Tag Archives: kindergarten

Preparing for the First Day of School

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My youngest child’s First Day of School is right around the corner. We’ve been prepping for it all summer. She’s been practicing her writing and reading and sharing. She’s excited to ride the bus and have lunch with her new friends.

I’m wondering though if what we are doing is enough. Here is my checklist to get the kids fully ready for the big day.

Stick to Routines: Wake up, make bed, get dressed, eat, brush teeth. This is how I like to start eachschool hallway day but the summer lazy sets in and breakfast is sometimes delayed or teeth aren’t brushed till bedtime. Once school starts there’s no way we can deviate from this plan as that will start the day off on the wrong foot. Get your routines in order now so that they kids get used to it and won’t forget important steps as you see the school bus coming down the street.

Be Prepared: Supplies, backpacks and lunch boxes are all needed for the new school year. Most supply lists aren’t available till after your child has already begun school but get started now with basics. Most elementary students need pencils, marble notebooks, erasers and folders. Stock your child’s backpack so their first day they are prepared with the basics.

Listen to Concerns: Fear is natural with any new adventure. Talk to your child about what they are thinking, what they are feeling and what they are expecting. Even the simple things like a new haircut or new shoes can be exciting and give children something to talk about with their new friends. Get them excited about what’s to come.

Take a Tour: If your child’s school is hosting an open house or meet and greet, go. Walking into a new building and looking down long halls can be intimidating. Show your child the way to their classroom, where the restrooms are and even what to do if they get lost. Introductions can be helpful. Meeting the principal, librarian, music teacher and secretary gives a feeling of familiarity when they greet your child on the first day.

Preparing for the first day takes more than knowing how to read or write. The littlest ones going in kindergarten and preschool need some emotional prep also.

Backpack image provided by Steve Wilhelm via Flickr
School Hallway image provided by WuperUpper via Flickr

Simple Games Can Teach A Lot

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Over the years I have come to learn the value of simple games. Sometimes I will find myself thinking a certain game is too difficult for my child. I am always surprised to see that with a little twist on what I think the rules are my child is perfectly capable of playing it with me. One particular game we have been playing for many years has turned out to be very educational, too. Can you guess it? I Spy! In my opinion, when it comes to learning you are never too young or too old for I Spy!

When my oldest was just starting to really understand his colors and shapes during preschool years, I found myself in need of a serious distraction to keep him well behaved while we had a long wait in the car. Growing up we always played I Spy and Twenty Questions on trips, but I knew he could not play those, yet, or so I thought. Playing I Spy with a young child in a parked car is a lot easier than playing while the car is moving. His little eyes could not take everything in fast enough while moving, so I took advantage of the time we had in the parked car. Plus, remember I was desperate for any distraction! With a little trial and error tweaking, we suddenly came up with a game that ended up entertaining, educational and one he could not get enough of. He still loves it three years later. I also blame my youngest child’s success on learning colors and basic shapes so quickly on her desire to play this game with us!

Easy Educational Games

Image: t0zz / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Here is an example of how we played it. This is a typical conversation when we first started:.

Player 1 (Adult): I Spy with my little eye something green. (A tree)

Player 2 (Child): That! (pointing at a yellow sign)

Player 1: No, that is yellow. That is not what I Spy.

Player 2: That! (pointing at a green bush)

Player 1: That is green, but that is not what I Spy.

Player 2: That! (pointing at a tree)

Player 1: Yes! A green tree is what I Spy!

Player 2: Again!

We focused on shapes and colors in the beginning and eventually moved on to letters and numbers. I kept it general for the first couple of years. Meaning, that if he pointed at any tree and the tree was the “I Spy item”, then he got it. I was also the only one who got to be Player 1 at first as he gained confidence in his finding skills. Once he understood the game enough to be Player 1, I discovered he would do the exact same thing I did, “nope, that is a square not a circle. That is not what I Spy.” Playing the game this way allowed us to make it as simple or as challenging as we needed it to be.

I  have been so excited with simplicity of this game and how much my kiddos love it. I believe it has not only helped teach them their shapes and colors, but helped them improve their communication skills, practice turn taking and expand their attention spans.

What are your family’s favorite games to play?

 

* Feature Image: Image: David Castillo Dominici / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Before Your Child Enters School

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I recently talked with a kindergarten teacher about the children in her class learning to read. She mentioned how hard it is for many of the students to begin learning because some do not have a foundation from which to begin learning. Some students do not know their ABCs or even what an alphabet is. This kindergarten teacher has to start from the very beginning with these children and make sure her other students are still getting the education they deserve.

