Should my Child attend School Readiness Classes?

 

Should my Child attend School Readiness?

Written by Donna Botfield on July 7, 2015. Posted in About Us, Parent Tips, School Readiness

 

Probably one of my most asked questions before I enrol a new student is ‘Does my child need to attend School Readiness?’ Of course I fully believe that our School Readiness program is an essential start to school, and yes I am biased but let me tell you why.

My child attends preschool/long day care

Whenever I discuss school readiness with parents I make it extremely clear that children should attend preschool and day care before they start school.  In this setting, children learn the very important social and emotional skills that are required for the rest of their lives.  Children learn how to interact with same aged peers.  Preschool/long day care is an essential start to schooling in Australia.  A one hour a week School Readiness Class does not prepare your child socially and emotionally for BIG school; however preschool/long day care settings do not always prepare students for the academic learning required at school.  

What benefits do School Readiness Classes provide?

The reason that I established School Readiness Classes 8 years ago was due to my own children.  As a primary school teacher, I understood that school will provide your children with the structured learning skills, and all of the curriculum that your child will require.  Unfortunately the demands of the curriculum in schools now requires that children go to school ‘ready to learn’.  From the moment your child starts BIG school they will be required to learn many new facts and rules.  For the child who is not adequately prepared, school requires a lot of a young mind.  I tried to not be a ‘teacher mummy’ to my children.  I did recognise that I was able to offer my children a start to school that was not available to a ‘non-teacher mummy’. I am a strong believer in the strength of the teachers and schools in NSW and was confident that my children would learn quickly.  I soon realised that with good preparation, children confidently start school and start learning the day they enter primary school.  

What does the ED Specially 4U School Readiness Program offer:

• Structured learning in one session per week to prepare children in a gentle and confidence building atmosphere
• Classes that start from the age of 2 to allow students to be very familiar with a structured learning environment
• Classes and teachers that follow a structured program in the same way a primary school program is taught
• An environment where letters, numbers, fine motor/writing skills are developed so that the child can start school confidently knowing these beginning skills
• Another setting (outside the play environment) in which students recognise the importance of following instructions
• Confidence to follow instructions of  a teacher
• Confidence to work within a small group and achieve new skills
• Confidence to try new skills
• Confidence to learn

  Another benefit of joining our program is the importance we play on early detection if your child has any learning concerns.  We regularly are able to advise parents that a student may need a speech therapy or occupational therapy assessment if there are any issues that may be preventing their development in these areas.

 

With honesty I can say that our students and teachers alike, love our programs.  Happy children enjoy the structured learning program and the success they are achieving.  My personal favourite teaching moment is when I first say to one of our students ‘I didn’t know you could read!’  Our students quickly learn the letters and sight words required to sound out simple sentences, and they are thrilled to hear that this skill enables them to read!!

 

  Please visit our parent testimonial page (found on our website under the ‘about us’ tab) and facebook pages to read how other parents value our program.  Each year I send out a questionnaire in which parents are allowed to comment anonymously.  I relish constructive feedback as I passionately believe in what we do, and I want it to be the very best program I can offer.  I have honestly never received a negative comment in the 8 years we have been offering this program.  In fact, the questionnaires often come back months later when the students have started BIG school, and parents are glowing about the easy adjustment to school their children were able to make following the guidance of our program.

For the Love of Learning

Donna

 

www.edspecially4u.com.au

www.edspecially4u.com.au

Starting School 2015

School starts in just a few weeks!!

The first day of BIG school is coming for our students.  We are so pleased with the progress of our students, we know that the school experience will be a fun extension of the skills that we have introduced in our FANTASTIC School Readiness Program.

As both a parent and a teacher, I offer you these suggestions:

Being Prepared for the First Day

STAY CALM
Our children are naturally greatly influenced by their parents.  You possibly have some nervous tension about your child's first day.  This is a very normal feeling for parents - we might be reflecting on our own school experiences, or worrying about new concerns: who your child will sit with, will they make friends? will they find the bathroom when they need to?  will they drink their water?.... the list can go on.
It is of upmost importance that this trepidation is NOT passed onto your child.
On the first day, help your child arrive at school calm and collected by keeping your own emotions calm.

