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

Written and Illustrated by Kaethe Zemach

This is a treasure of a children’s book to remind us about being thankful for what we have and remind us of the dangers of wanting MORE.

Is it possible to have too much?

“Simon the Fiddler had a cozy little house and everything he needed.” He had a bed to give him the rest he needed, food to keep him from going hungry, clothes to keep him warm and friends to keep him from being lonely.

“For a long time, Simon was perfectly happy. He took care of his house and spent time with his friends. But one day, Simon looked around his little house and thought, “I don’t have enough.”  “I WANT MORE!”

So, Simon starting accumulating more chairs, and more toys, and more hats…until…. his house got so crowded he could barely move.

Simon missed his simple life  and cried, “I have TOO MUCH!”

What does he do with all of his newly acquired possessions in order to restore the simplicity he once enjoyed ? You must read the book to find out. But, one thing is for sure, readers young and old will delight in this whimsical tale of having too much. It is a wonderful story about  getting and giving.

Warning: it may spark discussions about the joys of friendships, sharing, greed and much more.

Aside from the literary content, enjoy the  beautiful watercolor illustrations with vibrant colors that bring such life to his cozy stone cottage. The artwork goes from simple and peaceful to abundance and clutter and back to simple again. A true depiction of the story.

This is the perfect time of year to share this book with young audiences everywhere. May it remind us to be thankful for what we have. Let the moral of this story also remain in our minds throughout the holiday season as we give and receive!

Enjoy the story and cheers to the simplicities of life!

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”?

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.

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?