What to know about school readiness
Congrats, you’ve done the terrible twos and gotten to the preschool years. The baby you had only a few short years ago is going to prep next year and your stressed. Starting ‘big school’ is a big deal and I’ve heard, and seen, it all, so lets sort fact from fiction.
What schools are looking for in terms of preparedness is a child with the ability to express there emotions and self regulate. That is a child who has the age appropriate words to tell you what’s wrong, why its wrong and who can work with you to fix it. That’s it. You can teach this by putting names to the emotions that there feeling, saying ‘hey, I see that your sad about something, can I help you?’ I a great place to start, the more you use that approach the better it they get at it. I’m also going to dispel one of the biggest myths I hear from parents ‘ my child can’t cry at drop off’, It’s normal for children of all ages to get upset when a parent or caregiver leaves. That fact is that the person that there most comfortable with is leaving them with someone that they are less comfortable with and there’s no avoiding that reality.
The second myth that I hear is that your child has to be able to read and write, or count to a certain number. If your child is interested, by all means explore that interest, to an extent. If your going to teach them how to count to ten and write there name by all means, most preschool teaches teach children to write there name to an extent and count to ten but that’s all they need to know. If you teach to much now they will get bored at school as there learning the same things over and over again. If your going to teach them to count to insure that they understand the quantity that there referring to, one means one of something etc, or there memorising a script. You can’t count to ten without understanding what each number means. There first year of formal education will teach them the rest of what they need to know before year one its not like there expected to know that material already. Your child simply does not need to be literate yet.
So they need to be able to spell there name and write it out so that is readable, count to ten and understand what those numbers quantify. More importantly they need to have some control over there emotions and be able to explain them and work with others, parents, caregivers, teachers and peers to find a solution to a given issue. Anything else? Not really, you may find that keeping your own notes on there progress helps show competencies most preschool teachers will too. The care centre that they are enrolled in wether that be long daycare or a stand alone program will provide you with there notes and analysis on your child’s skills to pass though to whichever school you choose at the end of the year. A good one will allow you to access these at any time and will make time with you to discuss school readiness with you one on one on your request.
Remember, the first year at big school is designed to bring everyone up to the same page, if you teach them too much before they get there, they will get bored of the topics that they are being taught to catch others up to there level. If you don’t want the have the school argument every single day for the next twelve years, school needs to be fun, or they won’t want to go. Don’t sweat the change either, that will only add to your child getting worried about it. Most of all some reassurance is always required, its a big change, living though it can be just as much of a challenge for them as it is for you. If you want big school to be fun, relaxed activity you need to show them that there going to be alright too. That first drop off will probably be emotional, you’ve got to make it as positive as possible.
Last but not least, activity of the week,
Colure mixing creates a new visual experience and what’s more fun than smooshing paint around in zip-lock bags.
You will need
White paint
Coloured paint
Zip-lock bags
Masking tape
Pour your paint into your bag, I like to use 2 parts white paint to 1 part the colures you wish to mix, this way the colures turn out brighter. Add your coloured paint I like to use primary colures or you can give your child the option of whatever colures you like. Seal the ziplock bags and tape them to something that they can press against.