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Kindergarten Prep: Use Your Walking Feet

Following Rules

Kindergarten Prep: Use Your Walking Feet

There is every real possibility that your child's kindergarten classroom will have a set of rules posted on the wall. In every community there must be rules, which provide some sense of order and boundaries. The learning community is like a small society, and the teacher provides a sense of order and consistent boundaries. One way a teacher will often help students to understand their role in the learning community is by establishing a set of classroom rules.

What Your Child Should Know
Your child should:

• Know what it means to "follow the rules"
• Be able to demonstrate a good sense of what it means to follow a set of rules
• Understand why it is important to follow the rules
• Have the ability to apply and follow the rules to himself and others

How You Can Help

Following rules goes beyond kindergarten. Understanding the idea of rules helps your child play games, follow the rules of the household, or even follow the rules of places you go. Your child should know that rules are designed to keep people safe and to help them understand what is expected of them so everyone can have a happy experience. Here are some things you can do to enhance that learning:

• Help your child identify rules throughout his community—for example, at a swimming pool or in a theater. Look for posted signs of rules and draw your child's attention to what they say and invite discussion about the rules you find. What do the rules mean? Who are the rules for? Why do the people in charge have these rules? What might happen if you break a rule? Try to help your child understand that there are consequences to breaking a rule and how following rules can be a good thing.
• Suggest to your child that he make up his own set of rules for around the house or for his room. Help him make a sign with three simple rules. Let your child choose what rules he would like to put on the sign. As your child tells you what the rules are, ask him the same questions mentioned in the previous point. Help your child thoughtfully consider all the different types of decisions and consequences that go along with making each rule.
• As you are helping your child make and discover rules, talk to him about what kinds of rules there might be at school. Ask thoughtful questions that help your child think about how he will need to be considerate of the rules in the classroom.
• Invite your child to play games that involve a few simple rules. These can include made-up games or board games. Try to keep the experience positive so that rule following isn't automatically associated with a negative experience.

Help your child have a healthy perspective about the role of rules in his life. After all, he's going to be encountering a lot of them.

Reflect, Revise, Revisit
As you help your child make up rules, find rules, and discuss them, try to focus on respect for the role rules play in our lives. Children can look at rules as black and white, right and wrong, without understanding their purpose. While this is a natural part of their development, you also want to help your child understand that rules have more meaning than just what you can or cannot do.