Preparing for School

School readiness does not mean learning readiness.  Children should be stimulated to learn throughout their lives.  In order to perform successfully in our Pre-First program, a child should demonstrate ability in most of these skills:

Facility in these skills depends partly on general development but also is enhanced by specific practice.

Below are some suggested activities for helping your child to prepare for our school program:

1. Read aloud to him/her often.  Require him to sit quietly while you read aloud to him, pointing out as you read the left-to-right direction in which we read and write.
2. Listen to and follow simple instructions.
3. Review sequence of events of stories.  ("What did you do first when you got up this morning?" "And then what did you do?")
4. Teach him to hold a pencil between thumb and first two fingers.
5. Let him practice forming straight lines and circles, the shapes used in letters.  Circles begin at 2 on the clock and move up and around.  Straight lines begin at the top.
6. Teach him to answer questions verbally and politely.  Encourage complete answers. ("Have you finished your lunch?" "Umm." "Can you tell me the whole idea? - like this: Yess, Mama, I finished my lunch. Now, you try it." "Yes, Mama, I finished my lunch." "Oh, that was polite!" Give a hug and a kiss.)
7. Read or recite rhymes and help your child listen for rhyming words.  Help him memorize poems as well as Scripture passages.
8. Practice naming objects in sequence.  Move from left to right, (spoon, fork, napkin).  When he can do this, name objects and ask him to put them in the order named.  Try removing one object from a sequence and let him guess what is missing.
9. Teach him to recite numbers in sequence, and to recognize numerals.
10. Practice counting objects.
11. Practice adding and subtracting objects.  Start with adding one.
12. Show him the alphabet.  Tell him that every word we think or say can be written by using some of these 26 letters in combination.
13. Teach the sounds of the consonants and the short sound of the vowels (upper and lower case).  He may learn the letter names also, but explain that it is the letter's "voice" we use in writing words.
14. Teach relational ideas (after, before, inside, outside) and opposites and comparatives.
15. Teach him to recognize and match basic shapes.
16. Teach him to recognize primary and secondary colors.
17. Let him practice coloring within lines.
18. Give him ample practice in caring for his own personal needs - dressing, using the bathroom, opening his thermos, etc.  Teach him to perform as many tasks as he can - (making his bed, cleaning his room, dusting, scrubbing the tub, tying shoes, putting out trash, etc.)

General Steps in Teaching Skills

• Proceed from simple to complex, one step learned before the next is begun.
• First demonstrate the skill.
• Ask him to repate after (copy) you.
• Gradually let him do more and more alone.
• Praise him for his efforts.  Correct errors gently but immediately.

How to Choose Reading Material

In addition to encouraging the reading of the Bible, children must be taught how to choose proper reading material.  Children must learn to read those books that are character building and to discard those books that are character destroying.

Use this checklist to help children know which books are wholesome.

How does the book look?

1. Is the use of color beautiful and realistic, rather than psychedelic?
2. Are the pictures realistic - drawn to honor the Creator?
3. Is the cover neat and attractive?
4. Is the print the right size?

What is the language of the book?

1. Is it wholesome?
2. Does it use words that honor God?
3. Is the grammar correct?

What is funny?

1. Is the policeman made fun of? Are the parents ridiculed? Those in authority should not be ridiculed.
2. Are they breaking the laws or rules and getting away with it? God does not honor this.

Who wins in the story?

1. Was the father right?
2. Were the people rewarded?
3. Were the laws obeyed?

Are the disobedient in the story properly punished?

Proverbs 22:6
Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

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