WHO SHOULD TAKE YOUR CHILD SCHOOL ON THE FIRST DAY?
This is of course, a very personal decision.
Schools either collect the kindergarten children efficiently and invite parents in to classrooms quickly or ask parents to leave straight away.  Whatever the schools policy, it is best not to bring a cast of a thousand relatives to farewell your new BIG school student.  If lots of relatives attend the child's first morning at school, it can cause stress for your child as they have to leave the large comfort zone of family to go with their new teacher and classmates.
As a teacher, I have always appreciated just the main caregivers attending the first morning.  If you would like to celebrate this important occasion in your child's life, maybe a celebratory afternoon tea after school would be a sensible option.

LABEL YOUR BELONGINGS
This is a boring and time consuming task, however, you will appreciate your organisation within the first week of school.  Even the best labelled child will manage to lose drink bottles, hats and jackets.  Without labels, you will rarely find the misplaced item.  Spend these last few weeks making sure that everything that is not attached to your child, is labelled with their name!  You will thank me for it :)

GETTING TO SCHOOL SAFELY
Your little school goer is only just older than the preschooler they were at the end of last year.  Make sure that you have organised safe options for getting to and getting home from school. You have possibly heard the stories about the difficult process of parking at schools in the afternoon.  No school ever has enough parking for all of the parents that need to collect their children.  Think through a safe plan in advance.

SCHOOL LUNCHES
Use this time during the school holidays to practice school lunch preparation as well as training your child to use their lunch box independently.
Don't forget to cut difficult pieces of food such as fruit - an investment in an apple slinky may be invaluable!
A lot of school snack packaging is very difficult for little hands to open.  It is good practice to snip corners off packaging when you prepare the recess and lunch so that your child can easily access their food without having to wait in the queue for the teacher to open children's lunches.
As I have mentioned in a former blog, make sure that your child understands the difference in food items between recess and lunch items.  This is easily done with the use of  a paper bag for recess, or a lunch box with separate compartments.
While I am talking about it - send as few 'bad food choices' as possible!  A high sugar diet at recess and lunchtime can wreak havoc on the classroom following these play breaks.

A HEALTHY BREAKFAST
Make sure that you allow time each morning for your child to eat breakfast.  This is a really important meal for your child's day.  Essential learning takes place in classes during the morning, if your child is feeling hungry they may miss these important skills and not be able to concentrate effectively

MODEL FRIENDLY BEHAVIOUR
Your child is looking to you at all times for your attitude to their new environment.  They don't realise that you may never have been in this situation either - in their eyes, the parents know everything (hold onto that moment because they will soon start to question that!!)  Ensure that you model friendly behaviour to the teachers and to the other parents/children that you meet.  This will relax your child who will see you interacting in a happy manner and then be confident to do so themselves.

HAVE A SPECIAL MORNING PLANNED
The whole 'starting school' experience finishes very quickly on that first morning.  The children are deliberately lead away and settled quickly with minimum fuss to ensure a successful start for their school career.  Parents are left behind - and this is how it may feel.  Prepare now for that feeling of deflation that you may encounter (sometimes parents have a feeling of elation - there is no right or wrong feeling!! Your child starting school can be a great relief for both your child and yourself - especially after this long holiday period, that is ok too).  Whatever emotion you may feel organise a 'celebration' plan.  You have loved and nurtured your preschooler to now be ready to progress to Primary School.  Celebrate your successful parenting moment!! Plan a coffee with friends, or go to a movie to distract you.  This is an important day for the parents too - we tend to forget this with all of the lead up organisation for the children.

AFTER SCHOOL
Make sure that you arrive at school early so that you can see how the afternoon routine works.  Your child will appreciate seeing you as they walk out of their classroom. BE PREPARED your children may tell you NOTHING about their day.  This will continue to be the norm for your school aged children - you need to learn the art of careful questioning to find out the facts - that is for another day.  Find out who your child sat with, did they like their teacher, encourage any positive talk that is possible.  Also prepare yourself that primary school is the next progressive step in your child's life.  There will be systems for feedback from the teachers.  Unlike preschool you may not always be able to speak with your teacher everyday about your childs' progress.  Usually no news is good news at school - teachers will approach you if they have any concerns.

