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(HealthNewsDigest.com) – If you think that kindergarten is just about unstructured playtime and napping, think again. Kindergarten is the new first grade, with more emphasis on academics than ever before. This means readiness is critical during the preschool years.
Kindergarten readiness encompasses many skills. Most kindergarten programs, either formally or informally, expect entering students to be able to recognize letters, hold a pencil properly, and—in many cases—write their names. A child who masters pencil grip, develops drawing and coloring skills, and identifies letters is better prepared for the transition to kindergarten and the skills that foster reading, writing, and handwriting mastery along with student confidence.
Because young children are naturally curious, active, and eager to try new things, the preschool years are the ideal time to lay the foundation for learning. However, preschoolers are not yet ready for formal teaching. They need exposure to the foundational skills of handwriting such as starting at the top, recognizing capitals and numbers, and building letters in sequence.
The key is balancing the needs of the whole child: emotional, physical, and developmental.
Here are some broad guidelines of what you may want to help your child achieve prior to kindergarten:
Concept development
Physical development
Social and emotional development
Number concepts
Capital letter identification
Play-based, multisensory learning (tactile, auditory, visual, acoustic, etc.) is a great way to tap into your child’s unique learning abilities. Writing on blackboards, building letters with Wood Pieces, and moving and singing to music are ideal for introducing rhyming, building, drawing, counting, and more.
It’s up to you whether to teach from home or enroll your child in a preschool program. Readiness curricula such as the Get Set for School™ program provide components for use at home and in the classroom. Regardless, there’s a lot you can do at home to help your child get set for school:
Read: Show your child the importance of communicating through words.
Draw: Give your child small bits of chalk or crayon and allow them to create and explore. Children who draw tend to write better.
Sing: Use song and music to introduce your child to the alphabet, counting, imitation, memorization, rhyming, and so much more.
Move: Teach spatial words including under, over, top, middle, bottom. Use visual representations and encourage imitation.
Live and Learn: Explain social concepts such as waiting in line, teach body parts, count objects in your environment, offer small bites of food to teach grasp and coordination.
Ultimately, school success depends on developing good social habits, motor coordination and strength, handwriting proficiency, and other language skills.
A hands-on, playful approach to learning—at home or in school—is the natural and easy way to develop pencil grip, focus, posture, and other skills necessary for good handwriting. In turn, good handwriting leads to proficiency in composition and creative writing, reading, and even math. That’s just the start. Good handwriting is the key to comfort and confidence in communication and successful lifelong learning.
Jan Z. Olsen, OTR, is one of the creators of The Get Set for School™ readiness program that uses play and music to help very young children build a solid foundation for lifelong learning. Ms. Olsen is also the founder and creator of Handwriting Without Tears®. For more information, visit www.getsetforschool.com.
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