As an educator, I strongly believe that parents must be involved in their child’s learning. The difference is obvious between the children who are encouraged at home and the children who are not offered assistance with their learning. With academic standards becoming higher and higher in today’s society, it is crucial for parents to take the time out to help their children at home to prepare for the next level grade. As a Kindergarten teacher, I do have expectations of my students. I do expect the children to come into Kindergarten being able to identify all uppercase and lower letters, identify all numbers 1-10, and having some knowledge of letter-sound recognition.
To better prepare your child for Kindergarten, it may be necessary to do an informal home-schooling type program over the summer. This is especially important for the children who are not familiar with letters, sounds, or simple number concepts. Many children are already prepared in these areas because of their preschool education, but not all. To help your child identify letters it is helpful by introducing them to the video ‘Letter Factory’ created by the Leap Frog Company. This video has sensational animation and really makes the correlation between letters and sounds. Buying the flashcard set that accompanies this video is a good way to review each night before bed.
There are many websites out there that will help your child better prepare for Kindergarten including such sites like Starfall.com. This website is designed for a variety of levels including pre-readers and emerging readers. Starfall.com is a very interactive learning experience that offers visual and sound stimulation to increase the child’s interest level. It is necessary to also read to your child each night before bed to develop comprehension ideas, understand the purpose of print, and to enforce letter and sound associations in early reader books.
Math concepts are taught in Kindergarten, but it is nice for parents to review the numbers with the children upon entering the new class. If children come into Kindergarten not being able to identify the number one, it makes it hard on the rest of the class that is ready for more complex concepts such as adding and subtracting.
Spending quality teaching time each day with your child does not have to take place in a formal setting. While at the park you could point to an object and reiterate which letter and letter sound the object begins with. Children are sponges and soak up much of the information that parents do provide to them. School is the formal setting that will introduce the children to many more thinking skills and educational ideas, but home is where the fundamental concepts must be nurtured. Children with such concepts in hand will be better prepared for the academic part of Kindergarten. It must be remembered that Kindergarten is no longer focused on only the social development of the child.
