Teachers Are Sharing 23 Things All Parents Should Teach Their Kids Before They Send Them Off To School, And It's So Important
Recently, I came across this post on the popular r/Teachers subreddit entitled, "What can I teach my kid to make your lives easier?" and I thought that was such a great question.
So, I decided to ask teachers in our very own BuzzFeed Community for some helpful things parents can be teaching their kids before they get to your classroom; and reader, they delivered. Here are some of the most insightful answers:
1."How to deal with failure, and that low grades are an opportunity to learn."
2."Mom of a teacher here: teach your kid how put his own coat on, and zip it up."
3."Look up each milestone by age for your child and make notes on whether they met the milestone by the appropriate age. This may help your child get evaluated for a learning disability by the school if needed."
"The earliest you can do this, the easier it is to get your child the academic help and support they need. This is what my mom did for me, which helped me get diagnosed with Asperger's when I was a kid."
4."As a Pre-K teacher, these are the things we look for or complain about:"
"• Toilet training (include wiping)
• Sharing toys with peers
• Cleaning up their toys, [and] asking for a toy rather than snatching from another peer
• Holding a spoon or fork
• Handwashing for 20 seconds
• Sitting down during breakfast and lunch meals for 15 minutes rather than roaming around with food in their mouth
• Laying down and sleeping for at least 2 hours for nap
And:
• Using walking feet indoors and running feet outdoors."
5."Preschool teacher here; a 4-year-old should be able to put on their own shoes and socks."
"[They should be able to] feed themselves — not perfectly, but pick up a fork and eat. I get cultural differences, but the teacher can’t feed 18 kids.
[They should] be toilet trained and know how to use the toilet independently. [They should] know their name; if you call them something different than what is on the roster, let the teacher know!
If you teach them these things I can teach sharing, taking turns, the alphabet, and counting. Your child will be ready for kindergarten at the end of the year."
6."Empathy."
7."[Kids should know] that there are places and situations where you need to sit still quietly, listen, and follow directions."
"I used to substitute in a kindergarten class. Half the class was Ukrainian immigrants, and the other half were US kids. The Ukrainian [children] sat there politely, focused, followed directions, and did their work, while the American kids were all over the place running around."
8."How to buckle and unbuckle themselves. It makes drop off and pick up go so much faster if the parent doesn’t have to help."
9."My parent taught kindergarten for 20 years. Teach your kids how to zipper their coat, if you can. She said it was such a hassle zipping 30 winter coats before class could go out for recess."
10."From a lunch lady: please, thank you, [teach them] not to throw food back into the salad bar if they have food allergies, and how to eat grapes (because I'm not cutting them in half for your kid only)."
11."Not a teacher, but a school bus driver. Teach them how to ride the bus safely and [teach them] appropriate behavior. I should not have 5-year-olds dropping the F-bomb on the bus, or yelling, or refusing to follow directions."
"It makes it really hard to safely drive your kids if they're screaming, goofing off, and back-talking. It really makes it hard to find bus drivers, and the split shift and pay are not enough."
12."Really, I think it boils down to not babying your children — which is not to say you shouldn't respond with compassion or model good EQ."
"But I've worked with children for years, and one of my biggest pet peeves working in childcare were parents who understood so little about child development — or had such a deep desire to feel needed — that they actively induced learned helplessness in their child.
When I taught daycare, I taught 1 and 2-year-olds. They put on their own shoes, put on their own coats, ate independently with forks and spoons, washed their own hands and faces, and cleaned up after themselves (with support)."
"[This was all] much to the shock of their parents, who were often still doing things like spoon-feeding their two-year-old because he insisted he 'didn't know how.'"
"Babies stop being babies quickly. Enjoy it while it lasts, then embrace your child's new abilities. You don't need to infantilize your child to show him that you love him. It makes it hell for anyone else who has to deal with him."
13."I teach preschool and I love to get kids ready for elementary school. I feel like it’s my job to bridge the gaps between home life... and school life. However, parents, please teach your children to use words!"
"I know you know what they are pointing at and what they need but don’t give it to them. Teach them the word for it and how to ask for things. Please and thank you! WORDS are necessary in our society, and communication is a key that opens many doors."
14."How to put their coat and shoes on independently, open their lunch boxes/snack containers/juice boxes, how to put marker caps on properly, and how to fully close a bottle of glue."
15."Work with them on knowing the alphabet. The number of kindergarteners who don't recognize their letters and the sounds they make is astonishing."
16."Principal here. Toilet training would be number one. [Other than that, teach them] that adults are to be listened to; to share, and say please, thank you, and sorry; how to speak intelligibly; the meaning of the word 'no.'"
17."Basic manners! I'm a third grade teacher and so many kids don’t even know how to say a simple 'please' and 'thank you.'"
"It goes beyond that, too. Many kids are so selfish, and I can tell which kids were taught manners by their parents [and who were] not taught at all."
18."Simple social skills. I taught preschool, and a lot of children had a difficult time being around other children."
"I chalked a lot of it up to COVID and social distancing, but even before then, children seemed confused as to how to interact with other children. They wouldn't understand that there were other people in the world."
19."Patience!!!"
20."Their last name."
ABC
"This! They need to know their full name (and how to spell it, preferably), home address, and a grown-up's phone number."
21."Respect."
22."How to go to the potty by themselves. All I can say is 'Good grief, how did you make it to the tenth grade?'"
23.And finally: "Manners. Teach them basic manners like [saying] please [and] thank you, not running to be first, no pushing, stealing, [and no] lying to the teacher."
"[Teach them] how to take turns, [and] that even though they are loved, it doesn’t mean they are the most important person on planet Earth. There are other human beings in the classroom.
Teach them how to be accountable for their own behavior, that mistakes are expected and [are] the only way to learn, to say excuse me when they accidentally bump into another person...
Most importantly, explain to them WHY they go to school. So many kids have no clue why they are at school, their only interest is when they get to go home and get back on an electronic device."
If you have any thoughts, I'd love to hear them in the comments — especially if you're a parent or a teacher! Or, if you want to comment but prefer to stay anonymous, you can check out this anonymous Google form. Who knows — your thoughts may be included in an upcoming BuzzFeed article!
