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June 30, 2008
Smart Start Two
Parents came in to the cafeteria dragging their feet and not sure of what would happen next. Their faces were drawn with worry. Their children assured them everything would be okay as they bounded off to the kindergarten classroom to play while their parents sat in rows waiting to hear about school. Going off to kindergarten is rough on parents. Smart Start, a program out of Sutter County Office of Education, helps kids and parents get ready for kindergarten.
Luther Elementary School in Live Oak is a Smart Start site. The parents turn out in droves for events and workshops at Luther and the workshop for Smart Start Literacy and Math was no exception. Three different languages were spoken but it doesn’t matter the language. What is spoken is love and support for their children. It’s a universal language learned in heart not head school. Luther and Smart Start staffs don’t teach it, they live it.
In the workshop parents learned about listening to their children, then listened to each other share about themselves. They heard about talking with their children, then practiced talking with each other. The focus was on building vocabulary, new words that light up a picture in a child’s mind when they hear the word. Only then did we turn to reading with an understanding that the more pictures a child has in their mind for words they hear and say, the easier reading will be.
Math games and puzzles were easy to add to an already interested group. They counted beans, buckets and bracelets. They were encouraged to count barnyards and all the animals in them, billboards on the way to the store, and babies in the park. Count toys, trucks, and tanks. Just count.
At the end of the hour long presentation we were about to break for dinner, but before pizza came a question. The parents were told they could go pick up their children in the classroom and bring them through the backdoor of the cafeteria. While in line they had to answer one question, “What fun thing will you do with you child this week to help with reading or math?” The question was asked in both English and Spanish. An answer was the key to unlocking the door to dinner, and with a child tugging at you, it had better be a quick and good one. 
Parents said, “read a story at night,” “talk about magazine pictures,” and “count beans.” Each parent was ready for the week. Each parent had a Parent Playbook of ideas to work on for the rest of the summer, making this summer a real Smart Start for school this Fall.
Posted by Dr Joni at 10:56 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 19, 2008
Two and Half and Ready for The World
Out of town and it’s still easy to find children to watch. It’s amazing. There are children everywhere. All you need to do is look for them.
My workshop over for the day, I stopped by Target to pick up a gift for a friend. I was wandering toward the toy and game section when I saw a Mom and baby in a cart coming around the corner of one of the aisles. Not wanting to run into them, I stopped short.
The little girl, Alyza by name, had the smallest, cutest, and pinkest ball glove I have ever seen. She was so cute I couldn’t help but watch. She held her glove by one finger, but in an instant she could have it on and ready to play.
I asked Mom if she was trying out for the team. Mom asked Alyza what she was going to catch in her glove. Alyza promptly pulled out the green ball that was next to her. She didn’t say the word, but that might be because she didn’t want to be talking to strangers, but she clearly knew what to do with a ball glove.
Alyza is two and a half. She hadn't talked with me, but she certainly wasn't missing anything in the conversation her Mom and I were having. After Mom and I chatted for a minute or two, she and Alyza went around the corner. As I was jotting down her name, I could hear Mom talking with her about Sponge Bob, items on the shelf, what to watch on TV, and probably what they would be having for dinner. Alyza chined in with her opinions on all of the itrms.
I’m at a preschool conference this week talking about preschool to K-3 transitions. Last week I talked to incoming kindergarten parents. Part of my message is the same for both. Reading skills really are based on vocabulary and vocabulary develops with talking and listening. Alyza will go to preschools and on to kindergarten reading with a full amount of vocabulary thanks to Mom’s interaction with her.
Yea Mom. Her comes your daughter ready or not.
Posted by Dr Joni at 07:28 PM
June 13, 2008
And On To Kindergarten
Last night a group of parents from the Brittan Elementary School brought their children to play on the playground while they went to class. The room was set up with adult chairs to accommodate the larger bodies, but small chairs were stacked on tables around the room. The parent’s class would be in the kindergarten classroom where their children will attend in the Fall.
The parents checked their children in with the playground supervisor and trudged into class. The room was quiet and not like the noisy playtime of the five-year-olds who frequent the place during the day. No one spoke. No one made eye contact.
This may be their first parent session, but the quiet wasn’t going to work. Kindergarten is a place of joy and spontaneity, and I wanted the parents to sense what their children would experience. I would only be their teacher for a short while, so they needed to talk and laugh before the evening was over.
Kindergarteners begin the process of learning to read and parents can help their child’s progress every day. Developing a vocabulary is a key. Listening to a child tell you about their newest pet, the batch of cookies they made, or their friend’s grandfather gives them both words to use and ways to use them that make sense. Talking to them about how your washing the dishes or painting their room give them more words and ways to use them. Both listening and talking develop pictures in a child’s mind attached to words he or she hears and uses.
When the letters and sounds they learn in kindergarten begin to fit together as words those pictures appear in a child’s mind. When they see the word “dog,” their dog picture appears in their head. When the sentence says “The dog runs across the yard,” they can see a dog running across the yard. Without the practice of hearing, saying, and connecting words to pictures in their mind, a child can “read” letters and sounds without ever knowing what the words say. No pictures appear.
So our group listened and talked and talked some more. For a group that didn’t know each other when we started, they had lots to say before the evening was over. Hurray! Before they left, each parent passed by the Smart Start Director, Mary Ann Hendricks, and provided her with an activity they were going to do with their child this summer, the summer before kindergarten, so their child would be ready for the first big step.
Posted by Dr Joni at 08:52 AM
June 02, 2008
Kids on the Road
Migrant Education provides for the children of families who work in our fields and groves. These children move with the seasons and the harvest yet they need an education. The folks in these programs make sure migrant children get opportunities for learning and school.
Last week I had the good fortune to work with a group of the Migrant Ed staff from our area while they were planning their summer program. Children of migrant families are involved in a number of summer projects-school, summer food programs, and field trips. There was one trip being planned for Turtle Bay and I was ready to go with them. I haven’t been there since they were still in construction. It sounded like fun.
My job for the day was to provide activities for parents to do with their children. We tried out a number of activities from my Parent Playbook series, played games, and made Dream booklets from magazines. All are activities parents can do, are easy, fun, and require little in the way of materials. Since the activities are matched to state learning standards, doing them will help the road based kids keep up with children who are in their neighborhood school. Now that the activities have been personally tested by the Migrant Ed staff, they can be shared with the parents.
They took this pretty seriously. There was a least one domino’s game where the winner got a Starbucks. I loved their involvement as they matched numbers and added scores. In the end we all agreed, the real winners will be the kids who can beat us!
Posted by Dr Joni at 05:18 PM