It’s finally here. The end of Pre-k. The beginning of summer. Kindergarten is coming closer. You’ve waited on bated breath for this moment. Your sweet baby is about to enter ‘big kid’s school’!
That rush of happiness is filled with a small ache of ‘what ifs’.
What if they aren’t happy? What if they don’t make friends? What if they don’t learn as fast as others? What if they don’t listen?
Then the ‘how’s’ begin:
How do I help them? How do I get them ready? How do I ensure their success?
This series is all about how you as a parent can help your child be ready for success in Kindergarten. At the beginning of each year, I ask parents to fill out a slip of paper telling me what their goal is for their child. 22 out of 23 answers are ‘Help them to read’. We as adults recognize how incredibly important this is in our daily life and we know that it’s the #1 thing that they need to learn in school.
What if I could tell you that you as a parent you have the power to set up your child as a reader starting RIGHT now?
The easiest way to begin is to be a reader yourself. I’m not talking about reading all of Charles Dickens or Edgar Allen Poe start to finish. But reading any book, magazine, or newspaper that you enjoy. Let your child catch you reading. Let them know that it’s a good thing to be a reader.
Reading to your child every night is the extremely important. When you read to your child it teaches them amazing things:
-tone
-intonation
-left to right
-sight words
-fluency
-parts of the book
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What if I told you though, that your child is already a reader? One of the first secrets I let my kindergarteners in on is the fact that they already know how to read! The Sisters (Daily 5) have taught us to explain it to the kids that there are 3 ways to read: read the pictures, read the words, and retell stories that you already know.
One of the best ways to show kids that they can already read is to have them retell what they already know. Plus you can always add a fun twist to it!
Check out the Puppets and Pieces here!
