Kindergarten
Listen to your child attentively and interactively. Take time to have meaningful conversations with your child. Exchange and discuss ideas.
Read to your child. Talk about what your read. Retell the story. Talk about the author and illustrator. Look at and talk about the pictures. Talk about unfamiliar vocabulary. Stress colors, shapes, and sounds. Identify and classify objects to likenesses and differences. Make note of rhyming words and words that begin with the same sound. Practice "reading" from front to back of the book and from left to right down the page from top to bottom. Guess what might happen next. What would you do in a similar situation? Let your child see you reading to learn new information and for enjoyment. Have fun reading together!
Help your child memorize his/her name (first, middle, last), birth date, home phone number and complete address.
Help your child practice tying, buttoning, snapping and zipping his/her own clothing so this can be accomplished without adult assistance.
Help your child be competent in handling all toileting situations independently. If an accident should occur, I have extra clothing which may be borrowed, washed, and returned the following day.
Help your child learn to identify his/her printed name and initials. When printing names, capitalize only the first letter and make all the others lower case. Use top to bottom letter and number formation; don't push up from the bottom to the top. Encourage a three fingered pencil grip (thumb on the side, only the index finger on top, and long middle finger in the back).
Let your little one be a "child". We all need time to discover, explore, experiment and interact. WE all need time to grow and "bloom".
Remember, you were your child's first teacher and that joy and responsibility doesn't stop because he/she is now "in school". You will be teaching and guiding him/her for many years to come and those attitudes and impressions you instill in your child now will be carried with your precious gift into adulthood.