5 Things You Can Do To Help Your Children Get Ready For School!
With growing emphasis on the importance of Early Education children are being expected to know more and more at an earlier age. Many countries now have two years of pre-primary education available so instead of having those two extra years to grow and mature before needing to be ready for the schooling environment children need to be ready earlier and here are ten things we can do to help our children be ready for the school environment and the demands of early childhood education.
*Please note that I am not talking about drilling or attempting to force children to memorize numbers facts and figures but in finding natural and authentic ways to introduce and encourage these activities in your children’s daily lives.
I’m not talking about teaching your child to read, although please go ahead if you think your child is ready to learn, I’m talking about reading to your child. reading is one of the most beneficial things you can do for your child! By reading aloud you are modeling to your children how to read, you are showing an interest in books and reading and in doing so encouraging the same in your child and you are introducing or exposing them to new knowledge, ways of thinking, doing, being and new concepts in general, depending on the topic of the book.
Although these are some great benefits there are others apart from the literacy benefits. There is the ‘etiquette’ expected during reading time. When reading to your child you expect certain behaviors to take place. Sitting (somewhat) still, listening and engaging with the text commenting on the things they see in the pictures or what is happening in the story. There is learning about books themselves, they have titles, contents pages, some have pictures, some have stories and some have information and some have both. And finally there is the book to self or book to our world connections that help children become more aware of themselves and the world around them.
And of course you don’t have to just leave it there! Do something connected to what you’ve read! There are lots of ideas out there especially on the internet so search around. Here some ideas for you:
Use recycled materials to create characters or objects from the story
Go somewhere similar to a place from the story and compare!
Create your own version of the story
Create your own continuation of story
(Image by freedigitalphotos.net)
While you may find there isn’t often opportunities to model writing for your children there are many activities that you can engage in together that allow you to demonstrate writing and it’s importance as well as encouraging children to attempt writing for themselves. While there are lots of different ways to go about ‘teaching’ writing and I suggest that first you begin by teaching and encouraging children to hold their pencil correctly. Here are some ideas:
For teaching the alphabet:
Sing the ABC song or read a book about ABC and lead this into writing some or all of the alphabet (you can find printouts on the internet with dotted letters or you can make your own). Sing the song again pointing to the letters they wrote as you go
Buy or make some laminated type alphabet cards that children can use whiteboard markers to write on them then wipe them clean
Buy a small whiteboard that children can write on
Writing lists, the most obvious would be for shopping but there are others like, things to do, places to go etc.
Writing their name! You can encourage children to write their name in many places, on pictures they draw or paint, on Birthday/Christmas/Special cards or letter you are sending
Writing (very) short letters or thank you cards. While it might be a dying art it’s still a great way to engage children in writing. Find them a penpal!
Writing descriptions on paintings or drawings, it can be really simple “This is a ______”
While I called this Arithmetic I’m really not expecting anything complex here! I’m talking about encouraging numbers in your every day lives. By having a good grasp of counting, of counting things and being able to recognize numbers you are giving your children a good foundation in mathematics and encouraging enjoyment and engagement. Although we don’t always see it, there are many ways to engage in number learning everyday, here are some ideas:
Singing nursery songs like “Ten in the Bed” or “5 Little Speckled Frogs”
Reading books about numbers
Counting steps as you go up and down or counting how many steps between two places
Ask ‘how many’ to encourage counting
Model counting by counting things aloud
For a long time creative arts where discouraged from schools but in the past decade research has shown the benefits of creative arts for children (and adults) and as such in now included in curriculum under the broad category of ‘The Arts’. This includes visual arts, media arts, music dance and drama and there are a lot of activities you can do with these art forms. Art can also help children in expressing their thoughts and feelings when they don’t know the words they can draw you a picture and tell you about it.
Once again there is a lot of resources and ideas available on the internet but below are a few to get you started. I just want to Emphasize, art is much more than colouring pictures in! While there is a place for colouring, there is just so much more you can do with your kids!
Drawing - begin with lines and shapes and move into using shapes to draw other things. For example, a snowman can be considered two circles, a person’s head is a circle, their body is an oval etc.
Creating objects with recycled items then paint it, give it features, make it house, or a pet, or a toy or a friend….
Cutting and pasting (collages) pictures that they like or on a theme or linked to a book you’ve read together
Creating and editing videos together (you can do all the technical stuff if your child doesn’t know but you might be surprised at how fast they pick it up)
Creating puppets of characters from favourite books/nursery rhymes and creating puppet shows
Dancing to music (not necessarily just kids music but a range of different music if it’s appropriate). This can be following other people’s dances, free dancing and creating your own dances
Create your own musical instruments
Learn to play simple songs with musical instruments (or the ones you created) like nursery rhymes
Take photos! Let kids take photos at events, during outings or just take a walk around your local neighborhood and see what they can come up with. Then do something with the photos! Make a poster, create a photo album, make a collage!
(Image by freedigitalphotos.net)
In the age of the obesity epidemic and all the easiness of ‘junk’ foods it’s impossible not to have health and wellness high on the list. Teaching your child healthy eating habits will have so many benefits and not just at school. There is more to just healthy eating though so lets break this up into a few categories with a few suggestions of things you can do.
Sitting down to eat at the dinner table, encouraging children to eat their fill before leaving (this will encourage children to eat at school before running off to play)
Have a small vegetable garden and encourage children to help you keep it, pick vegetables when they are ripe and cook the food together
Pack healthy lunch/snacks/drinks
Drink lots of water and encourage your children to do the same
Go to the local playground - make it a play date if possible
Dance together (see #4 Creative Arts)
Enroll your child in a group type of sports, basketball, gym classes, karate - try out different things to see what your child likes
Exercise together! Put on an exercise video, do yoga, go running!
Hand washing before eating, after touching anything dirty, after going to the toilet etc.
Brushing their teeth (many schools now have a unit where children bring their tooth brush to school and they all brush their teeth together!)
