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Using Dramatic Play in Kindergarten

July 4, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Group of children in a primary school in Paris

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Many worry that with so many children watching TV that dramatic play, or using your imagination, is dwindling in today’s kids. Too many rely on outside stimulus for entertainment. Creativity is important for many adults, and with this quality shrinking, it’s important to find a way to re-introduce kids to their imagination. How can this be done?

One way is by using dramatic play in schools, especially with kindergarteners. Most five-year-olds aren’t able to sit and pay attention for very long anyway. By using dramatic play, kids are able to basically play but are able to learn at the same time. For example, you could set up a situation where the kids run a restaurant. Each child is given a specific role in that situation such as server, manager, chef, patron, etc.

In each of the role, the children are given specific tasks. For example, the patron might need to take the total of the check and count out play money to pay for the bill. He or she will need to understand what money represents what and add up the totals in order to know what to pay. For older children, they could even be told to give a 15 percent tip and would have to figure out that amount.

There are a lot of principles that can be taught through dramatic play, but as long as it’s structured, student will be able to learn the information that the teacher is teaching the children. And yet it’s fun for the children as well.

Filed Under: Education, Students Tagged With: , ,

Are Exectations too High for Kindergarten Students?

June 2, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Kindergarten in Frankfurt 

Image via Wikipedia

Kindergarten used to be a place to introduce five year olds to the school system, while allowing them to act their age. No more. Now schools are using kindergarten as an educational experience instead of introducing them to the world that they are going to experience for the next thirteen years of their lives.

The idea that 5 year olds should start their first year with a bunch of skills that they may not have the ability to master is a bit ludicrous. Certainly teachers say that they have children show up who don’t have much education beforehand. However, it seems that more and more school systems are expecting children to come equipped with information that is beyond them at five years of age.

It is still the norm for many school districts to require that a child have learned specific information in order to move onto first grade. However, if parents don’t push back against the idea that a child needs to come to kindergarten with the information in place, they will find their child burned out before they finish their first year of school.

Too much emphasis is placed on ensuring that children measure up to a set of standards by certain ages. These standards do not take individual learning curves into account, and can label an intelligent child as slow for their age. Therefore the idea starts that this child needs to work harder in order to test better the next time around.

Parents need to let their children be children and expect that the school system will as well.

Filed Under: Brain Teasers, Education Tagged With: , ,

Fresh Ideas for Your Child’s Show-and-Tell Day at School

April 5, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Boy dressed as pirate

Image via Wikipedia

Show and tell is a great classroom activity, and a fun way to introduce children to public speaking . While the classic show and tell items kids bring year after year are nice, how about putting a fresh spin on the schoolroom tradition? Here are three new ideas to get you started:

Idea #1: Costumes Make Events Come Alive

Kids love to dress up, and what better way to tell about the family trip to a historic site or an interesting relative than historical costumes? Clothing not normally seen every day instantly draws curious attention, and costumes make history come alive. Family history is a great place to start; who wouldn’t love to show off in a Scottish kilt just like great-great-great-grandpa wore?

●      For more classroom fun, your child can act like their favorite historical figure; fielding questions like they imagine Pocahontas would—and being confused when asked about modern things—encourages lots of fun interaction.

●      Your child’s costume doesn’t have to go too far back into history. If a favorite relative was your child’s age in the fifties, they can don the same “historic” look Aunt Sally would have worn to school.

Idea #2: The Mystery Show and Tell

Sometimes a little mystery is exactly what’s needed to pique a child’s interest. Mix things up a little bit by having your child bring a special item hidden in a paper bag. Classmates will have fun guessing what’s inside based on clues your child gives about the item. Whoever guesses correctly can help show the item while your child tells why it’s special to them.

●      To make things more interactive, bring an object in a bag or box that classmates can take turns reaching into and feeling as your child shares facts about what’s inside.

