter (while seated) if you wanted a drink anywhere else, it had to be water. Kids don't need to be sipping a drink for the duration of a movie, and if they are, it can be water. If they need anything else, it can be consumed seated in the kitchen or dining room, over 5 minutes or so.

Haha! I know that is why it is my dirty little secret. We were being “bad” and having milk and popcorn in the movie room

I should add that this was covid times so gathering for a Friday movie was kinda all we had.

[Anonymous]

Tying shoes. Opening any container you are sending lunch to school in.