I particularly like to use free printables to supplement the curriculum we are currently working with. I find they add value in checking  for mastery of a particular skill or in reinforcing  new skills.

There is one website that I find myself frequenting on a regular basis to print out extra worksheets for my daughters. That website is www.Math-Aids.com I find the worksheets to be age appropriate, thorough and the fact that I can customize them is a huge bonus!

Math-Aids.com is a free resource for teachers, parents, students and homeschoolers. The math worksheets are randomly and specifically created by math worksheet generators. This allows you to customize an unlimited number of printable math worsheets to be created with the click of a button. They cover grades K through 8, but I have really only utilized the Kindergarten and First Grade functions.

The added benefit is that you are able to completely customize the worksheet you wish to produce.

*You can customize the range you wish to cover in number and value (ie..numbers 1-7 or only the coins penny and nickel or telling time to the hour only).

*You can customize the space for the answers (ie. blank line or base line, top line and gray middle line or student circles the correct number).

*You can customize the language (English, Spanish, French, German).

*You can customize the number of problems per page.

*You can customize a personal memo for the top of the page.

For “I” week,  in the Pre K Scholars Program, we introduce ‘inches” and the idea of measuring. We provide downloadable worksheets for measuring inches of ice cream.  However, should your child take a liking to using his/her Pre K Scholars ruler and wish to measure more, why not continue the learning fun?  Utilize this great resource to create some additonal free printables that are age appropriate.  Same goes for when you introduce time, money, number writing, addition and more.  The ability to continue the learning makes the mastery all the greater!

Do you know of any websites that offer quality “free worksheets” ?  Quality being the key word, of course..Please share!

Is my child ready for school? What about the kindergarten cut off date for enrollment in relation to my child’s birthday? What can I do to prepare my child at home? Is my child on target developmentally? My child isn’t pronouncing certain sounds, should I worry? What should I look for in choosing a quality preschool program? …

If you find that you have raised one or more of these questions in your own mind, I would like to introduce you to a valuable resource relating to Kindergarten Readiness.

www.kindergartenreadiness.net

Kindergarten Readiness.net provides a wealth of information related to preparing children for school, all compiled into one user-friendly website. They offer articles, downloadable and printable resources, comprehensive e-books, useful links and coverage of hot topics to help parents and educators provide young children with the very best early childhood education possible. Jaclyn Bower holds a Master’s Degree in Early Childhood Education and is the founder of Kindergarten Readiness.net. Like me, she believes that kids are capable of so much. With the proper ingredients the learning that can take place is limitless! Consider the potential if both parents and teachers  exposed them to information in the right environment and in a developmentally appropriate way.

Enjoy a letter from the founder and I encourage you to check out www.kindergartenreadiness.net as it is full of valuable information as it relates to preschool, preschool curriculums and kindergarten readiness. Likewise, if you find any other websites as equally resourceful, please share!

Founder’s Letter

Dear Parent or Educator,

My name is Jaclyn Morris Bower. I have held teaching credentials in three states. I received my first teaching credential from the University of Richmond in Virginia. I have since taught first grade, kindergarten, and preschool in Georgia and California. Before deciding to devote my time fully to this website, I was the Early Childhood Director at a lovely school in Rancho Santa Margarita, California.

I have created this Kindergarten Readiness website because I want children to love their kindergarten experience, to feel confident and proud of their accomplishments. Preparation is the key. You are children’s first and most important teachers. So many parents tell me that they want to help their child learn to read, write, draw, and count, etc, but they just don’t know how. Often there are skills learned in kindergarten that parents never even think of! Well, here it is, all in one place : what to do to best prepare your child for school, how to give your child a head-start. Take each child’s education into your own hands. Don’t allow children to struggle through kindergarten- it is such a crucial year.

I believe that kids are capable of so much more than adults give them credit for. Parents and teachers need to work together to expose them to the right information and the right environment in a developmentally-appropriate way and they will soar to unimaginable heights! Explore this website for ways to making learning fun and effective.

Not one child should have to struggle through their first years of school, when this should be such a fun, exciting time for them. Unfortunately for many students and parents, it is a frustrating and disheartening time. Studies have shown that children who are not prepared for kindergarten will in many cases continue to fall behind in elementary school, and will struggle through middle school, high school, college, and even in adulthood. There could not be a more influential time in a child’s life than these preschool years! Schools are becoming increasingly more academic and fast-paced. Stress is placed particularly on reading, writing, and math skills. Standardized testing begins as early as the first week of kindergarten in most schools! Let’s help children glide through these years with confidence and excitement.

Best of luck to you and your children! If you have any questions, please email me.

You can read my Philosophy of Education here.

