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Luv Saving Money: Doodle Roll Giveaway: Help Doodle Roll "Get on the...: Some of you might remember that I did a review for Doodle Rolls back in the beginning of December. Doodle Rolls are convenient activities to take with you on the go...
Saturday, March 31, 2012
Monday, March 26, 2012
What Do They Need to Know BEFORE Starting School?
Many concerned parents ask me what their child really needs to know before starting school. When deciding what to teach, your child's teacher looks to three main sources to guide their lessons. First and foremost are the state standards. Every state has learning standards for grades 3 through 12. Many states have expanded those learning standards to the realm of early childhood, which includes learning standards for Birth through Grade 3. Yes, you read that right, from Birth. The second source your teacher and school district looks at is the curriculum they will be using. Many curricula include books and activities along with the scope and sequence in which they will teach themes throughout the year. The third source is the individual child. Lessons can be altered, supplemented, or adapted to fit individual children's needs. However, the state standards guide all of the above. State standards vary slightly from state to state, but for the most part they are very similar. I will be beginning a series covering The Pennsylvania State Early Learning Standards in which I will highlight a specific state standard and give you examples of what you can do at home to help your little develop the skills needed to meet each standard successfully and be prepared for that first day of Pre-K or Kindergarten!
Saturday, March 17, 2012
Language and Learning Experiences: Part II - Read to Your Child
This is Part II in my monthly series of developing your child's language and learning.
Read to Your Child
Regardless of the age of your child reading him or her is a valuable activity. I even read to my daughter while she was in the womb. Everyone's listening vocabulary is well above their speaking, reading, or writing vocabulary. Reading to your child introduces them to new words, a variety of sentence structures, and concepts that they may not be exposed to in their daily lives.
Reading books also teaches them early literacy concepts such as book handling skills: holding the book right side up, turning the pages from left to right (front to back). If you use your fingers to follow the words as you read they begin to understand that print is read from left to right across the page and that you read from the top to the bottom of the page.
You can pause as you read to talk about the pictures on each page, let them identify the things they know by asking them "What this?" and tell them how smart they are, how proud you are of them. Identify the things they don't know by pointing to them and telling them the names, colors, or shapes of the objects. If you are reading a book about a farm and they can identify the chicken. Respond with, "Very good! That IS a chicken! What color is that chicken?" (yellow) "Yes, that is a yellow chicken."
By having simple conversations like this about what they see when you are reading to them you are helping build their vocabulary and revealing the identity new objects to them. You can also help them predict what is going to happen on each page if you talk about the picture before you read. This is fun to do even with very young infants. They'll enjoy the one-on-one time, the sound of your voice and the brightly colored pictures as much as they will enjoy learning.
Read to Your Child
Regardless of the age of your child reading him or her is a valuable activity. I even read to my daughter while she was in the womb. Everyone's listening vocabulary is well above their speaking, reading, or writing vocabulary. Reading to your child introduces them to new words, a variety of sentence structures, and concepts that they may not be exposed to in their daily lives.
Reading books also teaches them early literacy concepts such as book handling skills: holding the book right side up, turning the pages from left to right (front to back). If you use your fingers to follow the words as you read they begin to understand that print is read from left to right across the page and that you read from the top to the bottom of the page.
You can pause as you read to talk about the pictures on each page, let them identify the things they know by asking them "What this?" and tell them how smart they are, how proud you are of them. Identify the things they don't know by pointing to them and telling them the names, colors, or shapes of the objects. If you are reading a book about a farm and they can identify the chicken. Respond with, "Very good! That IS a chicken! What color is that chicken?" (yellow) "Yes, that is a yellow chicken."
By having simple conversations like this about what they see when you are reading to them you are helping build their vocabulary and revealing the identity new objects to them. You can also help them predict what is going to happen on each page if you talk about the picture before you read. This is fun to do even with very young infants. They'll enjoy the one-on-one time, the sound of your voice and the brightly colored pictures as much as they will enjoy learning.
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