Healthy Living from the Start: A Health Curriculum for Grades K-3 Review
Do your kids know what do during a lightning storm? What about if there is a fire? Have you talked about who they can turn to if they need help when you aren’t around? Or what to expect when someone they love dies? It’s not much fun to think about these things, but we all have scripts running in our heads about what we want to teach our kids. The problem is, sometimes it’s hard to know how and when to tackle tricky subjects or to give important information without alarming our kids. We all want healthy kids, but just where do we start?
A health curriculum should empower kids.
An effective health curriculum has to go far beyond the basics of brushing teeth, washing hands, getting enough sleep, and “just say no.” It should dig deeper into topics that will help your children develop into healthy, independent individuals. For instance, does your child know how to do the following?
- Take responsibility around the house.
- Recognize risky situations.
- Help emergency responders.
- Deal with stress and anger.
- Care for minor injuries.
- Prevent illness.
- Recognize and respect personal boundaries.
And aren’t most of us interested in teaching our kids self-advocacy, effective communication, and good sportsmanship, as well as helping them understand sensitive areas such as death, hospitalization, stranger danger, and personal privacy? You are the best judge of your child’s comfort level, but where do we turn for guidance, especially when it comes to our youngest?
A health curriculum should grow with your child.
When learning about health, it’s best to take a spiral approach. Revisiting topics each year allows your children to broaden and deepen their understanding of the issues and skills as they mature. For example, the way you talk about strangers to your kindergartener is very different than the way you’d talk about it with your third grader, right? It’s also helpful in the early grades to present learning opportunities in a playful way.
For instance, learning to be aware of your surroundings—the hazards as well as things that can be useful—and paying attention to people around you can help you stay safe wherever you are. Here are some basics of personal safety to consider as your child grows.
Kindergarten: Home safety
- Look at ways you keep your home safe.
We often hear about childhood household injuries in the news. Have you thought of all the ways to childproof your home and keep it safe for the whole family? Do you know what to do in an emergency?
- Practice answering the phone.
Does your kindergartener know how to answer the phone and what she should or shouldn’t say when answering it? What should she say if someone asks if Mom or Dad is home? What’s the best way to teach these skills and others related to answering the phone?
Grade 1 Awareness of surroundings
- Devise an escape route.
What if there were an emergency in your home such as a fire, intruder, earthquake, flood, etc.? Would your child know how to keep himself safe and get out of the house if the front and back doors were blocked or if he wasn’t able to get downstairs to an exit?
- Develop orienteering skills.
It’s a scary thought, but what if your child accidentally wandered away from your or a friend’s home? You can gently introduce basic orienteering skills with fun activities, and add distance and complexity as your child is ready.
Grade 2: Safety when alone or in a group
- Look for exits and traps.
Want to learn non-threatening ways to teach your child how to be aware of their surroundings and stay safe, both in and outside your home? Try some fun and silly games of chase that encourage your child to look for exits and escape routes and avoid traps, like dead ends or a blocked passage or stairway.
- Practice being lost in the woods.
If your family lives in a rural area or likes to hike, does everyone know what to do if they get lost in the woods? What other safety rules should your children always follow when on an outdoor adventure?
Grade 3: Staying safe in an emergency.
- Practice answering the door.
Have you taught your child what to do when someone rings your doorbell? What happens when your child is home alone (or you are unavailable)?
- Where to turn for help.
Is your contact list up-to-date? Do your kids know where to find it, who to call, what to do?
Health is a multi-faceted, lifelong journey.
While you are probably perfectly capable of teaching your child everything he or she needs to know about health and well-being, it can be helpful (and comforting!) to have a guidebook for your health curriculum. Oak Meadow’s Healthy Living From the Start provides a comprehensive health curriculum for the early grades. Designed to be used from kindergarten through third grade, this book has a flexible format that offers three activities to choose from for each grade level to help you explore a wide range of health topics in a supportive, effective way. The developmentally appropriate, hands-on activities encourage children to learn by doing, making the learning more relevant, memorable, and fun. It’s easy to customize the material to reflect your own values, lifestyle, and family situation, too.
