Play with your child. Let their interests guide you. Don't worry if your child is not reading by a certain age or even if they know all their letters and the sounds they make yet. Don't stress if they don't know what the numbers mean. There is no magical timeline for when your child will be ready to "read', "write", or "add and subtract". If you take away anything from this blog, I hope it is just as simple as this...let them play with you! Through their play they will follow your examples, listen carefully to the things you say and value the time that you have spent with them.
The following link is a quick read that summarizes what is involved in a play-based learning:
The following link is a quick read that summarizes what is involved in a play-based learning:
"We take care of our friends and ourselves." Each and every day your child is learning how to get along with others. We talk about our feelings as we play and problem solve together so that everyone can be happy at school. We teach the children to say words like "I didn't like that you... and I like it when..." They are also learning how to respond if the answer from a friend might be "No, I don't want to play right now." We say kind things like "I will play with you soon". They are listening to each other.
Every day we make time to share our discoveries during circle time. We talk about the things we have built, created, or found. The students share their experiences in their own words (sometimes with a little direction or prompting from the teacher). They are learning to listen carefully to what each person has to say, raising their hand to be invited to add ideas or experiences to the discussion, and are hopefully thinking about how to try that idea (or how they might want to make their own changes to the idea) during their next play session.
Every day we make time to share our discoveries during circle time. We talk about the things we have built, created, or found. The students share their experiences in their own words (sometimes with a little direction or prompting from the teacher). They are learning to listen carefully to what each person has to say, raising their hand to be invited to add ideas or experiences to the discussion, and are hopefully thinking about how to try that idea (or how they might want to make their own changes to the idea) during their next play session.
Parents can encourage the development of this self-regulation process.
- Please encourage your son or daughter to persist with tasks that they say are "too hard" (like getting dressed into all that snow gear!). Encourage them to keep trying. If they can't seem to be able to find a solution for themselves, teach them to calmly and politely ask you for help.
- Praise them for using polite words like "please and thank you".
- You can encourage turn-taking by playing board games. (Learning that you can't always win is a tough one! Encourage them to be happy for the "winner".)
- Set up play dates with friends of various ages.
- Set expectations that they will clean up after themselves. (They do it everyday at school --sometimes two or three times a day and they are getting really good at it, too!)
A Few Language and Math Ideas:
- Read everyday for about 15 minutes.
- Have your son or daughter help to make a grocery list from the store flyers.
- Take a nature walk and talk about things you see and hear.
- "Read" familiar signs and labels on containers and stores.
- Make a treasure map together.
- Play a game of "I Spy".
- Practice counting to 20 on car trips.
- Have your child help to set the table.
- Give your child one- and two-step instructions and encourage them to follow through.
- Have your child help to sort household items like the laundry into colours, sizes or shapes of things.
- Be a shape detective. Find shapes in real-life in your home or neighbourhood.
- Visit a park and run, skip, climb and explore.
- When writing together, teach the lower case letters, too. Make sure they form their letters from top to bottom. Talk about the sounds the letters make.
- Bake or cook together.
- Sing and play rhyming games.