The key to your child's success in school depends on your input. Children that do not spend time studying with their parents do not have the advantage of children whose parents take the time to reinforce academic skills. Follow these tips for helping your child build a strong educational foundation.
Early Exposure To The ABCs And 123s
Exposing your child to books and printed material as early as possible is important. You may be surprised how much he or she will remember when you begin teaching the names of letters and how each one sounds. The study of the sounds letters make, called phonics, is essential for preparing your child for kindergarten and elementary grade levels. Once your child grasps letters sounds, the steps to putting those sounds together and reading will be a lot easier.
Counting is another early skill that when mastered before kindergarten, gives you child a head start in math. Teaching your child how to count from one to one hundred is important, but also teaching how to skip count and how to add one digit numbers is even better. For providing the earliest exposure to numbers, start counting out the bites you give your baby or the toy blocks he or she enjoys.
Why Are Fine Motor Skills So Important?
Give your little one play dough to play with and encourage building with blocks early on to help to develop fine motor skills. If your child's motor skills are not developed, holding a pencil could be challenging. If you child has to get used to holding a pencil and writing, he or she will fall behind students that start school knowing how to hold a pencil and even how to write their name. Take the time to show your child how to write using a pencil and encourage him or her to try as much as possible.
Remember Yes Ma'am, No Ma'am, Thank You And Please
Teaching a small child proper etiquette and social skills can be challenging. However, teaching your little one to say 'thank you' or to share is extremely important to his or her success in the early years of school. If a child spends time getting into trouble because he or she hurt another child's feelings over not sharing or any type of negative social incident, that is time taken out of positive exposure at school. Teaching your children how to behave and how to pay attention is essential before preschool starts.
Most parents are a nervous wreck on the first day of school. Sending your child to a class of other children in a strange place is an experience in a class all by itself, no pun intended. The same is true for both you and your child. However, when you provide your child with a strong social and academic foundation, you both will have a lot less to worry about on the first day of school. Look into local education resources, such as Sammamish Montessori School, to find out more information.
Share14 May 2015
I recently made the decision to move my kids from their public school to a private religious school. It isn't that I thought that the public schools were doing a bad job of teaching the basics, but I wanted them to have more than just basics. I wanted them to learn about our faith -- not just Sunday at church, but how it affects our lives every day. I felt that a religious school could help them see our religion not as some abstract thing that only happens in church, but as something that is relevant to the math and spelling words and science that they study every day. I know that I'm lucky to have the choice to educate my kids this way. If you're looking for something more from your children's education, you should also look into exercising your right to choose the direction of your child's education.