Now, your child will not fully understand what 'big school' means and to process can seem a little daunting. There are a few things we do to ensure your child starts to understand what is to come, so the big day doesn't seem quite so hard. 

1) Talk with your child about what school they are going to and what will happen at school. Talk about the journey to school, will you be walking or travelling in the car? You can tell them all about making new friends, just like the ones they have made at Country Kids. Remember to try and use lots of positive words, such as 'Your new friends are going to be wonderful' and 'You are going to have so much fun'. Allow your child to process this information slowly, and give them time to think and ask questions before moving on. 

2) Read books to your child about starting school. Children will absorb the information from books like a sponge and you can read them over and over again so your child understands what happens in the books. Ask questions and allow your child time to think and answer the questions about what happens in the book. You can use language such as 'Wow, what an exciting adventure it was starting school. That will be you soon!'. A few books that you may be interested in are:

Harry and the Dinosaurs go to School - Ian Whybrow

I want my Mummy - Tracey Corderoy

I am Too Absolutely Small for school - Lauren Child

Starting School - Janet and Allan Ahlberg

Never Take a Bear to School - Mark Sperring

3) Set up a school role play area in the house. Usually, we would pick up some spare uniform and place this in our role play area for the children to explore. If you have older siblings that are already in your chosen primary school, you could use these to allow your child to become familiar with their new uniform. Country Kids introduced uniform a few months back which should already ease the change of wearing a school top and jumper. You could play teachers with your child, and use their teddy bears as pupils in their class. Together, you could make a register and make sure all of their teddies are attending class. You could teach your teddies how to make play dough, using our 'This is How: We make play dough' post. This will begin to familiarise your child on what is to come at 'big school'. (Another tip for uniform, when you do get uniform for your child, make sure everything is labelled! This will minimise the risk of losing items of uniform - children have a tendency to take off their jumpers and hide them in secret places. This will cost you a small fortune..!)

4) Promote independence at home. This is really a prime time for you to spend time with your child and allow them to learn how to do things themselves - you have all the time in the world! You can focus on things such as the child undressing and dressing themselves at morning and at night, and putting on their own socks (this is super tricky and might take a good few tries!). Whilst going on your daily walks, allow the child to put their own shoes on and give them time to work out which shoe goes on which foot. Most children will be expected to be fully potty trained by the time they go to school, and should be able to attend to toileting needs themselves. Something that I'm sure you are all experts on now is washing your hands. Your child should be able to wash and dry their own hands without support. This is a great opportunity for you to supervise your child, and show them how to reach all parts of their hands to get rid of the germs. 

5) Number and Letter recognition. It's important to remember here that your child does NOT need to be able to write all their letters, numbers and be able to write their name. This is something school will focus on and your child will learn at their own pace. If they are already starting to write some letters, or recognise some numbers, you could try and do a couple of activities at home to improve on this. Read, Write, Inc is something we use in nursery to familiarise the children with letters in their name. For example, to write an 'a' we go around the apple and down the leaf. This is a fun way for your child to learn the letters in their name. Try simple ones first, and remember not to worry about capital letters just yet. There are a few fun ways you can practice writing letters:

- Good old pen and paper. You could use a pencil, or let them choose their favourite felt tip

- Flour. You can add flour to a plate and let them use their fingers to create letters or numbers. This is great as children love sensory activities and they can just try again and again using the same flour. This could be used with numerous things such as sand or whipped cream (definitely the tastier option).

- Pencil control sheets. In nursery, we try to avoid worksheets as much a possible but they are great for the child to concentrate on. You could print some off from the internet or you could make your own dot to dot letters, numbers and swirls for them to copy. Encourage them to hold their pen properly rather than with a full hand grasp. The more practice, the more they will get used to holding the pen this way.

- LingoKids. This is an app that you can download on your phone/iPad where the kids can trace the letters. It then follows this by using language such as 'c, c is for cat!'. 

We really hope that these tips help and if you have any more questions or are struggling, please contact your key workers who are more than happy to help.

Stay safe everybody!

- The Country Kids Team