How to Help Your Child be Successful in Kindergarten

How to Help Your Child be Successful in Kindergarten
By Tina O’Block

Your child’s first year of school should be a fun and exciting time. Children who are comfortable with and prepared for this first school experience are more likely to have rewarding and productive years, and therefore associate positive feelings with education. Since parents are children’s first and most important teachers, you can play a key role in preparing your children for a successful school experience by pre-exposing them to key concepts they will experience in school. This can be done in a fun, enjoyable manner by making everyday play experiences learning experiences as well.

New learning builds on prior knowledge, therefore the more exposure or background a child has with a concept the easier it is for new learning and deeper comprehension to occur. Providing your child with pre-exposure to concepts such as the alphabet, numbers, following directions, listening, reading, cutting, tracing, etc. will help them feel more comfortable and confident when they experience these similar concepts in school, thus better enabling learning to occur. Schools are becoming more academic, dependent on standardized tests, and fast-paced. Giving your children some familiarity with concepts they will encounter can help lessen the anxiety and stress that often accompany these experiences. Children who are overly stressed or uncomfortable are less likely to be able to concentrate and learn.

Children have a natural motivation to learn and a curiosity about the world. You can enhance and nurture this natural motivation by making enjoyable play experiences learning experiences as well.

For example, children’s games are great resources for combining learning with physical activity. Duck, Duck, Goose can be a way of reinforcing concepts such as the alphabet by having children say the name of a letter in place of the word, duck, and a word that begins with that letter in place of the word, goose.

Hide and Seek can become a learning experience by hiding numbers, letters, colors, your child’s name, phone number, address, etc. around the house and asking your child to find them.

Simon Says is a great game to practice following directions and positional words such as on, above, below, etc.

Bingo can be used to reinforce number recognition, letter recognition, the difference between upper case and lower case letters, letter sounds, colors, etc.

You can have a treasure hunt while shopping, driving, or at home by seeing how many letters, numbers, colors, or shapes your child can find.

You can also play I Spy where you state, “I spy with my little eye something that is…” and you describe a letter, number, shape, color, etc. that you can plainly see. Your child then tries to guess what you are describing. Your child can also take a turn describing something (this helps develop verbal skills).

Children’s individual interests can also be incorporated into learning experiences.

Blocks or Lego’s can be used to teach patterns (have them build towers with alternating colors), counting, sorting (separate the blocks by colors, shapes, size), etc.

If your child likes to color, have them create rainbow tracings of letters or numbers by tracing them with as many colors as possible.

Play dough can be made into shapes, letters, and numbers.

An interest in cars and trucks can be used when learning how to trace by telling your child to keep his car (crayon or pencil) on the road (whatever is being traced).

An interest in animals or dinosaurs can be used when learning how to cut with scissors by relating the opening and closing of the scissors to the opening and closing of an animal’s mouth. You can pretend the animal is “eating” the lines on the paper.

Your child’s surroundings can also play a part in preparing them for school. Providing a number and variety of books for your child and taking time to read to them is one of the most important things you can do for their education. Reading to a child teaches them vocal skills, vocabulary, listening skills, left-to-right orientation, cause and effect, knowledge about the world around them, and pre-reading skills. Most importantly, it instills a love for reading and books which will benefit them throughout their entire education. After all, every subject (even math) requires reading.

Our brain absorbs information from our surroundings on a conscious and unconscious level, and between 80-90% of all information absorbed by the brain is visual. Therefore, providing visual displays in your child’s room or elsewhere can actually aide in learning. Things such as the alphabet, colors, numbers, etc. can be hung up or displayed in places where your child will see them. Even magnetic letters on the refrigerator can aide in retention and learning. This is why many schools have plenty of visuals displayed in the halls and classrooms.

Young children can also learn many concepts through music. For example, they usually learn their abc’s by the alphabet song. There are many children’s tapes available that teach concepts through music. Playing these while in the car or while your children play can aide them in learning. Even though they might not be singing along or seem like they are even paying attention, subconscious learning can be occurring.

