When a child starts kindergarten, parents sometimes worry that they have not done enough to prepare him/her academically, socially, or emotionally. To address that concern, here are a few thoughts.

1. Every time you listened to your child tell you something, you taught him how to tune in to his teacher in class.

2. Every time you read to your child, you helped her take the first steps needed to learn to read with the teacher.

3. Every time you took the time to explain something to your child, you helped promote his interest in learning.

4. Every time you hugged and kissed your child, you helped her know that she is worthy of love and respect from other adults and children in her class.

5. Every time you solved a conflict calmly with your child, you helped him learn that he can resolve conflicts peacefully with his classmates.

6. Every time you set limits for your child, you helped her learn to reach her potential within the limits set by kindergarten teachers.

7. Every time you allowed your child to make her own decisions, you helped her learn to be an independent thinker at school.

8. Every time you followed through consistently with consequences, you allowed your child to understand and accept classroom rules and consequences.

9. Every time you required your child to complete his chores, you helped him understand the need for him to accept his responsibilities in the classroom.

10. Every time you said a kind word or did a kind deed, you influenced your child and helped other children and adults at school experience the joy of your child imitating you.

As your child's first teacher, you have already provided the foundations for formal school learning. We appreciate being a partner with you.

Reading Activities to do to help your child prepare for Kindergarten

Please read to your child everyday this summer. Some activities that your child should do are:

1. Look at the pictures in the book and tell you what's happening in it, or make up a story about it.

2. Read a story and stop in the middle and and let your child tell you how the story will end, then finish the story.

3. Read a story and them let your child draw a picture of his favorite character, favorite part of the story, or how he thinks the story should have ended.

4. Get your child involved in the story by asking why something happened, how would he feel if that happened and what he thinks will happen next.

5. Ask your child to retell the story. Work on sequencing-- what happened first, second, third.

6. Make your child aware of environmental print -- words all around K-Mart, Kroger, etc.

7. While reading point our the alphabet, the front of the book, the back of the book, the top and bottom of a page.

8. Work on left-to-right progression and return sweep (directionality).

9. Help them recognize the letters in the story.

10. Take your child to the library!! They can help you in choosing good books to read. You are telling your child you think read is important and fun.

Ten Ways to Help your Children Become Lifelong Readers . . .

Good readers need to develop both language skills that reading requires and a positive attitude toward reading itself. The activities listed below try to pay equal attention to both the skills and the attitude that will help your children become lifelong readers. The more children practice reading, the more fun it will be; the more they will read.

Repeat, Repeat, Repeat . . . When reading to your kids, be prepared for them to ask your to reread words, passages, and even whole books a number of times. While this may not seem all that interesting to you, remember that is repetition helps build familiarity and comfort with written language for your kids. This will build their confidence as readers, an important element in their reading development. As you're reading sentences that your kids are already familiar with, you might try letting them finish the last word of the sentence for you and then increasing that to the last three words or the last half of the sentence. This is also a terrific way to help them gain reading confidence.