ABC’s of Kindergarten Readiness [Part Two]

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With the new year comes the opportunity to restructure, reorganize, and rebuild. This isn’t just for cleaning house and fitness regiments, but yet holds true to early education as well.  In September, we discussed the need for “A”- acknowledgment. We spoke of the capability to consider state standards as well as noticing the child’s level of competence in multiple subjects. Now we will discuss the “B” in our ABC’s of kindergarten readiness – Building a lesson plan for your child at home

After we have acknowledged how our child will need to grow, it’s best to sit down and write out three lists.

  • List one will contain all that he/she does extraordinarily well.
  • List two will be the subjects by state law that they need to improve on before kindergarten.
  • List three will be the personal goals of education for your child (religious, nutrition, sports, other languages, etc.).

Be as creative and out of the box with this list as you desire. Now that you have your three lists, it’s time for a course of action. 

Figure out the year your child will be going into kindergarten. Many of us have either already started a countdown on our phone or are avoiding the conversation completely. My first should be in kindergarten in the fall of 2019 and my second in the fall of 2020. This is super important to know because it gives us a time frame on how long we will have with our “at home students” before they hit the big halls of elementary school. 

 Count each of the areas of improvement as well as the subjects of personal goals. Add in 1 more point per area if it will take 2 weeks to conquer, 2 more points if it will take three weeks, etc. You want to roughly calculate the time you think it will take your child to learn these items. From there you begin to plan out the monthly lesson plans and focus areas. For example: My daughter has struggled with consecutive counting. She knows the numbers, but will get them jumbled up. We will take it slow with one week per number, from 1-10. Each week slowly adding one more so she can visually see the difference between them. 

Remember, this lesson plan will be a rough draft. Please allow thought around the seasons and family activities. We decided to take it one letter per week as well and we planned on going to a Red’s game during the week of “B”. We took this opportunity to teach her about baseball, boys, buildings, balls, and bats. If anything ever comes up in life, try to work it into one of the core subjects you wish to talk about. Try not to get overwhelmed or discouraged if your plans alter from the scripted ones you have mapped out. 

The main point of these “plans” is to educate and prepare your child for life. We like doing this with two books a day on the subjects, one-three activities per day, and one-two core subject-related field trips out of the house. The field trips allow them to see how the words we discuss are implemented in real life situations. The activities encourage them to feel comfortable and play with the words we are working on. The books create a bond with the pronunciation and physical written word. 

It’s all about opportunity for the child. If you go out of your way to make every experience a learning one, then your child will develop an appetite for knowledge. This will allow them great study habits and, in turn, create an avid learner. 

This all isn’t going to happen overnight, and honestly, would you want it to? There will be days they don’t want to do an activity – change it up and play a game involving the subject or take a drive to go see something in person. Always have a back up plan!  You want this experience to be fun. Don’t ever try to force education on them. If they aren’t learning it one way, redirect and find another. 

If you need a day off, no one is stopping you. Schools get Saturday-Sunday off. Why can’t you? You have to take care of yourself so you can have the patience to handle the meltdowns over the small frustrations. If you don’t allow time off for yourself in your lesson plans, you will tend to change the redirection into negative reinforcement. Which will just turn something fundamental to just frustrating. 

Building a lesson plan can be a daunting task, but in the end what could be more valuable than the early education of our next generation? We are strong moms raising incredible kids! Have the confidence in yourself to guide your children and humble enough to crawl on floors with them. Be brave enough to overbook yourself, but honest enough to say when you’ve overdone it. You are a parent. You are the first line of education and you can do this! 

Happy Building! 

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Danielle Breitenstein
Danielle was raised in the small town of Highland Heights KY. With influences from across the river she grew up with a passion for sports, the arts, Ballet, writing, hiking, and nutrition. She now resides in the city of Alexandria KY and looks towards the queen city for many of her resources in raising two well rounded little ones. Her marriage of eight years has blessed her with a little girl (7 years old) and a little boy (6 years old). She is currently a stay at home mother and is focused on improving routines for the the family's overall health. She aspires to be the person that other's can rely on and has learned many things about balancing that boundary of self care vs supporting others. Growth isn't just for the children and through her writing she shares her journey.

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