Parents of Kinder Kids

For Parents of Kindergarten Kids

Phonemic Awareness [Phonemic Awareness is the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate individual sounds (phonemes) in spoken words. For example, a listener with phonemic awareness can break the word "Cat" into three separate phonemes: /c/, /a/, and /t/.]

Phonemic Awareness Activities for 4-5-6 Year Olds

Kindergarten Student Expectations

Click on the apple to go to a new page showing Social, Intellectual, Personal, and Physical Expectations of Kindergarten Kids.

Ten Ways to Communicate with Teachers

1. Pick up the phone for occasional 5- to 10-minute "catch-up" conversations between formal parent-teacher conferences.

2. Make an appointment and have specific questions prepared to discuss with teachers and administrators.

3. Share your wishes and worries about your child so you and the teacher can compare observations, and set goals and expectations together.

4. Ask for advice about your child's behavior problems, homework difficulties, and how to reinforce at home what's learned at school.

5. Respond to report cards by sending the teacher a note if you're pleased with your child's progress or by asking what you can do to help your child improve if the grade or comments are disappointing to you.

6. Get with the program by attending school conferences, as well as other meetings and programs that allow you to make contact with your child's teacher and other school staff.

7. Find out what your child's learning and what the academic expectations are each year.

8. Seek a translator if language differences are preventing good communication between you and a teacher. Your child or another bilingual family member may serve as a translator. Translators can also be found among the school's staff, members of your local PTA, or other community organizers.

9. Provide information to the teachers about major changes in home circumstances that may affect your children's behavior or performance.

10. Send thank-you notes to the teacher whenever your child demonstrates new skills or expresses excitement about something that happened in school discussions repeatedly.

[ Taken from The National PTA Newsletter, Volume 2 / Issue 2/ Winter 2002 ]

National PTA Headquarters

When Kids Steal

Here are some classroom-tested strategies you can use at home to help your child stop taking things:

Don't take it personally. It's easy to have your feelings hurt when your child "steals" things and wonder if you've failed to teach him right from wrong. Remember that taking things is just one of those things that some kids do - it's no worse than having tantrums, hitting, or complaining all the time.

Don't let kids show-off. Some children take things because they don't have all the wonderful toys that other classmates do. In many classrooms, Show and Tell is "bring and brag." Rather than bragging about purchased items, your child should be encouraged to show off things she's created.

Don't make a big deal. Many teachers routinely check children's pockets at the end of the day. Remember that it's easy to forget to put everything back where it belongs. If you find something in your child's pocket, be mellow. "Oops. Let's give this to Zach - it's his, and he needs to keep it."

[Taken from Scholastic Parent & Child, October 2001]

How Children Problem Solve

Children are natural problem solvers, eager to make sense of their world. At ages 5 and 6, your child may:

Show a new level of frustration when she/he can't solve complex problems as quickly as she/he used to solve easier ones.

Experiment with helping others work out a problem before she turns to an adult.

Be more likely to consider and discuss how possible solutions might work before trying them out.

Be very verbal as she/he solves problems. Children this age are beginning to be able to explain their thinking and delight in telling you in detail about their ideas.

Find much satisfaction in solving science problems. They are at an analytical-thinking stage and so find the process of observation, prediction, experimentation, and analysis appealing.

Test the limits of her body with large-motor problem-solving activities - looking to see how far, how long, and how high she/he can move.

[Source: Scholastic Parent & Child, April/May 2001]

Bedtime Stories Boost Brain Waves

When you snuggle with your child and read him/her stories, you stimulate all the senses at once, making the experience pleasurable and creating positive associations with reading. Start with short reading sessions and increase their length as his/her attention span grows. When you point to words in the text with your finger as you read, you are helping to train your child's eyes to automatically follow words and symbols from left to right.

[Source: Scholastic Parent & Child, April/May 2001]

Parent Quiz:

Are You Teaching Your Child Responsibility?

Here is a quiz to see whether you are doing all you can do to foster responsibility in your child. Give yourself five points for something you usually do, zero points for something you never do, or any score in between.

___My child has chores to do around the house.

___My child uses an alarm clock to get himself up in the morning.

___If my child forgets something at home, I do not bail him out by driving it to school.

___We have a regular time for homework, but I do not nag. Homework is my child's responsibility.

___I give my child choices whenever possible.

How did you score? Above 20 means you are raising a responsible child. 15 to 19 in average. Below 15 may mean you are not giving your child enough responsibility.

Volunteering At Your Child's School

How Can You Find time to Volunteer?

Quiz!What is Your Parenting Style?

Discover Your Parenting Style

How to Talk So Teachers Listen Forget report cards. Many preschool and primary school teachers today rely more on formal parent-teacher conferences to convey information about a child's progress. but as important as these face-to-face meetings are, they're often limited to 15-minute or 20-minute intervals. So it pays to plan ahead and do your homework, say Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish, the coauthors of How to Talk So Kids Can Learn: At Home and in School(Fireside). You can make the most of the time you'll have with the teacher by following these five strategies:

1. Before you go, jot down questions you would like to ask about how your child is doing and what you can do to help.

2. Start the session by describing a positive classroom experience your child has had ("Sam really enjoyed the lesson you gave on rockets.") This tells the teacher what she or he is doing right and sets a positive tone for the meeting.

3. Share any information from home that may be affecting your child's performance in school ("Nicole has been very quiet and sad since her grandmother became ill").

4. Instead of telling the teacherwhat she or he is doing wrong, try describing specific ways you've found to meet your child's needs ("My son gets discouraged easily, especially with reading. I've discovered that he does better when someone notices any little progress he makes.")

5. Follow up with a note to the teacher. This finishing touch will help confirm what you've discussed and establish that you're both working toward the common goal of helping your youngster succeed in school.

Article taken from Sesame Street Parents, November 1999

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