Kinderskills

Acadia University student instructors provide preschool aged children with a variety of movement activities to promote development

Acadia University, Wolfville, Nova Scotia

Kinderskills is a program that provides preschool-aged children with a variety of movement activities to promote their development.
Encouraging many different types of movement can benefit a developing child by contributing to the development of movement skills and the maintenance of a physically active lifestyle, which in turn promotes self-confidence and emotional, social, and cognitive skills.
Gross and fine movement activities in Kinderskills are individualised according to each child’s interests and current level of abilities.
Each Kinderskills child receives one-to-one attention from a student instructor who assesses his/her buddy's interests and abilities in a number of areas, and implements play-based activities to promote development in these areas over the course of one hour, two times a week during the fall and winter semesters.

Students have an immediate venue to apply what they are learning in class, and come to class with questions based on their interactions with their buddies which have greatly enlivened the learning experience.
Kinderskills has recently completed its 18^th season. Local graduates who served as instructors during their undergraduate years have returned to the program to enroll their children.
Relationships between Kinderskills Instructors and their buddies extend beyond the program (e.g., play dates, babysitting, birthday parties). Many families maintain contact with their Instructor long after their Kinderskills experience has ended.
Instructors greatly value their Kinderskills experience and regularly rearrange their academic schedules to avoid timetable conflicts with Kinderskills.
The demand for Kinderskills is intense. Entrance into the program is by lottery, and the wait list is typically as long as or longer than the number of spots available.

Students formally reflect upon their learning in an end-of-term assignment that requires them to identify how course concepts are expressed in their buddies’ movement behavior at Kinderskills.
Kinderskills supports development of a broader life perspective by getting students to move beyond their own experience to understand how their actions affect the life of a young child (e.g., the need to “be there for their buddies” which means getting enough rest the night before, setting aside school stress, and other actions).
Students come to understand how they respond to relationship stress and adversity through situations and conflicts involving their buddies.
Students gain confidence in their ability to interact with young people.

https://kinesiology.acadiau.ca/kinderskills.html
Darren Kruisselbrink, PhD, Professor, School of Kinesiology; Director, Acadia Kinderskills, Darren.kruisselbrink@acadiau.ca