Tipsforparents

Tips for Parents: Building Language Arts Skills

Kindergarten to Grade 1

Read a story to your child, then ask the child to tell the story back to you. This is essentially an effort to see what listening skills your child has developed. Is he or she able to relate the major elements of the story? Does he or she understand the story?

You should read to your child every day during these early, formative years. Your child's interest in the stories you read will tell you a great deal about his or her developing listening and comprehension skills. By sometimes asking your child to tell the story back to you, you not only observe the growth of these skills but also encourage two-way communication.

Using the format of one of the stories you read, write a story together with your child. You write the first line, have your child dictate the second, and so on. This is another way of ascertaining whether your child understands story sequence and knows the connection between speech and writing. It is a way to begin the writing process.

The Mother Goose rhymes and stories contain wonderful imagery and interesting language. Ask your child what stories from Mother Goose his or her teacher is reading. Read them also at home. Children's favorites often include "Jack and Jill," "Little Boy Blue," "Jack Be Nimble," "Mary Had a Little Lamb," "Three Blind Mice," and such folktales as "The Three Little Pigs," "Rumpelstiltskin," and "Jack and the Beanstalk."

Draw a picture together with your child; then each of you tell a story from it.

Directions are important for many areas of study. You can see how well your child understands right and left, up and down, in front of and behind, above and below, with several familiar games. Simon Says ("Put your right hand up," and so on) is filled with learning possibilities.

Following directions is a constructive way to learn the language of direction. Occasionally you can provide such tasks as "Can you bring me the red book? It is just to the left of the blue book." (Or to right, or above, or below.)

See how well your child listens to and passes on information. Ask your child to remind his or her mother, father, brother, or sister of something.

It is important that children know the names of objects in their environment. You can gain insight into what your child knows by playing games. You might look at a photograph or illustration and say, "Let's find all the men, women, chimneys, windows, dogs, cats, flowers, streetlights, road signs, restaurants," and so on.

Give each other words, with the idea that you are to make up a story around the word. This is an interesting way to see what words your child is learning and how he or she understands them.

Reprinted from 101 Educational Conversations with Your Kindergartner -- 1st Grader by Vito Perrone, published by Chelsea House Publishers.

Tips for Parents: Building Math Skills

Kindergarten to Grade 1

Cut out cardboard squares, triangles, and circles (five of each, at least two to three inches in size). Make a game of putting the shapes that are the same together. This is an exercise in classification. Does your child recognize the difference in the shapes? Does he or she know what the shapes are called? If not, ask again at a later time.

Put your cardboard shapes into a pattern: for example, line up a circle, square, triangle, circle, square, and triangle. Ask your child to put the other pieces together in the same pattern. This is another classification activity.

Put out five buttons and ask your child, "How many buttons are there?" Take two away and ask, "How many are there now?" You could add to this as a way of determining how your child's understanding of numbers is developing.

Another way of seeing how well your child understands numbers is to play board games that call for markers to be moved forward and backward so many spaces -- for example, "Now you can move four spaces forward."

Ask your child to help you measure something in the house -- a rectangular table, a room, a bookshelf. The process will demonstrate your child's beginning measurement skills.

With counters (buttons, game pieces, or the like) at hand, ask what two plus two equals, what two minus two equals, what two minus one equals, whether five is greater than four or less than four.

Telling time is an important skill. Occasionally ask your child, "Can you see what time it is?" (Do not expect a precise reading unless from a digital clock.)

While cooking or baking, ask your child to put in some of what the recipe calls for: three tablespoons of sugar, two cups of flour, and the like. This is a good way to see your child put math to use.

There are many opportunities for counting during everyday activities. While cooking you could ask, "Can you count out six potatoes?" Or ask, "Can you put ten cookies on the plate for dessert?"

Read the house numbers as you go around the block.

Reprinted from 101 Educational Conversations with Your Kindergartner -- 1st Grader by Vito Perrone, published by Chelsea House Publishers.

Tips for Parents: Building Science Skills

Kindergarten to Grade 1

Close observation is a primary objective of the science program. You and your child can examine a rock, a tree, a leaf, or an insect. Take turns asking, "What do I see?"

Observe cloud shapes together. Ask, "What shapes do you see in the clouds?"

Animals are part of the environment. You might ask your child to tell you the sounds animals make. "What do sheep say? Dogs? Cows? Cats? Birds?"

Much science education in school is related to sizes, colors, and shapes. You might ask your child to sort buttons by size (big and small), by color, or by shape. Objects can also be grouped by smooth or rough, soft or hard.

Animals provide opportunities to use the language of comparisons and relationships. Robins are smaller than ________, larger than _________. What do dogs and cats have in common? How are they different? What do birds have in common? How are they different? Are the feathers the same or different?

Walks afford many opportunities to identify objects in the environment. You can say, "What do you think that is?" "What kind of bird is that?" "Let's see how many different kinds of trees we can find in this block" (or park, or outdoor mall).

Children study parts of the body in school. Together you and your child can name various parts of the body: eyes, nose, ears, mouth, shoulders, arms, hands, fingers, toes, feet, legs, knees. You might also inquire about the heart, lungs, blood, and bones.

Ask why it is important to get exercise, to rest, to drink milk, to eat well. See what your child is learning in health.

Bring home a package of tomato seeds and suggest that your child plant them and see if they will grow. Notice how your child goes about it. Does he or she say, "Get some soil and a pot, put the seeds in the soil, water it, place it near the light"?

Science in school increasingly gives attention to the sources of common things and to everyday processes. You and your child can investigate questions such as "Where does our water come from? Or "Where does our sewage go?"

Reprinted from 101 Educational Conversations with Your Kindergartner -- 1st Grader by Vito Perrone, published by Chelsea House Publishers.

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