What you can do to prepare your child for school and learning

Starting school is a major milestone in the life of a child and can be a time of stress and anxiety for parents and children alike.  You can do so much to reduce this anxiety, both for yourself and for your child, and to enable your child to to be prepared to cope with separation and socialization when they start school.

It is not necessary for children to be able to write and recognise letters before they come to school – it is far more important to prepare them for learning.  Parents can do this informally.  We hope the following suggestions will be helpful.

Talking and Listening

Language is an essential pre-requisite to reading.  We hope that a child starting with us will be able to hold a simple conversation.  Talk to our children and encourage them to talk about everyday activities at home etc.  Take them for walks and discuss things that arouse their interest in the environment such as flowers, trees, signs, types of shops, statues, monuments etc.  Help your child to identify colours.  Encourage your child to draw/paint pictures and talk about them.  Display pictures around the house.  Encourage the habit of careful listening.

 

Nursery Rhymes

Enjoy nursery rhymes and poems together.  Encourage them to talk about what they hear and repeat rhymes and poems.

 

Reading

Make sure there are books in the home (picture books, simple story books etc.).  Encourage children to handle them, look through them and talk about them.  Read to your child regularly.  Join your local library. This encourages a love of books and an interest in reading.  Short enjoyable reading periods are best.

Pay attention to the mechanics of reading i.e. holding the book, looking at and talking about the pictures, reading from left to right (let your finger go under the words as your read), turning the page.

 

Development of co-ordination

Good motor co-ordination is a necessary skill for reading and writing.  To build up and develop motor skills in children’s hands provide plenty of experience with crayons, paper, safe scissors, play dough, plasticine, building blocks, and simple jigsaws.  Let them play with water and sand.  Play games that involve physical activity with your children.

 

Music

Sing to your children and with them.  Encourage them to sing and play singing games with them.

Play music and get your child to clap and dance to the rhythms

Talk about the music

If children have been allowed to participate in the daily routine at home they should feel confident about dealing with the school situation.

 

When children come to school they should be able to:

• Put on and take off coats and hang them up
• Use the toilet and flush it properly, wash hands
• Tidy up crayons and colouring books
• Take things out/put things into schoolbags
• Share toys and games
• Take turns in the classroom and schoolyard
• Identify their own belongings – please label all your child’s belongings
• Open and close lunch box, flask, plastic bottle etc.

It is recommended that your child wear shoes with Velcro fastenings, and trousers with elasticated waist. Please encourage your child to zip his/her coat/folder etc. independently.

Other points to note:

• Make sure everything is clearly labelled, especially Twistables (individually).
• You can use companies such as nametags.ie or a Sharpie for labelling clothing.
• Check Aladdin regularly for notes, photos etc – enable Notifications
• No toys/bracelets/necklaces or items from home in schoolbags
• Teacher is happy to talk – please telephone our secretary Mary in the school office for an appointment or call back (041 9822112) or use the ‘Contact School’ button in Aladdin app.