What children need to be able to do before starting 1st grade

[Natsku]

According to Maria's school (she had her introduction morning on Thursday) these things are:

Tidying up toys
Putting shoes neatly side by side
Tying shoe laces (still can't do this - any tips??)
Zip up jacket
Cut paper and cloth
Wash hands after going to the loo
Eat with a knife and fork
Taste new things
Travel to school safely (the expectation being that they walk alone)
and
Peel potatoes

I love that there is no expectation of academic skills, they aren't expected to even know the alphabet properly yet although they learn it in preschool, but it's the peeling potatoes that cracks me up - need to work on that one this summer!

 

[Eleanor ace]

I love that they need to be able to peel potatoes!

 

[Natsku]

It's such an odd thing to put in the list!

 

[Natasha2605]

Peeling potatoes how random. Do they cook or something is class?

Good luck teaching to tie. Neither of my older girls can do it but it doesn’t help that they both prefer Velcro shoes for easiness so not much practice.

 

[Natsku]

I think they mean peeling boiled potatoes when eating them at lunch, so after they've been cooked (people usually peel boiled potatoes here, no idea why)

Maria is just making up her own shoe-lace knots

 

[Neko]

Peel potatoes

I still have trouble with that one.

I think my left handed son was ten before he could tie his shoes well. Avery doesn't have any shoes to tie. She has slip on sneakers and ballet flat shoes.

 

[c1403]

Surely they only need to tie shoes if they have laces. I've never put my DDs in lace up shoes but that said my eldest has been learning to tie bows/knots in her apron and dressing gown at home. So maybe we'll move to laces soon.

 

[Natsku]

Hard to find ice skates or ski shoes that don't have laces so they need to know how to tie them for them (for PE), otherwise I'd give up trying to teach her and let her figure it out on her own!

 

[misspriss]

What an odd list, peeling potatoes. I am surprised there isn't academic stuff, but it is probably for the best.

What if they prefer to eat the peels? LOL (my kids don't, but...)

 

[Natsku]

What an odd list, peeling potatoes. I am surprised there isn't academic stuff, but it is probably for the best.

What if they prefer to eat the peels? LOL (my kids don't, but...)

There's no academic stuff because they think that children shouldn't be worrying about academics before school, and that the teachers can teach the academic stuff well enough if the children have mastered self-help skills etc. so the teachers don't need to spend time helping them with shoe laces and tidying up and peeling potatoes (apparently!)

That said, the teacher had to tie up my shoe laces for me when I was picking Maria up after the introduction morning because I had a sleeping baby in my arms so couldn't do it myself

 

[SarahBear]

Haha, that's pretty funny. And it's such a useless skill. We don't peel any potatoes in my house. We buy Yukon gold potatoes, so the skins are fairly thin. We just leave them on, even for mashed potatoes. Even if you want potatoes mashed without skins, you just boil them and they slip right off. We don't peel other veggies either... Such a waste of time and effort.

 

[SarahBear]

I think they mean peeling boiled potatoes when eating them at lunch, so after they've been cooked (people usually peel boiled potatoes here, no idea why)

Maria is just making up her own shoe-lace knots

Oh, in that case, they just slip right off. I thought you meant using a potato peeler.

 

[minties]

I peel potatoes! May as well, otherwise I just spend the same pint of time scrubbing the dirt off. That's a funny thing to do at school through. Wish they had hot lunches here, mums pack lunch for kids in NZ.

 

[Natsku]

I think they mean peeling boiled potatoes when eating them at lunch, so after they've been cooked (people usually peel boiled potatoes here, no idea why)

Maria is just making up her own shoe-lace knots

Oh, in that case, they just slip right off. I thought you meant using a potato peeler.

Have been trying to get her to peel raw potatoes with a peeler too, to save me doing it, but apparently potato peelers are scary...

 

[Natsku]

I peel potatoes! May as well, otherwise I just spend the same pint of time scrubbing the dirt off. That's a funny thing to do at school through. Wish they had hot lunches here, mums pack lunch for kids in NZ.

I would hate having to pack lunch every day, make sure it's healthy and balanced and enough food that she'd actually eat and crap like that. Free hot lunch is the way to go!

 

[SarahBear]

I peel potatoes! May as well, otherwise I just spend the same pint of time scrubbing the dirt off. That's a funny thing to do at school through. Wish they had hot lunches here, mums pack lunch for kids in NZ.

I would hate having to pack lunch every day, make sure it's healthy and balanced and enough food that she'd actually eat and crap like that. Free hot lunch is the way to go!

Only if it's quality... I would never rely on the schools around here to feed my children. My kids will be going to school with packed lunches. We'll make it a part of our routine to pack them the night before or have easy to grab stuff to put together in the morning.

 

[Natsku]

I peel potatoes! May as well, otherwise I just spend the same pint of time scrubbing the dirt off. That's a funny thing to do at school through. Wish they had hot lunches here, mums pack lunch for kids in NZ.

I would hate having to pack lunch every day, make sure it's healthy and balanced and enough food that she'd actually eat and crap like that. Free hot lunch is the way to go!

Only if it's quality... I would never rely on the schools around here to feed my children. My kids will be going to school with packed lunches. We'll make it a part of our routine to pack them the night before or have easy to grab stuff to put together in the morning.

Yeah of course, has to be quality and healthy, but the school meals here are that, and meals that Maria won't eat at home but will eat at school like vegetable soups.