Young parents often struggle with how much to teach their children and when to start. Are little ones truly ready to learn the alphabet at eighteen months of age? If you teach your child a few sight words at age three, are you pushing" or are you doing your job as a good parent? What does a child need to know before heading off to kindergarten? There is a confusing array of opinions about exactly what parents should and should not be trying to teach their children.

Instead of latching onto a specific skill or area, it is important for children to come to school ready to learn. Many kindergarten programs expect to teach the alphabet and other basic skills to the youngsters, but they hope students will come equipped with a love for learning, an understanding of books as communication tools, and a solid base of language skills. Educators talk of a group of skills called readiness skills" that will help ensure a childs school success.

The readiness skills form the foundation for learning. They include skills such as recognizing differences and similarities, categorizing, sequencing, and speaking. There are lesser known skills, like closure (the ability of the mind to fill in missing pieces and make a whole) and directionality (the ability to understand positional and spatial ideas). Readiness skills also include learning about how printed language works, how to use a book, and understanding how spoken words can be represented on the page.

The good news is that the main way to impart solid readiness skills to children is to play with them. Engage in the traditional preschool activities, like doing puzzles, coloring, playing house, building with blocks, and lacing strings through holes. Most importantly, read to children as much as possible. Reading aloud builds the basic skills that children need to be successful when learning to read, like vocabulary, understanding of language, and comprehension skills.

Now theres help for parents to demystify the readiness skills and discover exactly which activities will help build the skills needed for school. A Parents Guide to Readiness Skills" explains each of the basic skills in detail and offers concrete ways to help children build competence in that area. Parents will find a host of hands-on activity ideas to satisfy their drive to make play time into productive time. In this fast-paced world, parents can be reassured that it is all right to take time to play with the little ones. In fact, it is essential that we take the time to do just that.



Author Information

Sandy Fleming