Be relaxed, and anticipate that your kindergarten student will be tired after their first whole day of structured learning.  Kindergarten can be a tiring year for your child - ensure they get an early night so they can do it all again tomorrow!

Remember this special moment.  There is only one first day of kindergarten - enjoy this next step in your child's development

For the Love of Learning

Donna

TERM 4 - Getting Ready 4 School

Welcome to Term 4!
This is always our busiest term with many new students joining our classes in preparation for classes or starting school next year.

It is such an exciting term, and the lead up to Christmas is so busy that this term always rushes by too quickly.

Our School Readiness program gives our students exposure to the academic skills they will further develop at BIG school. As always we recommend that you spend some time reinforcing the skills that we have taught each week.  Please refer to any of our hand outs and information on the blog, facebook, instagram and pinterest- ED Specially 4U sites.  Don't forget to discuss any other academic ideas with your teacher or refer to our website www.edspecially4u.com.au to see other games and resources to reinforce your child's academic learning.

For our students who are heading to BIG school next year, I have compiled a list of other suggestions to develop your child's social and emotional skills in preparation for the exciting times ahead.

1.  Orientation:  hopefully by now you should have chosen your school and enrolled your child.  Part of the enrolment process will include some orientation sessions for your child at their new school.  This activity is HIGHLY encouraged.  This gives your child the opportunity to see their new surroundings, as well as complete some academic skills in the new classroom.  They will also meet some of the teachers at the school including the principal.  They will work with other children who will be starting with them next year and will probably have the opportunity for social interaction in a play area at this time.  A lot of research and support is given to schools to make the orientation process a successful and interesting process.

2.  Social:  If your child knows any children starting school with them, make sure you organise 'play date' opportunities for your child.  This gives your child additional confidence when they start BIG school.

3.  Sport and Activities:  think about how you can assist your child to be confident in the playground.  From an early age we have taught our children to share and hope they will use these skills with other children at school.  Unfortunately the playground can be a very difficult area for our children - even those that have been encouraged socially.  After the preschool play area, the school playground can often seem boring with only minimal play equipment to occupy their time.  Teach your child how to play games they can use in the playground.  Children are creative and will quickly learn new games from their friends, however, learning some games to play can assist them to have a strong start to the school playground

4.  School Lunches:  Food can be a significant challenge for both parents and children.  It is always a challenge to find healthy choices that your child is happy to eat.  There are many internet sites that give better detail into healthy food choices, I only want to mention the importance of helping your child to eat their food

•  Schools have two different eating times during the day (with some having a third break - crunch and sip for a fruit and water break)  Your child needs to recognise which foods they should be eating at the different times of the day.  A great way to do this is to find out the times of your future schools' food breaks.  For instance, some schools have lunch earlier followed by a later afternoon tea break while other schools have this in reverse.  You can practise having food at these times with your child at home.  Pre-prepare a lunch box as you would for school.  Pack the lunch and recess foods into seperate containers/paper bags/ zip lock bags.
• Don't forget to teach your child to open all of the packaging.  If you are going to send pre-packaged foods, also teach your child how to open these.  If this is too difficult for your child make sure that you open the packaging for them to take to school - don't forget your child is one of a big group at eating times and teachers do not have time to assist each child with their lunches.

5.  Bathrooms:  another important area to assist your child is understanding how to use the toilet independantly.  This includes being able to undress and dress as necessary as well as using the bathroom facilities.  Children need to be independant in this area when they start school as teachers do not assist them in the bathrooms generally during the day.

6.  Hand Washing:  When you start a new school (whether you are a teacher or a student) you are exposed to lots of new germs.  Explain to your child how important good hand washing is.  Teach your child to wash their hands using soap and hopefully staying healthy as a consequence.