●      Use smell to make the show more interesting. Items like a slice of Grandma’s famous bread your child helped make, a seashell and sand fresh from a beach trip, or spices brought from a faraway land make for a unique way to learn about something that may not even be new. Place the item in a bag and have your child instruct their classmates to close their eyes and take a sniff!

Idea #3: Bring Faraway Lands Closer

Foreign countries and exotic cultures are filled with scenes and ways of life children find fascinating. Why not take a little bit of a distant country and make it come to life with show and tell? If your family recently returned from Europe or Canada, or you have friends or relatives from Australia or Mexico, your child can share their culture connection with objects, foods, and pictures.

●      If you have a relative from a foreign country, ask if they will write a letter to your child’s classroom talking about what school is like in their country.

●      Your child can share phrases and words from foreign countries and have fun using them for the rest of the day. An English schoolboy would have chips for lunch, and a German girl would ask “Wie ghet’s?”

Show and tell looming? Get together with your child and start brainstorming! How will you add fun to show and tell?

Filed Under: Education Tagged With: , , ,

Grammar School Children and Homeschooling

March 24, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Many parents opt for homeschooling their children from grammar school age and up  because they’d like to spend more time with them while having an active role in their learning. For some parents, putting the children in school offers a minor sense of relief and a much needed break when life becomes busier. While there are many good schools nationwide, it might not seem as safe to some of us.

If you’re interested in homeschooling your child, it can be a challenge with many rewards that can last for both yours and their lifetime. Please be sure to research homeschooling carefully, as each state and territory will have its own set of laws pertaining to education.

One of the first places to investigate might be online support groups that specialize in homeschooling within your area. You might even want to use your library card that’s been collecting dust in your junk drawer, since many books can be found on the subject. Certification may be necessary before getting started.

Contrary to some beliefs, homeschooling doesn’t cause our children to be any more or less sheltered than their peers. Quite a few students seem to enjoy it since homeschooling can provide more flexibility and less pressure overall. While each school subject is important, it isn’t necessary for all grammar school-age students to perfect all of their math skills. Parents who want to teach don’t have to master every topic and it is possible for their children to enroll in classes for the subjects that seem uncomfortable.

If parents lack the time to teach, some children enjoy learning solely from schools online. Additionally, many parents like teaching some of the course work and they divide the time with e-learning classes.

Parents can integrate education and socialization by taking field trips in the same manner as public and private school settings. Whenever you do, remember to keep a balance between learning and free time. Offer rewards for good work.

Filed Under: Education Tagged With: , , ,

How To Find Your Child’s Learning Style

January 27, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Each of us are born individually and with our own unique learning style. What is a learning style defined by definition? Well, it is no other than the specific ways, in which each person does learn the best. Therefore, in order to get the best learning possible overall. The best learning style is a requirement that must be applied from childhood.


We all are born equipped with a defined learning style. It is this specific learning style that helps each of us to be able to learn more effectively. By identifying one’s own learning style. A person is able to capitalize solely on their strengths and learn how to benefit from these particular strengths. Children are no exception. If anything. They are the ones. Who can gain the most from their certain learning style in the world of learning.


How to find your child’s learning style involves exposing them to the ways that work for them in the world of learning. Parents do have a major role in helping to educate their children and to prepare them to face the world. Parents are the ones who know their child’s uniqueness and they are people who encourage that uniqueness. Parents and teachers are the only individuals. Who can help children to see what their unique gifts are and how they can offer them to the learning process specifically. After these unique gifts of a child’s has been identified. The next step is to nurture them as much as possible.



Discovering your child’s learning style will help to make these unique gifts blossom along with his or her maturity.
As soon as a parent can determine what his or her child’s specific learning style is. The thing to do next is to inform their teacher of what learning their child is most receptive to in the learning area. Each child has their own set of strategies that work for them best in the learning department.


