As I've mentioned before, I'm not sending The Boy to state nursery for his free 15 hours. I know, shock horror right? There is a good reason for this, several in fact which are far too boring, convoluted and not important at the moment.
However, what it does mean is that I want to be sure that I'm doing the best that I can to get him ready for Reception next September. And this is where I'm going to do something that I don't tend to do very often on this blog; I'll don my teacher hat, draw upon my experience as a Literacy co-ordinator and come up with a bank of pre-school activities that focus on developing pre-Literacy skills.
Pre-Literacy skills are vital to ensure that your child is ready to learn how to read and write when they get to school. Don't be in a rush to teach them yourself, that's the point of the teachers who have gone through years of training to ensure they are delivering the best teaching to our children. I've worked in a Reception class and trying to re-teach a child phonics is nigh on impossible. More important for us as parents is to ensure that they have the pre-Literacy skills in place, general things like: fine motor skills development, hand-eye co-ordination and communication. More specifically; sequencing, shape and pattern recognition, letter awareness, positional language, and (for those who are ready) proper pronounciation of phonics.
Next month when the big kids return to school, I want to focus in on these all important skills and create a resource bank for parents like me. This is where I'd like some help please.
If you have a post on your blog about pre-Literacy skills (like the ones listed above) please leave that in the comments box below. If you have any ideas that you'd like to contribute (but no blog posts) leave those in the comments box. I will credit everyone in.
Let's help our children learn through play, let's treasure their childhood and not push them to grow up!
My son is a very similar age to The Boy and I've had a lot of questions in my mind about some of the things you mention recently. I've been googling, but frankly, I've been flummoxed by the whole thing. I will follow this with interest, and if there is something I can contribute, I will.
I've got some! http://nurturestore.co.uk/art-for-kids-paint-play http://nurturestore.co.uk/playdough-and-mark-making http://nurturestore.co.uk/creating-comics-with-kids http://nurturestore.co.uk/pirate-map-boost-literacy-ideas
hi hon, I have found these books by Galt very good for the kinds of things you mention. Spotting similarities/ differences/ identifying colours and shapes and counting. Here's the link http://i-heart-motherhood.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/galt-early-activities-books.html
I'll keep checking to see what kinds of things I can be doing with Isla, she loves learning!
Hi
Think you read my blog post about dot to dot alphabet cards
http://www.littlecreativedays.co.uk/blog/read_57911/alphabet-dot-to-dot-cards-letters-a-to-h.html
Going to be updating with the next 4 letters we did today.
Look forward to seeing the other resources
Also know Red Ted Art did a post on hand painting and the alphabet
http://www.redtedart.com/2012/04/14/handprint-alphabet-a-for-alien/
It was a guest post but it's interesting and has more links to info http://www.smarttalkersblog.com/2011/03/how-to-develop-your-childs-phonological.html
Thanks, that's perfect!
Responding to Tots100 tweet, interesting post. I too chose to not send my youngest until he was a bit older.
Much of Pyjama Drama is about developing communication skills. If you'd like to try out our classes, do get in touch, I'd be happy to arrange it for you.
Thanks for your comment, it's surprising me how many parents didn't send them to state nursery and I'd assumed it was the norm! Do you have any classes in Cardiff?
My sis in law is only sending y niece for a few hours…I didnt even know you could do this but it does make things very interesting knowing I have options.
Oh..but i dont have a link to share just yet….bit of a pointless comment then 🙂 But I might have a peek at those in time to come.
I have a post for you! (Not a page!!) http://twoofeverythingblog.co.uk/getting-ready-to-write/
More similar posts to come when I can find time to write them 🙂