Preparing for New School

What excited I am as my daughter will go to Kindergarten soon on August 31. I have been invited to attend for Kindergarten orientation on next Thursday.

Today I'm planning to bring her to Wal-Mart to take my paycheck and have shopping for food and her needs for school. It will be fun. As I have doing several things to prepare her for Kindergarten class, my focus is to teaching her to read. I don't need to worry about writing, drawing and other interactive activities because she is done those well.

Teaching to read is my focus as it needs more patient. I'm glad seeing many imrprovements. She can read most words that contain one syllable. I also found several good learning websites for kid's reading. This morning I'm impressed, she found herself on the internet through our favorite kid's links where she could learn reading by herself. She looked excited. Probably I don't need to worry about this anymore as long as she has interest to learn reading. I'm sure she can read soon before going to Elementary school next year, especially when I remember she can put all the letters puzzle just under 1 minute when she was 2 years old, writing her name when she was 3 years old and said 1 to 10 when she was 2 years old and A to Z when she was 2-3 years old, began playing online games when she was 2-3 years old and operate the mouse like an adult when she was 4 years old, making story with her toys when she was 2 years old, making story in her drawings when she was 4 years old, and pretending to read the bookstory as the given pictures on every page when she was 4-5 years old.

Though I have confidence about her ability, I never forget to give attention about these tips for parents to encourage reading and reading comprehension:

- Keep a supply of interesting books available in your car, sports bags, or beach tote. (Books are everywhere in my house)

- Take your child to the local library and get a library card. Return frequently. (I did, even she won summer reading contest and get 2 free tickets each for Dutch Wonderland and Hersheypark. Below is a picture when we used those ticktes to DW on last Monday.)



- Read for purpose. Maybe your child wants to bake a cake, or perform magic tricks. (She loves helping me in cooking, cleaning and washing the dishes)






- Find books or magazines that interest your child, and that she enjoys reading. (She loves to opening page by page of children magzines or princess books)

- Connect reading with other summer activities. Read about places you might visit. (Hmm she has known Wal-Mart very well, including its motto: YOU SAVE MONEY AND LIVE BETTER - and I never teach her at all, ha, ha...!!)

- Remember the strong connection between reading and writing. Encourage children to write letters to grandparents, relatives, friends; to write grocery list; to-do or to-see lists for trips. (I did it since she was 3 years old when she started having an ability to write her own name, especially in sending bithday cards to my family in Indonesia or making birthday card to every family/relative members in USA. She did grocery list with trying to draw what she needed while she was not able to write them, even my husband and I never taught her. It was her own inisiative. She is very smart girl.)

- Use the five finger method to be sure the book your child has chosen is at her 'just right' independent reading level. Open the book to a page near the middle and have the child read it silently. If she sees an unknown word, the child puts a finger on it. Continue to place a finger on each unfamiliar word. If our fingers and one thumb are used, the book may be too hard for the child to read independently. (I haven't tried this tip. I'll consider it someday.)

- If the book that your child is interested in reading is just too difficult, share the reading with her. Take turns reading aloud or read the book for her. Ask question to encourage thinking and conversation about the book. (I did it already.)

- Encourage your child to talk about what she is reading. Discuss the setting, the characters and their actions. (I did sometimes.)

- When finished, ask your child to retell the story, thinking about what happened first, next, then finally. (I seldom to do this because she will give comments without I ask for the pages that are interesting her then she will tell what will happen next as she knew its story before.)

- Let your child see you read. (She does.)







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Getting ready to go to shopping; preparing my daughter needs for her Kindergarten class
about 1 minute ago from web