I love my job! And this time of year, I am often sought out by parents looking for ideas about how to bring educational technology tools into their home as toys. As a Technology Educator, I am so glad parents are considering giving coding and robotics gifts! Some experts say that learning to code is going to be as important for children today as learning to read and write, as so many of the jobs today’s students will have will require coding skills. Here at St. Stephen’s and St. Agnes School, where I teach and chair the technology education department, we start teaching basic coding skills in junior kindergarten with students who are 4 or 5 years old.  

I want to start by saying our Saturday School Visit may just be the best day of my year. Something magical happens the day your children visit our school.

As a parent you might be opening the email invitation with apprehension. You could be thinking: will they separate without crying, will they participate, will they listen?!!!

This is what we are thinking on the other end:

As parents, it seems we are always preparing for what’s coming up next. We have a hospital bag ready before the baby comes, we rig the house for when our babies start to crawl, we have a diaper bag ready for a wardrobe malfunction, and we have enough snacks in our cars to feed an army. You name it - we prepare for it.

Fast forward a few years and your child is four years old. A question is looming - How do we prepare them for Kindergarten? I am going to approach this in two steps.

1. What should you do if you have a child with a summer or early fall birthday? Do you send them to Kindergarten? How do you know if they are ready for this next step?
2. They are going to Kindergarten. How do I help prepare my child when the time comes?

This is the Lower School Chapel Talk given October 16, 2018 - World Food Day - by Ms. Mary Via, Director of Service Learning and External Engagement. As an adult chapel attendee, it was incredibly powerful and I believe, impactful. So much so, we just needed to share it.