On getting ready for school: It is a little early for most almost-kindergardeners to figure out what "School starts soon!" really means. It's not uncommon for your child to begin asking, "Is it today?" everyday for the next four weeks. My advice is to hang a calendar low (if you don't have one already) and help your child count the days and mark them off. This is also a way to start getting in a little counting practice.
Our kindergarten is emphatically not academics-based. I focus on building community, developing social skills, supporting children's curiosity, and creating an ownership feeling about learning in each child. That being said, we have projects everyday that allow the children to build and expand academic skills.
Every year I have students beginning kindergarten who can read at higher grade levels and children who don't know letters from their left foot. The beauty of the SDCCS individualized approach is that I meet each child where they are and we go from there. I want to let you know that I do a quick check with each child privately at the beginning of the year to determine these things: can they recite the alphabet letters? Do they know the name of each letter? Do they know some of the sounds associated with each letter? How about counting and reading numbers? Can they write their first name?
Now, the last thing I want you to do is to start drilling your child before school starts. I hope most of my new friends are spending their time playing, going on family trips, and being with their friends and families. However, IF your child is showing an interest in letters and numbers, you may want to draw their attention to letters and numbers in their environment, show them what the names of the members of their family look like (don't forget the pets), share (library) books with them that focus on counting or the alphabet, count with them in the car or while on a walk (count steps). A lot of this just involves either auditory or visual memorization at this point. Brain research (which I love) is showing us that memorization is more effective when one is exposed to multi-sensory input. So counting while you jump or clap offers tactile stimulus along with the auditory sounds of numbers, and children learn more quickly and more thoroughly. Use these suggestions or not, but remember: have fun with it!
My second thought, by way of an SDCCS parent posting on our school facebook page, is about the importance of sleep and the effect lack of enough sleep has on young children. I have to say, I see this every year. As a parent myself, I know how hard those last hours of the day can be. What worked for us was to put my child to bed before she got sleepy. I know that sounds counter intuitive, but my daughter was much more reasonable when she wasn't sleepy, and so was I. Here is a great link on this topic: http://www.greatschools.org/parenting/health-nutrition/620-sleep-the-secret-weapon-for-school-success.gs?page=all Thanks Amy Besnoy.
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