Welcome to the first of our weekly Positive Parenting blog posts!

Here at Acornkids, we have an absolute passion for children. We love to celebrate your little ones and share in the experiences as they grow and learn every single day. So please feel free to comment and share stories of your own below.

To kick off our Positive Parenting blog, I’d like to tackle a question that pops into every parent’s head (at least once if not a million times) before taking the next really exciting yet equally terrifying milestone of ‘Big School’.

 “What can I, as a parent, do to make sure that my kids have the very best education?” 

You see, preparing your kids for school is so much more than having them academically ready. Teachers are here to teach them the academics, parents are here to teach them that and everything in between!

In fact, there are four main areas of development that kids need to master before stepping into their first classroom of Big School. This week, I’d like to focus on the Social Development area.

Social Development works hand-in-hand with Emotional Development, and this is really just understanding why we’re feeling like we’re feeling and how to react appropriately. It’s the connection between our thoughts and emotions with our physical reactions and movements.

So to give your kids the best opportunity to focus better on their school work, work on developing their social skills with them. This will empower them to be able to concentrate on their work, comfortably socially interact with their friends and teachers and also drastically improve their own self-image and confidence.

Here are 3 really easy actions that you can put in place right now to help develop your kids' social skills. 



1. Define the rules in your house and make sure that you follow through with consequences if there are any.
 

2. Create stability through routine by deciding on and sticking to meal and bed times.
 

3. Encourage your kids to express their frustration in a healthy way by helping them talk about what they are feeling and why they would be feeling that way.

I hope that you have found this post useful! Please leave a comment below with your thoughts and also send your e-mail address to yvonne@acornkids.com  if you wish to receive our monthly newsletter packed with Acornkids Specials, Competitions and much more. And don’t forget to look out for next week’s post of the vital physical development skills kids need for school.

Yours in positive parenting,

Yvonne

Mom of two wonderful kids and owner of Acornkids