Sincerely,

Jaclyn Morris Bower

Next step…making the letter and sound connections! Perhaps you have heard parents say,  “my child learned to read phonetically” or  “I know of a good phonics program” or “phonetic awareness is important in learning how to read”. What exactly does all of that mean? For clarification, one must understand the following terms:

Phonics is the understanding that there is a relationship between letters and sounds. It involves teaching how to connect the sounds of spoken English with letters or groups of letters. It also invloves teaching how to blend sounds of letters together to create the sounds of unknown words. Thus, it pertains to the relationship between the spoken and written English language.

Phonetic Awareness is the ability to recognize individual sounds in a spoken language and to see relationships between sounds in words. It is also the understanding that these sounds can be manipulated and rearranged to create new words.

Phoneme is a sound unit in a language system

The goals of phonics instruction are to provide children with the ability to connect letter with sounds and to ensure that they know how to apply that knowledge into reading and writing. Research shows that students with phonics instruction were more effective in alphabetic knowledge and word reading and writing skills than those students that interfaced with instructional approaches that were less focused on phonics instruction.

Phonics can be fun! Hopefully, you have had a chance to check out our newly launched iPhone app Phonics Fun & Games.

Last week’s post, I talked about my daughter’s Life Cheringel. That was an example of her ability to phonectically or phonemically sound out the word triangle. That same child, who happens to be  prolific in her writings around the house, made a list. Note the title.

Directions

That was her list of “directions” (one must smile).

She happens to be a graduate of  the Pre K Scholars phonics-based program and clearly has no inhibitions with “sounding it out”.

Personally, as a mom, there are few greater joys than finding lists, notes, stories and any other written communications that have been produced by a child. I absolutely love to see how early readers  have sounded out words and what they choose to write about. You often hear of “Turtle Talk” or “Inventive Spelling” and the importance it plays developmentally on the emerging reader and writer. This all pertains to phonics and phonetic awareness. I came across a great blog post that I’d like to share. It is titled, “But how do you spell?” It is written by Annemarie Johnson, an educator for 25+ years, who is passionate about literacy. She is an incredible resource to parents and teachers everywhere, especially those in early education.

What do you do with preschoolers who are afraid to “sound it out”?

In an effort to offer a more price sensitive product, we digitized our curriculum. The Kindergarten Readiness Kit DVD has all of the essentials to teach the Pre K Preschool Curriculum on one DVD. It comes with 150+ lessons with detailed instructions that you can print at your convenience, 52 phonics cards (both uppercase and lowercase) and 130 Guessing Game Cards (A-Z) to reinforce initial sounds. All of the flash cards are digitized and animated with an added audio to motivate the children. The DVD also allows us to provide a “drag and click” computer skill  opportunity for children, which we didn’t previously have. Parents are happy to  know that their child can explore early phonics on a computer in a safe environment without having access to the internet..an added bonus!

We debuted our new DVD at 4 Greater Homeschool Conventions back East, which meant lots of travel and organization for this mother of four.  We met so many wonderful homeschooling families who  eagerly set out to purchase varied programs for their children. It was so refreshing to see the level of interest and responsibility the parents took in choosing  just the right curriculums for their individual learners. For three days the families would attend workshops, listen to speakers and comb the exhibit halls diligently searching for educational connections. In Memphis, we met The Tuckers! New to homeschooling they were like sponges, trying to absorb everything they could! Their energy and level of enthusiasm was invigorating. Meghan Tucker is a thoughtful and dedicated homeschooling mother of 2 boys. She loves to blog about keeping a home, her Christian faith and homeschooling. They were one of many that purchased the Pre K Scholars Kindergarten Readiness Kit DVD. She writes about her experiences with it and so much more on her blog..Read Meghan’s Blog:

http://www.thetuckerstaketennessee.com/2011/03/new-month-new-goals-2/

Fortunately, our DVD  and it’s demonstration was met with much enthusiasm! For every two that we demonstrated, we sold one! A 50% conversion rate was a  reassuring testament to our efforts! If you were unable to attend the conventions, not to worry, you can get your own personal demonstration of our DVD at www.prekscholars.com Whether you are looking to find something for your tot to do while you are holding class with the olders, or you are new to homeschooling and need some direction on where to start we have you covered! Not a homeschooling parent, but want to assure your child is adequately prepared for Kindergarten, you are covered as well.  As you all head back to school with your preschooler or Kindergartener, we would love to hear from you…

I have a very talented friend who started her own “graphic design” business within the stationary world. I had pitched my concept to her about an Alphabet Community of Characters that would all be individuals with their own sound identity, but they would also form friendships with other members of the community and by “working together,” new sounds and/or words would be made. She was swamped with her newly developed business and she thought long and hard about who would be the perfect fit for the job of giving a visual identity to these 26 characters and the town in which they would live. Hence, my introduction to the talented Carson Abbert.

