Our younger kiddo is four-and-a-half. As summer approaches, he’ll have a lot of transitions coming up. Not only is he graduating from his pre-school with all of his beloved teachers and the community he talks about so proudly whenever we pass by the school, but he’s also entering Kindergarten in September. He’ll be going to the big school for the first time and riding the bus with his older brother. Over the next twelve weeks, he’s going to:
Graduate from his preschool.
Travel to Colorado to spend time with family.
Do six weeks of summer swim camp.
Do two weeks of karate camp.
Travel again for a week (camping).
Go through Kindergarten orientation & start Kindergarten!
Start the after-care program for the first time.
It’s hard to believe his little legs will be able to climb up the huge steps of the yellow bus, but he’s going to be starting kindergarten already at age four (on the young side, but he'll turn five in October—just like I did, actually). After school ends, my kids take a bus to a Montessori-style after school program from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m.
As I started to talk about what’s coming up, I realized that verbally telling him the list of things would require him—a four-year-old—to be able to:
Listen very carefully
Be a skilled audio processor
Retain lots of complex information
Hold ideas of time, space, and sequencing in his head
Be able to remember things like an adult does
This is a challenging list for grown-ups, never mind for a kid who is still a few years into learning language and doesn’t have full range of his pre-frontal cortex! It is SO MANY different environments, and telling him verbally (audio processing, retaining memory, understanding concepts of time) will probably lead to tears, frustration, and some small revolts. My husband and I don’t retain information even when we talk, text, and email each other multiple times!
To help him with the transitions, I made a visual calendar with him while we had breakfast together.
Over a breakfast of strawberries and greek yogurt, I drew a bar line for each week. He helped decide what color they should be, and what drawings to do for each event. He’s at a reading stage where pictures and visuals are the best language to use.
I asked him where we should put it in the house. He picked out a place on the wall right next to where we eat breakfast, next to his seat. Now he can see it every day, we can talk about it when transition days come up, and share things that are exciting about each different week. For example, there is ice cream at summer camp—now that’s something a four-year-old can look forward to.
— Sarah Peck
CEO & Founder
Startup Parent
PS: We also use visual to-do lists for our kiddos, and have a chart by the front door of our before-school routine. Our six-year old loves the chart and he has even asked us to create seasonal cards to swap in and out (because hats and gloves are for the winter, and sunscreen is for the summer!).
Very cool what you are doing with your son. For ten years I worked in progressive preschool and one of my jobs was making recipe charts assisting pre readers to take a leadership role in cooking. Enjoy your Summer.
We do the same during big transitions and it’s SO helpful! I’d love to see the visual to-do list for your morning routine! That’s next to create for us, especially with kindergarten starting this fall for my older kiddo, too!