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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 June 30, 2008 10:56 AM
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