Emotional Development: Nurturing your child's emotional development is a key element to their success in school. When children have a stable emotional foundation they are better able to recover from the inevitable losses within a school day such as when something doesn't go their way. A strong emotional foundation is set through the parent and child relationship. To nurture a strong relationship with your kindergartner parents can spend time and connect with their kindergartner by playing and doing things that interests their child. It could be playing their favorite video game, baking cookies, going outside, or reading books together. Because young children put in a lot of effort and energy into learning and meeting teacher expectations each day, they often come home exhausted and can have a hard time managing their emotions. When children express big emotions, parents can name the feeling they are experiencing and let them know it's okay to have those kinds of feelings. It could sound something like, "I see you are really angry because you don't want to go to get off your iPad, thank you for sharing your feelings with me. It is time to take a bath now. After we turn off the iPad you can tell me what you’d like to have/play while you’re in the bath." If your kindergartner had a bad day and is expressing anger, frustration, sadness, or other unhappy emotions, it's important for parents to respond in a caring, patient, and kind manner. Your kindness and patience will communicate to them that they can turn to you when they need help, whether it be for a school test, issues with friends, or simply to share excitement about winning a game at school. Nurturing a relationship that allows for children to feel comfortable to come to you with all of their emotions gives them the bandwidth to be able to manage their emotions better at school.