How do you prepare your child for school, and where can you do that?
Opinions on whether and how to prepare a child for school are still divided. Cordial grandmothers are ready all night long to teach your child to read, so as not to overpay for the “special courses”, parents grab their heads, trying to determine whether the preparatory programs are really useful and, most importantly, what they themselves, as parents, can do for their child to successfully adapt to school. However, with the proper organization of the process, the preparation for school can be very exciting – and for you, and for the future first-grader.
Some first-grader teachers complain that some “retrained” children and already know everything, and the school at first they just have nothing to do. Others note that the kid easily reproduces English words, but can not tell what he just read in Russian. Others admire almost brilliant children – except that these children lose their pencil cases and the toilet at school and have difficulty communicating with their peers.
So what should be the training at school? What can parents do to make a new stage in a child’s life painless and successful?
What a child should know and be able to know before entering school
By the way, not every parent knows why to prepare a child for school. “Because it’s customary,” or “because everyone does.” This is where the main problems begin, because a lack of understanding of what gives the preparatory work for the future first-grader, leads to such strange situations, described at the beginning of this article: the child has a lot of useless for him at this stage of knowledge, but does not know how to do something elementary, or is not sufficiently independent, and so on.
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Some parents believe that preparation is necessary for the child to successfully pass an unspoken interview at school. Well, this is not a bad motivation, because it is at an interview (a kind of unofficial testing), the teacher and other professionals (psychologist, speech therapist) can determine whether the child is ready for what he will meet at school: whether he has developed basic basic skills (physical, intellectual), how he freely and confidently communicate, understand the instructions, express his opinion.
That is, preparation for school should help your child to mature intellectually, socially, emotionally and psychologically for a new stage in life. And this, in turn, will help him to learn more successfully and lay the foundation for further growth.
Preparing for school at home
First of all, starting with a child at home, do not chase for formal results: each child is very individual, and different “you must” or comparisons with familiar to him children you can provoke the formation of his inferiority complex. Your task is to turn the process into a pleasure so that all the activities – tasks, handicrafts and reading – do not cause him rejection. It’s good if the child already understands the value of learning and has motivation, but if not, you can make the interest appear.
What can you do?
- To communicate a lot with the child, to answer his questions, pay attention to him (although it is worth doing it not only before school), read together;
- Turn learning into play: even a normal walk can be a fun adventure. Count puddles, houses, birds together, let him name house numbers, read the names of streets and shops. At home, his favorite toys, fairy tale characters, etc. can come to his classes.
- Reading or watching the cartoon together, discuss with your child what he learned. Interest in his opinion, ask leading questions to encourage him to speak out and teach elementary analysis. If he or she has read something with another member of the family (grandmother, for example), ask him or her to recount what he or she has read in an unobtrusive way.
- Doing handicrafts together: modeling, drawing, making applications, collecting puzzles, making mosaics – all this develops fine motor skills.
- Give attention and physical development, active games, you can even organize a sports corner at home.
- Teach independence and safety rules at home and on the street.
Be sure to consider the following:
- Do not be angry if a child does not understand something and does not do it right, encourage him to ask questions and solve problems, help him, but at the same time do not rush to do something for him;
- Development must be harmonious. It is clear that if the child’s reading is easy, but the problems he solves with difficulty, the second case will have to pay more attention and time. However, do not concentrate on one thing. Beautiful speech, attention, memory and physical skills are also important.
- Classes should last no longer than 30 minutes, otherwise the baby loses patience and interest. It is better to alternate classes and combine them with coloring, handicrafts, etc.
- It is good to develop a certain mode: at one time to get up, eat, walk, study, go to bed. This will help your baby to adapt more easily to school.
- Already now learn to let go of your child. Fear for your baby may not go away completely, but your task is to teach him to do without you in the most basic situations.
Cost of preparing a child for school
The cost of classes will depend on the level of the school, the teaching, the frequency of classes, so you will need to buy additional teaching aids and other materials, whether the meals are included, the work of a psychologist, additional physical development lessons (eg, yoga). In general, the prices for individual lessons start from 1500 rubles, for group lessons – from 1000 rubles for 40 minutes, for a subscription (2 times a week) – from 3500 rubles, a full package with all classes and meals – from 8 thousand rubles per month. For comparison – a home tutor, who prepares a child for school at home, will take from Br3000 for a single trip.
It’s up to you to decide whether to study for a fee or not. However, even if you have time for homework, it is not superfluous to take your child to the courses, especially if he does not attend kindergarten. Even basic skills to communicate with different people and the ability to build relationships in different situations where Mom and Dad are not around, will be useful to him in later life. And then the first year of school will not become the most stressful.