Is Your Child Ready for Kindergarten?
by Stephanie Brown,
August 11, 2011, page 7.....

Every year a new set of students walks into the first day of kindergarten. Some of these children are more prepared than others. Preparation for school can help make the year less stressful and help foster a good connection between children and their perception of school. All parents want their children to succeed, but preparing a child for school may be difficult and overwhelming.

Elizabeth Scatchard, a retired CCS kindergarten teacher, with 32 years of experience, has offered some advice to help parents answer these questions for the upcoming school year. Scatchard is a strong believer in experiential learning, which means allowing kindergarteners to learn through play. Children, she says, are like sponges and learning doesn’t necessarily mean formally.

What does your child need to know before entering kindergarten?
Kindergarten can be a shock for some students, but over time they adapt and grow. This veteran teacher believes that the most important emotional and behavioral skills needed for kindergarten are sharing, listening, curiosity and the ability to follow directions. Once these are developed, children are able to thrive in their new learning environment. By encouraging literacy skills at home, the child will be more open to literacy activities at school.

How can you help your child prepare over the summer?
Scatchard’s advice is to make learning a part of the child’s every day life. Reading aloud everyday is key. She says, “If you love it, they will.” If you show interest in books, so will they. Some great tips she offered were to repeat books, use different voices, and encourage story retellings and discussion to build comprehension knowledge. When you aren’t reading, it is important to make books available. She suggests these books be placed in everyday areas like next to the car seat, on the bedside table and in the bathroom.
Other activities include singing the ABCs and nursery rhymes, playing rhyming games, and doing word/sound recognition activities. Also, help the child write his or her name and practice other fine motor skills like cutting and drawing. Another Scatchard recommendation is to use writing alternatives; for example, instead of using paper, use shaving cream, sand or pudding. To build writing muscles, she advocates playing with clay or Legos.

The Local Library
If you are questioning what to read to your child, Scatchard suggests looking to local libraries and bookstores where there is a wide variety of useful and interesting picture books. She suggests looking at a diverse collection of picture books, focusing on the alphabet, numbers, rhyming and predictability. She said, “I love to focus on art in books… connecting books to art projects.” Finding creative twists to reading, like art projects, is a great twist to read-aloud time.
As Scatchard mentioned, the library is an excellent place to go to receive guidance about books and early literacy. One of the best ways to help your child is by taking regular trips to the library. Margaret Woodruff, the Charlotte Library Director, is just the person to talk to. The library and its staff can provide information about many upcoming events and opportunities along with insightful ideas to help parents and readers.
The environment of the Charlotte Library is enriching to every age group, especially the early readers. Not only are there many different books, but also a dramatic play area, games, audio books and a place for parent-child time. Woodruff believes that a child “can’t spend enough time with books,” and the place she provides is both motivational to the early reader and helpful to struggling parents. Some great books that Woodruff suggested included a series called “Get Set For Kindergarten” by Rosemary Wells, which touches upon many different elements of reading.
The library provides many opportunities for children. There are weekly story times for 3 to 5-year-olds, which allows preschoolers the ability to meet other preschoolers prior to kindergarten. During the school year there is a Lunch Story Time for Kindergarteners. They can take the bus to the library and eat their lunch with the librarians while listening to a story. This allows new students to transition into a full school day. There is also the Kindergarten Library Card Party, where 5+ year-olds can get their first library cards and meet other soon-to-be kindergarteners.
Parents: it’s not too late to help your child prepare for kindergarten. Just remember to read aloud frequently and take advantage of the local Charlotte Library. Happy reading!

Stephanie Brown is a CVU alumna from Williston studying Early Childhood Education & Literacy Development as a sophomore at Hampshire College in Massachusetts.