7.  School Uniform:  Your school will organise a time that you are able to buy your child's uniform.  This is a lot of fun for your child.  They will love dressing up as a BIG school student.  Be organised and enjoy this lovely time with your child.

8.  Looking after their own belongings: As every mother of a school child will tell you, school is a constant opportunity to lose your hat, jumper, socks?  All of your child's belongings need to be clearly labelled.  Your child needs to be able to recognise their own belongings, and you need to teach them strategies for keeping their belongings safe, ie. take your jumper off and place it in your bag.

9.  Sleep Routines:   A happy, successful day at school can be greatly influenced by the amount of sleep your child has had.  It is recommended that children between the ages of 5-12years have approximately 10-11 hours of sleep.  If your child is not currently in a good sleep routine, now is the time to encourage this.  Your child will work and play very hard at BIG school.  It is important they are fully rested to facilitate this.z

10  Morning Routines:  A huge cause of stress in households is the morning routine of preparing for school. Believe me! I know this all too well.  Assist your child to get ready for school in the mornings by giving them a visual schedule of the morning routines.

This is a practical and easy way to help your child get ready for school.
Make this a laminated board or place it into a clear plastic sleeve, then use a whiteboard marker.  As each activity is completed, your child can place a cross through the visual representation.  Everyone enjoys that feeling of crossing off a list - and this way your child can do it each time they complete a task.  Whiteboard markers can be rubbed off at the end of the day, ready for the next morning's organisation.

If you would like to customise your own morning routine board here is the display board:

Use the routine cards included her to either cut each one out seperately and attach to your display board in a sequence that best suits your family or make your own graphic cards using the blank templates to include other activities in your morning routine. 

You can attach the cards to the display board by glue before you laminate the display board or laminate each seperately and attach to the laminated base board with blu tack/velcro to allow flexibility in your daily routine.

Term 4 disappears very quickly.  Make sure you enjoy every precious moment with your child before they go to school.  This is a special time for you both.

For the Love of Learning

 

Donna

School Readiness Resource Pack

PREPARING CHILDREN FOR BIG SCHOOL:

One of our very best selling resources is the: School Readiness Resource Pack.

This is a fantastic resource for children to use at home. For those students who attend our classes, this is a perfect representation of the concepts that we learn in School Readiness Classes and is a fantastic opportunity to reinforce the learning from the year.
Lots of packs are also purchased for children who have not attended school readiness; this is equally as beneficial as the pack is designed to complement the kindergarten literacy and numeracy program.

The additional benefit of this resource is that it is personalised for the individual child.
It is a write on/wipe off resource and can be used over and over again for additional practice.

The book of letters - each page contains one letter of the alphabet.  The letters are not in alphabetical order, but are in the same order as introduced in our classes.  This non-alphabetical letter order is detailed by research to be the best order to introduce letters to beginning readers.
This resource matches the Letter Star resource that we use to introduce beginning letter sounds.  This is coupled with a fun CD. 

Phonics 4U CD -  A CD designed with the Letter Star program, and is available with this resource as it is the way we introduce the letter names and sounds in our School Readiness Program.

 

 Writing Book -  The personalised writing book guides the child through the letters of the alphaet - using the letter order of the initial sound resources.  This resource uses the most assistance (outlined letter shapes) to lesser assistance (dotted letter shapes) and finally no assistance as children attempt the letters on their own.  Letters are written using guidelines

 Book of Numbers -  Another fun resource introducing the numerals 1-20, coupled with a visual representation of counting groups 1-20 and the printed word for each number. As with our literacy resources, the graphics used in this resource match the graphics used in all of the ED Specially 4U mathematical direct instruction resources (such as number concept cards)  This resource is also personalised for your child.

As well as the workbooks and CD, if this resource pack is purchased there is also two additional A4 posters which are great reminders of the initial letters/sounds of the alphabet and the numbers 1-20

This resource has been such a favourite for our students and children in the wider community.  We would love to hear how you have used your resource at home with your children in the comments below.

As with everything we do, we encourage you to enjoy our resources designed

For the Love of Learning

Donna

ED the ED Specially 4U dog