Tips for Getting Your Elementary Child Ready for School

For many families, a new school year is around the corner, and with that comes new school clothes and classroom supplies, visits to the doctor and dentist for check-ups, and maybe even a hair cut!

But, how many parents consider that their child might need to be prepared for school in other ways, too? Starting a new grade level can cause anxiety in some children and out right fear in others. Furthermore, if your child hasn't cracked open a book, kept up on her math skills, or written even a letter of the alphabet since June, she may have experienced a bit of the ol' Summer Slip! Honestly, Summer Slip is a teacher's worst nightmare - students can lose up to 2.6 months of growth over the summer. Yikes! Okay, do not fear if this sounds like your child...there are measures you can take to get your child ready and firing on all cylinders!

1. Sit down and have a brief, yes a brief talk with your child about school. Ask him if he has any concerns or fears, as well as things he might be excited about. From this conversation, you might discover that your child is worried about making friends, or that the new teacher will be much more challenging than the previous one. However your child feels, this is a great opportunity to set the stage for a positive school year! Talk through any issues or concerns and offer some positive thoughts about how exciting the year will be.

2. Get back in the habit of having your child read for at least 20 minutes a day. I strongly encourage that you alternate the ways in which you ask your child to read - have him read independently one day, the next day you read aloud to him, and on the third day you complete a partner read, for example. This way, the reading time will stay fresh and fun. Also, it will give you a good sense of how your child is doing.

3. Borrow from the library or buy leveled books. Leveled books are those in which a rating system has been applied based on the reading difficulty and cognitive demand required of the child. If your child is entering second grade and a 2.2 book is too difficult for him (you can quickly test this by having him read aloud a short paragraph from a leveled book - if he cannot decode or decipher 3-5 words on the page, the text is too difficult for independent reading), then choose one that has a 1.8 reading level and see how it goes. Before school starts, it is better to get your child back into reading, and LOVING it, rather than trying to make up for lost time over the summer. Remember, we're trying to get kids EXCITED about learning!

4. If you have a child entering kindergarten, review letter sounds with your child and help her practice her uppercase and lowercase letter identification. Also, practice some counting forward and backward activities (as high as your child is able), as well as creating sets of objects and comparing them by characteristics (quantity, color, shape, etc.).

Sample Activities:

Letter Sounds: To review letter sounds, you simply show your child a picture card and have her tell you what is the beginning sound of the word represented on the picture. For example, the picture might be of a cat, so your child's response would be "/k/" (this is how sounds are written). Conversely, you could go on a "Sound Scavenger Hunt" in your home. You might enter a room with your child and say, "I'm looking for something in this room that starts with a /t/ sound. Your child may say "table," "toothbrush," or even his stuffed "tiger."

Letter Identification: Practice letter identification. Do not mix upper- and lowercase letters together when working with you child, IF your child has little experience with them. Lowercase letters are much more difficult for children to identify, so start with uppercase letters. A quick game is to place 3 letter cards in front of your child. Two of the uppercase letters should be from your child's name, or a very familiar word. The third letter should be something your child may not know very well. Ask your child to identify the letters she knows. If she does not know the third letter, tell her what it is (this is called direct instruction). Next, take those same three letters and put multiple cards out in front of her, all with the same letters. Then, ask her to find all the cards that have the "P" on it, for example. Repeat this activity until she has sorted the letters into three piles. In this activity, she is learning to distinguish a specific uppercase letter among other ones, but in a very controlled environment. If she is able to identify all her uppercase letters with relative ease, then move on to lowercase letters! Note that there are a handful of letters that are similar in formation, and as such, children will REALLY struggle with them - b and d, c and o, q and p, for example. This is completely normal!

Counting: I'm talking your traditional rote counting here. This is just to make sure she can identify her numerals 0-10. If not, offer lots of counting opportunities, both with objects and with the numerals. You can make up silly songs ("1 little, 2 little 3 little flamingos..." have counting contests to see how many DIFFERENT things you can count - toes, forks, pictures hanging on walls in your home, days on a calendar, number strips, numbers on a computer key board, etc.

Making Sets: Give your child a group of objects, such as beads, buttons, coins - anything you can find around the house. Ask him to sort the objects into groups and then tell you what groups he made and why. Do not define the sorting criteria for your child at first. Based on his responses, you can adjust your questions to add some parameters. For example, you may ask your child to create one group with blue, round objects, a second group with long, rough objects, and a final group of smooth, green objects. If your child is struggling with sorting, keep the sorting criteria down to one variable until he masters it. Expand the making sets concept with counters (you can use poker chips, buttons, or other round objects - don't use coins as their quantity does not always equal their value). Have your child make a set with the counters (any number 2 - 10). Then, have her make a set of counters that is less than the first set. Finally, have her make a set that is greater than both the first and second sets. Have her touch count each counter to confirm that set 1 is larger than set 2, but smaller than set 3.

5. For upper elementary children (typically grades 4-6), have them dream up a math project to work on a little bit each day until school starts. Help your child pace herself throughout the project, and interact with her to make sure she has the support she needs to mathematize successfully. The project could be something simple, like planning a family budget for grocery shopping, or something more complex, like what is the most economical way to plan for building a deck. To make the project a family event, each member could create various math problems over several weeks time, with the end activity being a game of math jeopardy. The child creating the project can rate each question based on difficulty (e.g., if little sister who is entering 2nd grade made some math problems, the level of difficulty for those would be rated lower than that which older sister going into 4th grade would create - most likely), so that the questions are fair for younger siblings.

6. Eat right - get lots of sleep. Time to set up a weekly schedule - kids into bed at the same time every night, no more pizza and chips for dinner every night of the week, either. Basically, get back into your school-year routine! They say, you are what you eat - so do you really want your kids to be processed snacks with high fructose corn syrup, petroleum-based food coloring, and partially hydrogenated oil - or do you want them to be nutrient-packed, vegetables and fruits? Kids need brain food, and processed foods don't cut it!

Whatever steps you take for preparing for the new school year, have fun with your children, get them excited about all the new learning adventures they will have, and establish a routine so the last days of summer vacation are pleasant and productive.

Good Luck!