What can you as parents do to help prepare your child for school?
By providing suitable toys. Construction toys, bricks, Lego, etc. and jigsaw puzzles help with manipulative skills, while beads and buttons to thread, round ended scissors, glue and paper with colouring materials help develop fine control skills and co-ordination.
Forming the letters of the alphabet is a demanding task for small hands and needs a great deal of preparatory work such as:
Handwriting
patterns
Tracing
Colouring
Painting
Cutting
Some children do reach the stage before they come to school where they want to draw the letters. There is one golden rule to follow:
Do not teach your child to write in capitals.
The wrong formation, once learnt, is hard to put right. The correct formation will be available from School.
The use of language is very important. While the children are playing and taking part in family activities such as shopping, eating meals, going on trips and watching television, encourage them to talk about:
What
is happening
What they are doing
What they can see
What might happen next
Sometimes we may forget that the language is as important as the activity itself. Try to make sure that the children assume responsibility for themselves by putting away their own toys and games when they have finished with them. At School the games need to be ready for the next child and tidying up completes an activity giving the children a feeling of being in charge.
The Beginnings of Reading.
Initially your child will bring home a book for you to share together. This may be a picture book containing only a simple text or a story book with both words and pictures, such as "The Hungry Caterpillar".
A reading together record book will accompany your child's shared story book. This provides a record of books chosen and allows you to make any comments you wish.
These books are brought home each night along with "My Own Book". This is a home-made book containing simple sentences composed with the child's own words, which have been made with the aid of the teacher.
A little later words to learn may also be brought home. As progress is made, he/she will be introduced to a wide variety of published books containing pictures and simple words. Choice is very important and children are encouraged to choose a book to read which appeals to them from a range of books at an appropriate level. This continues throughout their time at Lower Park.
It is MOST important that children bring their reading folder back to school every day. New sentences are added to their "own books" and reading together books need to be changed on a regular basis.
Hearing your child read.
Listed below are several ways you may find helpful in developing your child's reading;
1. Using just the title and the cover of the book, encourage your child to decide what the story might be about. Then after reading the story, decide if you were right.
2. Picture books - discuss each picture and develop the story line. Possibilities with picture books are endless. The story can change each time you open the book. You can tell your story, then your child can tell his/her own. Talk about the characters, sizes, shapes, colours, numbers. Try to capture your child's imagination.
3. Read the book to your child. Talk about the pictures, about what might happen next, about the characters in the story. After the story ask your child if he/she enjoyed the book. Did the story end as he/she thought? Which part/character/animal did he/she like best/ Would the child like to read it again?
4. Encourage your child to spend some time on his/her own with the book, looking at the pictures, picking out words he/she can recognise or formulating ideas on the story line.
5.
Read the book to your child, then ask him/her to re-tell the story back
to you.
6. Ask your child to read the book to you.
Always be there to support your child, to offer help with the story telling or prompting words if your child is reading. Remember these are the first stages towards reading and enjoying books. Your encouragement and support means your child will get maximum pleasure from the books he/she has chosen.
The right place to read.
Children differ when it comes to reading. Some children may be able to concentrate fully in a noisy environment, other children need to be quiet, with no distractions. A few quiet moments together are usually most beneficial. This enables you to give your child undivided attention and be able to listen fully to what he or she has to say. Try and make a special time for reading together at the same time each day if this is possible. It then becomes a routine acceptable to both of you. Cuddle your child or sit him/her on your knee when you read together. A close relationship will often encourage your child to join in or give him/her the confidence to try on their own.
If a child does not want to read.
Sometimes a child does not want to read. The reasons may be that he/she
is tired, hungry or needs to relax from school work. Reasons can also
be more complex. A lack of confidence, a feeling of failure, not enough
encouragement.
In any circumstances PLEASE do not force your child to read. If gentle encouragement fails, leave the reading and have a quiet word with the teacher or write a comment in your child's record book.
Getting cross or making threats may create a bigger problem and discourage the child from reading.
Reading the wrong word.
It is quite usual when children begin to read for them to substitute one word for another, yet the sentence makes complete sense.
The
text may read "The dog is brown"
The child may read "The puppy is brown"
Initially, there is no need to correct the child. If the mistake continues, the adult can re-read the sentence, reading the correct word. If the child still makes the same mistake, then point to the word and say it correctly.
It may be worthwhile also to mention here that children often, in the
early stages of reading, gather clues from the pictures in the book
to help them with their reading. This is not wrong and should be encouraged.
Reading is only part of Lower Park's language programme. There are many opportunities during the school day for a child to read, apart from being heard by the teacher. We allocate time for quiet reading by the whole class, or precious minutes in a book corner when other work is complete. Many times a child must read in other areas of the curriculum to gather information or carry out instructions.
LOWER PARK PRE-SCHOOL CHECK LIST
Can your child
Wash his/her hands?
Undress him/herself?
Dress him/herself?
Do up buckles?
Do up buttons?
Share
toys?
Cut out pictures?
Tell you the colour of things?
Write his/her own name?
Visit the Library?
Look at books happily?
Sit
quietly and listen to you
read him/her a story?
Talk about a story with you?
