Dear
Parents,
Leaving
the comfort of the JCC Pre-K family and entering the world of the kindergarten is an exciting and important milestone for a five year old. As
with any big transition however, it is natural to experience feelings of
sadness, and even some fear, amongst the joy of watching your child enter this
next stage. We are all too aware that kindergarten today is much more
academically focused, bringing with it a new pressure on accountability and
measurable performance. This increasing emphasis on formal instruction and
acquisition of skills puts greater maturity demands on our children, and
unfortunately so much of what is precious about a child’s early years may be
lost amongst what feels like a frantic frenzy to achieve.
Our
goal here at the Parent Resource Center is to help you enjoy this first step
into this wonderful stage of life, while also helping you to prepare your child
as best we can for this next big milestone. A parent’s key job at times of
transition is to support their child’s growing independence, let go gracefully and enjoy the journey by being present in the moment. We hope we can
assist you in feeling fully prepared for the journey into Kindergarten, so that
you may have the opportunity to truly enjoy the exciting stage you and your child
are experiencing right now.
The following are a number of helpful tips and answers to your
questions on how to take advantage of these last few weeks of summer, while
also helping to prepare your child for the coming fall:
Tips for Kindergarten
Success
What skills will my child
need to posses in order to succeed in Kindergarten?
School
success requires young children to:
Understand their own feelings and the feelings of others
Be able to separate comfortably from parents
Cooperate with both peers and adults
Resolve conflict successfully and control their own behavior
Be enthusiastic about learning
Be able to communicate
Acclimate to being in a group situation learning with others
Have self-help skills needed to get through the day
Have strong fine motor skills
Have basic alphabet and number awareness
How can I help ensure my
child will be successful in these areas?
Children
feel secure when they know what to expect. You can help set them up for success
by making the transition easier:
Visit the new school a few weeks
before, ask for a tour or show them their classroom
Show them their bus-stop both near
home and at school
Discuss new bed time and morning
routines
Pick out a first day of school
outfit together
Find out who is in the class and, if
possible, and arrange play dates with some of the children
Begin a countdown to the first day
so it doesn’t come as a complete surprise the night before
Please remember: it is
important to do each of these a little at a time so as not to overwhelm them!
How else can I help lay
down the foundation for my child to succeed in this new academic environment?
You
can prepare your child while enjoying time with them by doing the following:
Saying their full name, address,
and phone number
Printing their own name or at
least the first letter
Use a scissor, glue, pencils, etc.
Play card games such as Crazy
Eights or Go Fish to help with patterning and sorting
Give concrete opportunities to
count things – not just memorize counting numbers
Play board or playground games
where there are rules to follow
READ DAILY! This is the single most important step in laying the foundation for academic success!
For those wishing to gain a little more guidance and understanding of this monumental moment in time, a workshop on Getting Your Child Ready for September will be held on Wed. August 8th at 10:00am at our Oceanside building.
Please feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns about your child’s readiness for kindergarten. I would be more than happy to discuss this transition with you.
All the best,
Karen Horowitz
Director of Parenting Resource Network
|
634-4192
|
