Preparing your child for school

A useful article on how to understand if your child is ready for school and subtraction word problems for class 1. How to behave correctly for parents, what questions should you ask your child.

Sometimes, in the heat of looking for school, a tired mother forgets to ask her child a simple natural question: do you want to go to school? Namely, the child himself must mature a desire to learn, to learn new things. After all, it is he who has to adapt to all the complex school requirements, he himself has to learn new material and work in the classroom, fit into the rhythm of school life. So it is still necessary to ask the child this question.

Sometimes adults answer skeptically: is there anyone who is particularly eager to go to school? But do not rush to talk about school like that, because this is your personal experience, and the child may be completely different, however, hearing such statements from the parents, the child may unconsciously believe them. Better to stock up on a dose of healthy optimism and set your child up to be optimistic.

So what do the parents themselves expect from the school and math workbooks? What do they think, what do they imagine, starting in search of an educational institution for their baby? First of all, parents need to understand what exactly they expect from the school. If the most important thing for you is an individual approach to child development, a school with a small number of students per class is for you. If you already know about the preferences of your child, then in this case, perhaps a specialized school with an expanded study of any disciplines is suitable for you. If your request is limited to the convenience of the location of the school, then most likely you will prefer the school that is located closer to your home, so that the child can more easily get there on their own.

And of course, every parent wants an intelligent and sensitive teacher to work with his child, who can help the child cope with the difficulties that have arisen in his studies and regulate relations with the children in the class.

As for the child himself, parents expect a certain reaction from him to school. They assume in what it will be difficult for him, and in what he will show his talents with ease and desire. And to make your assumptions more reasonable, try observing the child and answering the following questions.

About attention.
How attentive is your child? How focused is he on his occupation or play? Is it easy to tear him away from what he is passionate about?

If it is very difficult to distract the child from his activity and sight words for kindergarten, this indicates good sustained attention. He is completely absorbed in his game, and he cannot even hear your voice or appeal. If it is easier to distract the child at play, then his attention is not so tenacious.

The child’s attention can be constantly improved and trained. To do this, you can purposefully direct the child’s attention to interesting natural phenomena during walks, to the unusual qualities of objects. Read interesting books with your child more often: when he follows the plot, he forms a steady attention, a desire to listen and find out how the story will end.

About the time.
How much does your boy know about the timing? What does he already know about watches?

It is useful to draw the attention of the preschooler to the time. The habit of looking at the clock, and then learning to navigate by it, will soon come in handy for your child. Draw the child’s attention to the different types of clocks that catch his eye: a wristwatch, a wall clock, an alarm clock, an electronic board in the subway or at a train station. If you mark important dates on the calendar with your baby, he will remember and understand the order of the numbers in the calendar. At an earlier age, the child already, as a rule, learns such temporary landmarks as “yesterday”, “tomorrow”, “then”, “past”, “future”. In order to teach a child how to use a watch and know the time, a toy clock is suitable, the hands of which can be moved. During a joint trip with your child, you can recite the course of events: “First we …”, “then we …”, “later we …”, “after that we went home …”.

I can listen.
By the age of 4-5, the child develops the ability to listen. The child listens with pleasure to a fairy tale, your story about something. By the way, it is at this age that children can already choose fashionable children’s clothing with you.

To develop your child’s listening skills, the following games are suitable:

Sounds in the house: Listen to sounds in the house. What do we hear? Sounds are loud and quiet. The murmur of water in the bathroom, the sound of boiling water in the kettle, the ticking of the clock, the phone call, the clinking of dishes, the flick of a switch, music.

Sounds on the street: What will we hear when we go outside? The barking of the dog, the noise of the car, the conversation of passers-by, the shuffling of the janitor’s broom, the knock of the closing door.

Sounds in the park: When we walk in the park, what do we hear? Singing of birds, rustling of leaves, rustling of pebbles underfoot, noise of wind, splashing of water in a pond, voices of people.

About letters and words.
Most preschool children can now read when they come to school. If a child reads well and understands what he has read, this tells us a lot.

First, the child can already grasp the connection between cause and effect. Secondly, he can already concentrate on the text and read it to the end. Thirdly, the child has already accumulated enough of his own experience to give meaning to the words he read. For example, if a kid had to play snowballs in winter, ride a sled, make a snowman, then it will be much easier for him to read the words snow, sled, winter, and so on than unfamiliar words. A story or fairy tale, where words are familiar to the child, will be more understandable to him.

Vocabulary.
Constantly improve your child’s vocabulary, this will help you develop his reading skills faster. What is the best way to do this?

Try not to ignore your child when he asks you what a word means. Explain the meaning of the word of interest to the child and, if possible, show it either in the picture or the object itself. Try drawing it together.

Periodically repeat with the child the name of objects already familiar to him, let the child himself describe some object and tell what he already knows about it. This will help the child learn to express their thoughts and build sentences correctly. Avoid making TV the educator for your child. Live communication cannot be replaced by anything, so communicate with your child more often.