Carson is an Art Teacher in Portland, Oregon, so we were never able to meet face to face (this amazes me even more). We spoke several times on the phone and seemed to have a shared vision for the characters..they were to be multicultural, they were to show action, they were to be motivating, they were to be enticing and friendly and they were to translate well into the letter and the sound motion. Being an educator himself, he could appreciate their purpose and he set out to bring the characters to life. If you see the map of Scholarville, you will see that he successfully met all of our initial criteria and then some.

The children LOVE Scholarville and they, surprisingly, all have different favorites. I am so pleased to see how the characters, who only had a name, a motion and a nationality a year ago, have become so vivacious and instrumental in Reading Readiness. Carson and I have yet to meet face to face, but the connection we made has been a huge blessing in my life!

Magic can be created from the right connections, don’t you agree? Do we not always try to find the right connections for our children from the moment they are born – the right doctors, the best toys, the best peer groups, the right mom group, the right school, the proper extra curricular activities and the list goes on….

What happens if we just trust in letting it be?

Interested in starting your own home-based pre-K program? Our home-based business kit has everything you need, including the lesson in the post you just read. If you’re already using Pre K Scholars, share your success stories here.

I truly believe that if you expose youngsters to a multitude of skills, you will be amazed at what they are able to retain. For example, in class this week, we introduced the letter T and some different educational components that integrated in nicely, one being telling time.

I showed the kids a large instruction clock and led them on a discovery by asking them questions and provoking some exploration: What is this? What shape is it? How many numbers are on it? How many hands are on it? Are the hands the same size? What does a clock tell us?

I simply stated that the larger hand tells us how many minutes and the smaller hand tells us the hour. Furthermore, when the minute hand is straight up pointing to the twelve, we say, “o’clock.” With that, the students were given smaller instructional clocks and asked to show many different “o’clock” times (i.e., “Who can show me 6 o’clock?”).

They loved this game. They even asked if they could take the clocks home for the week. How could I say no to the eagerness to explore further? How else can we expose our kids to early education in a motivating way?

Interested in starting your own home-based pre-K program? Our home-based business kit has everything you need, including the lesson in the post you just read. If you’re already using Pre K Scholars, share your success stories here.

A research study titled “Vocabulary Development During The Preschool Years” states that “Active participation can increase the likelihood that preschoolers [will] learn more vocabulary.”

The Guessing Game, which is only one component of Vocabulary Development addressed by the Pre K Scholars Curriculum, is as active as it gets and the children truly value being involved in the learning process. My students ask me daily, “Is it time for the Guessing Game?” It’s a favorite for all.

This week’s game provided three clues:

1. It has a face and hands

2. It’s numbered from 1 to 12

3. It tells you the time

We have already introduced both Karate Kicking Kim and Carmen the Cook, so we know the answer must begin with the hard “C” or “K” sound. Mouths are closed, but minds are thinking and eyes are widening as hands pop up.

One is called to answer: “Clock!” The child with the correct answer is given the card and may put it into the pocket chart below the corresponding beginning letter–and on to the next, until the game is completed.

While the kids are having so much fun and feeling so proud of themselves, they don’t realize they are working on phonics, letter/sound recollection, beginning sounds, vocabulary expansion and recognition, memory recall, deductive thinking, prior knowledge, listening skills, social development by listening to peers, taking turns, sitting still, raising hand and on and on…

I’m curious–how is your child exposed to new vocabulary?

My twins just turned four on January 18^th. Between their two older sisters and their mother, who teaches kindergarten readiness classes out of the home, they have a heightened sense of academics. They pick up chapter books to have “reading time” with their sisters and they spend most of their time writing friends and family letters containing “words” and elaborate illustrations. Their stick figures are a thing of the past and we can no longer drive by a sign without identifying all of the letters it contains..We wake up to questions like, “Do I have school today?” and “B, B, B..does boy start with the letter B?”

Many would say this is great, but my problem — and I know that many, many moms share my dilemma — they won’t start Kindergarten for 19 months.

Not only do they not make the cut off for Kindergarten, but they do not even make the cut off for the Pre-K class at their preschool. The cutoff for that class is at the end of December, so my kids’ January birthdays do not qualify.

My options are a three day per week class or a five day per week class, both three hours at a time. The five day class offers more time in school but the curriculum is more of the same curriculum they are currently receiving in the three day class. What do I do?

The extra two days are going to cost more and, with twins that means that extra payment is doubled. When times are already financially tough, why pay more for more of the same? Many moms are in my shoes and I can’t seem to dodge the question that is on most of their minds right now: “What will you do in the fall?” I am blessed that Pre K Scholars is a part of my world and that I can supplement my twins’ preschool experience with the program. Thanks to a well-structured kindergarten readiness curriculum, they will be more than ready for some more academic structure and they will be emotionally mature enough to handle its contents.

If you share my situation, I hope you consider the Pre K Scholars family kit – it is the perfect supplement to any preschool program, and costs much less than I would pay for those extra days in their current preschool. What would you do in this situation?