You may also want to practice separating from your child for short periods of time, such as enrolling in a program or play group or having them spend time with a babysitter. Separation anxiety can be traumatic for some children if they are not used to being away from their parents, and this anxiety can inhibit their ability to learn and relax while in school.

Lastly, no matter what methods you try with your child, the most important thing to remember is to make them enjoyable. You want your child to associate positive feelings with learning. Take turns choosing activities; give your child some choice
sometimes. This makes them feel less dictated to and more willing to learn. Also, offer them some variety in activities, do not always use the same learning methods all of the time as this can create boredom and disinterest. Choose the methods
that work best with your child (every child is different) and have fun!

Children are like flowers, they all bloom at different times. But, parents can help nurture them by providing experiences that enable them to blossom into children who love learning and school.

Is your child ready for preschool?

Parents know that children do not always follow the experts when it comes to physical and intellectual development. As the closest observers of their individual child's temperament and abilities, parents are the best judges on whether a child is ready for an academic preschool program.

An academic preschool program differs from a daycare program in that it focuses on early learning skills, pre-reading readiness and linguistic development. While there is time for free play, preschool is a learning rather than care giving environment. In past times, preschool programs were designed for children who stayed home with a parent. Children attended preschool two or three mornings a week, spending the rest of the time at home. Today, because so many parents work, preschools have been restructured to full-day programs.

However, many children in the two to three year old age group may not be emotionally mature enough for a full-day academic experience. Younger children frequently get tired and upset after too much stimulation and many still need an afternoon nap. In this case, parents should seek a program that offers academic experiences in the morning and play time, naptime and other, less structured, activities for the rest of the day.

At three, the age most children begin preschool, children have developed the ability to speak in short sentences. At this age, adults can understand about three quarters of the words children say. A functional level of verbal ability can help a child more easily navigate preschool as he or she can ask for help, to use the toilet, or whatever else they may need.

Most schools require that children attending preschool be toilet trained. The consistent ability to use the bathroom during the day is an important part of preschool readiness. While teachers are accepting of accidents, they are teachers and not daycare providers and can't be expected to change diapers. Additionally, children should know how to pull down and pull up their undergarments and to wash and dry their own hands.

Children should also have mastered basic life skills before beginning preschool. Snacks are definitely served at preschool and often lunch is served as well. Your child should be able to manage finger foods and use a regular cup without a spout in order to manage preschool meals. Also, they should be able to put on their own shoes and coat although teachers at this level fully expect to help with buttons and zippers.


Jonathon Hardcastle

Songs for Preschoolers

We have all had the experience of listening to the radio when a song comes on that you haven't heard in 10, 15, or 20 years. But right away you start to sing along like you heard it yesterday, you don't miss a single word. Amazing right. Well not really. You probably heard it a hundred times in it's hay day. Repetition.

Kids are no different. Those songs like Wheels on the Bus and The Itsy Bitsy Spider help your child learn simple concepts through repetition. Singing along to these simple songs helps them to become familiar with new words and concepts. The Old McDonald song helps young children learn the sounds that animals make and there are songs that help with numbers and colors.

Singing also helps young children feel confident and less shy around the other children. And when you add fun hand motions and wiggles to the song the kids really come to life. And if you really want to add some spice, give children some simple musical instruments. Tamboreens, bells and bongos and kazoos are very easy for children to use and they absolutely love to play them. Exposing them to music at an early age is will encourage their love for music as they grow.

Music is a magical gift that should nourished and cultivated at an early age, especially now that scientific evidence proves that children who have been exposed to music at an early age make better math and science students later on. Medical and health-care research has also shown evidence that there is a link between music and singing and good health and healing. Children that sing are less likely to be overly stressed and have a more positive emotional profile.

The evidence is compelling that music and singing have a positive impact on all aspects of child learning and development.

About Author:
Songs at PreSchool are a great way for child to learn.  Find more learning tips @ the http://www.preschoolcampus.com