What can you do as a parent to help kindergarten teachers, like this one, and help your child receive the best education? Here are just a few things this kindergarten teacher and I talked about:

  • Make sure your child knows what an alphabet is. Before children can learn to read, they need to know the purpose of the ABCs. They need to know that words are made up of letters. But to help them grasp this concept, they need to know the names of the letters and the sounds they make.
  • If you speak a language other than English in the home, teach your child about the alphabet in that language. The kindergarten teacher I talked to said that because many non-native-English-speaking families want their children to receive an English education, they don’t teach their children about the alphabet in their native language, which means children are not exposed to an understanding of letters before entering school. But if parents teach their children about the alphabet in the language spoken at home, their children have a better understanding of the purpose of the alphabet.
  • Read to your child. Reading to or with children exposes them to printed words and vocabulary that will help them throughout school and provide the foundation needed to establish reading success. And it doesn’t matter what language you read; it doesn’t have to be English. The kindergarten teacher explained to me that many of her students who come from non-native-English-speaking families become some of the best readers because of the understanding they have about words.
  • Teach your child how to write his or her name. The kindergarten teacher mentioned that being able to write their own name is an important skill for children to learn. It gives them a better understanding of the letters that make up their name and other words.

What do you think about these suggestions? Have you talked with a teacher and received other helpful suggestions for what to teach your child before he or she enters school? Are you a teacher and have some great ideas? We’re interested to hear; please share.

Feature image courtesy of  Jan Tik / Flickr.

Reinforcing Letter Learning and Reading while Cooking with Your Kids

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I never need an excuse to bake or be creative in the kitchen, and I love it when my kids join in the fun. Not only does cooking together offer the opportunity to bond with children, but it helps them to expand their palettes, and it’s an excellent learning opportunity.

How to reinforce reading while cooking

Have a few child-friendly cookbooks on hand and easily accessible to your children. Encourage your kids to help you create your meal menus by paging through and reading their cookbooks. A few of our favorite books include

  • The Cookbook for Kids (Williams-Sonoma): Great Recipes for Kids Who Love to Cook
  • Fix-It and Forget-It Kids’ Cookbook: 50 Favorite Recipes to Make in a Slow Cooker

Ask your child to read you the next steps of the recipe, even if she is only recognizing a few of the words in the recipe. Often, there are picture cues that will help a child to identify the words and terms. Additionally, by reading a recipe, she’ll see the words that work. If she can’t yet read, always read the recipe out loud, showing her the words you’re reading.

Bake in letters using cookie cutters to form letters in cookies, personal pizzas, and pancakes. We have this Wilton 2304-1050 101-Piece Cookie Cutter Set, which we also use for Play-Doh, tracing, and just general playtime.

Make pretzels and form letters and shapes.

Label everything in your kitchen and ask your child for the foods you need. The more your child interacts with words the more he or she will see them.

Play with your food. After you cook, don’t clean up! Play with the leftover dusts of flour, cinnomon, and mixes on your counter tops and create letters and words in them with your child.

How do you share cooking and reading in your kitchen?

Photo courtesy of slightly everything / Flickr.

100 Words for Kindergarteners

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Have you ever wondered what vocabulary words your kindergartener should be leaning? There are, of course, many words your kindergartener should have at least heard; I recently read that the average child is expected to have heard at least 32 million words by their fourth birthday. But the question is what are the words they should be learning and how can we make sure our child knows them well so they are successful in school?

Below are 100 words I gathered from Rusty and Rosy Reading level 1. These words are actually among over 250 that are taught in the program’s songs, rhymes, and books. These are words that preschool and kindergarteners are learning.

What can you do with this list of words?

Most likely, your child has heard many of the words listed below and may have a fairly good idea of their meaning. But to make sure your child really understands them, you can use the words in your conversations so your child hears the context in which they are used. Seeing and hearing words in context is one of the best ways to learn new vocabulary words because when the words we learn are heard again, we, or our children, can go back to the examples we have heard previously to understand what the words mean.

Some of the words below are words we use every day, while others are used sparingly. You can have fun including words like “dragon” in conversations with your child.

Alligator Back Catch Dock
Athlete Beside Cold Down
Attic Big Come Dragon
Away Birthday Cry Dried
Ax Book Downstairs
Elevator Fix Garden Hamster
Enormous Friend Golf Here
Envelope Frightened Goose High
Everywhere Grasshopper Hill
Home
Iguana Jam Kangaroo Leap
Ill Jeep Kettle Little
Infant Jet Kickoff Lock
Insect Jumbled Kitchen Lost
Itchy
Mailbox Naughty Opposites Pair
Market Neighborhood Off Paws
Mittens New Oven Play
Moon Pretty
Mustache
Quack Rain Same Tall
Quiet Rainbow Short Through
Ranch Silly Together
Rapping Stripes Tumbling
Stuck
Sun
Under Vacation Watch X-ray
Up View Weave
Upstairs Visit Web
Wings
Wings
Yesterday Zigzag
Yummy Zippers
Zoo