Start your kids off with healthy habits at a young age, and set them on a path of wellness that will last throughout their lives!
Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Deb of Oak Meadow.
Yay!! Thanks for the giveaway! 🙂
Checking this out!
I hadn’t thought of some of those topics falling under health as a subject. I’m intrigued. But now thinking about it, it’s true and I need to do some of this with my kids. This book would be a great resource to help me think of more than I have. Thanks.
We love oak Meadow here!
I have been thinking about buying this! I love all the topics it covers and that it lasts for several years.
This is awesome !
This looks really interesting
Awesome giveaway! Thanks. 🙂
Looks really interesting!
Those are very useful advice despite I don’t have kids, just my 3 years old niece.
I think that this is an appropriate moment to explain her that she shouldn’t open the door to stragners while her mum is in the garden or answer the phone at all. Thanks for those information.
Yay! Awesome, thanks!
this looks like it would be an interesting addition to my curriculum.
This looks great! My kids would love this.
I’m interested in winning as it would be my first insight into Oakmeadow and looks like a good health curriculum that I could use for both of my children.
I like the relaxed approach and look forward to learning more about them.
This looks great! Would love to try this with my boys. I can’t wait to check out the rest of your curriculum.
Looks wonderful!
I would love to feel safer about my son’s health and safety. I am also interested in Oak Meadow curriculum.
I would love to win a copy of this! Thank you for the opportunity!
Fantastic giveaway! 🙂
Health is required in our state and I struggle to find a decent one every year. The health course is definitely a plus (among many others!) with the Oak Meadow curriculum. I love Oak Meadow!
I hadn’t ever heard of Oak Meadow before but I love the approach to such important information that the kids NEED to know. I will be looking into this a lot more for our very near future.
I’ve had my eye on this component of the Oak Meadow curriculum. It looks like a fantastic resource because of it being multi-grade and featuring relevant health/safety topics. Thanks for the chance to win it.
This looks like a great list of things to teach younger elementary children.
Sounds like a really good curriculum!!
Just stumbled on this and I’m so glad I did!! My husband and I decided that I would withdraw our 8 yr old daughter from public school, & homeschool her instead. This will be a great addition to our curriculum!
Have been eyeing this one!
We are looking forward to starting Oak Meadow soon. Great giveaway!
Awesome giveaway!
What a great program. This is an ideal resource to teach this subject!
What a great curriculum! Thanks for sponsoring a give-away. I have three who need to learn all of that stuff.
This book looks fantastic!! 🙂
I am so excited to home school both of my children this year. Oak Meadow seemed to be the perfect blend of structure and artistic influence that I was looking for!
Looking into oak meadow 🙂
This is our first year homeschooling and I would love to include this as a part of our curriculum.
This is good advice and very important for children to know. Thanks for the giveaway!
What a fun giveaway! Thank you!
What a great idea! I never thought of incorporating these topics into health education for my children. I’m interested to learn more!
Thank you for the giveaway! It has given me lots to consider in teaching my child health and safety.
Thanks for a wonderful giveaway!
This curriculum looks great! The things we worry about and wonder how to talk to our kids about, all in one place!
This book sounds like what I have been looking for!!
I adore the Oak Meadow philosophy. We are beginning our homeschool journey.
I am so excited to use this book this year- with all three of my kids- K, 2nd, and 3rd! I feel like I’ve always been ‘hit or miss’ with all of these topics, hoping I’ve covered it all sufficiently… This is going to give my kids so many useful skills and me such peace of mind!!
This looks like something everyone would enjoy!
I was looking for ideas for health class!
Love oak meadow
Thank you for the giveaway!
I fell in love with Oak Meadow at Orlando convention. Beautiful curriculum!