Filed Under: Learning Theories & Development Tagged With:

Reading Expectations When Entering Elementary School

December 27, 2010 By Leave a Comment

One of the many parents worry about as their children are about to graduate from the Kindergarten level of education to grade school is what their child should know once they hit first grade and what they will learn over the course of the year. This can be a trying time in parents, especially new parents lives simply because they do not want to think that their children are somehow underprepared or behind the rest of their kids’ class. What most people don’t realize is that for the most part if the parents are spending time with the kid, reading to him or her and with him or her then their child is pretty much ready for first grade.

During first grade, one of the most important aspects of the child’s education will be determining sight words. Sight words are words that a child recognizes right away and can basically actually read. Sight words can be learned fairly easily as long as they spend kindergarten engaged and they are also practicing reading at home. Of course a first grader, especially when they first enter the grade will not be expected to recognize every word in the dictionary but they should also be able to do what is called decoding. Decoding basically means that the child is able to figure out a word they have never seen before based on familiar looks and sounds.

Again, decoding is a skill that can be learned as long as the parents are taking a concerted effort towards making sure the child is getting plenty of reading done while they are at home. Parents who work with the schools to help their kids get the best educations, parents who do not lean on the schools to be the only providers of education will see children who learn faster and more effectively.

Filed Under: Students, Teacher Tips Tagged With: , ,

Navigating Trhough Grade 1

December 25, 2010 By Leave a Comment

If you are feeling a bit nervous about whether or not your child is on par with other kids when it comes to reading skills, fear not! You are not alone. Almost all parents see their little ones heading into first grade and wonder if their kids are truly prepared for the beginning of grade school. This is after all when things get real as far as educating the kids to the ways of the world and when they being their long trek (which can seem to shoot by in an instant) towards college.

In a nutshell, the thing that all first graders should be able to do is recognize sight words. This basically means that as long as you team up the reading skills they have learned in kindergarten with steady practice at home there should be no problem. Of course each child learns at their own pace and if the sight words are not coming to them as quickly as you would like don’t despair. The old adage of “if at first you don’t succeed, try try again” certainly applies when it comes to young children grasping the art of reading.

Sight words are exactly what they sound like they would be. These are words that your youngster can actually recognize just by looking at them. Usually at this grade level they will be very simple words and no one should be getting nervous because giraffe or xylophone are registering as sight words for your first grader. Of course the more sight words your child knows the better for their long term development but as long as they have some arrows in that quiver they will be well on their way to progressing as they should through the new mine field that is elementary school in today’s culture.

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Writing in the First Grade

December 23, 2010 By Leave a Comment

When a child first enters first grade it is not uncommon for that child’s parents to be a bit nervous about how much or how little the child can actually write. The usual standards for someone who is entering first grade can seem a bit daunting especially if you are talking about a kid who is struggling a little bit in Kindergarten with their writing. What parents must understand is that while schools would like for every student to be at the top of the education ladder as far as what they can do and what they cannot it simply isn’t realistic to expect every child to be at the same level.

The next thing parents need to be able to avoid is getting nervous because their kids might be a little bit behind someone else. This does not mean that the child is abnormal or is slow or will always be behind. There are plenty of kids who simply do not have the ingrained desire to read or write as much as the next kid and then suddenly as if they were shot with some sort of magic bullet they will realize that they actually like reading and writing.

In first grade more kids are expected t be able to label basic picture such as that of a cat or a dog with their own writing. In first grade these children will still have quite a few letters that may look more like Sanskrit than actual English letters and that is certainly to be expected. Perfect handwriting by a first grader would be the exception and nowhere near the norm. What parents have to understand when it comes to first grade writing is that children are still feeling themselves out when it comes to spelling certain words and encouragement rather than anxiety is the best way to help.

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Meeting the First Grade Expectations

December 20, 2010 By Leave a Comment

When children enter the first grade their parents can often feel as though they are frozen by the fear that their child is not yet ready to enter grade school. After all grade school is basically the beginning of the end of their children’s education and while college can seem a long ways off it can also seem fairly close when you really do the math. First grade is the first of just 12 different levels until they head off into the real world and for most parents that 12 years can seem like it flies by in the blink of an eye.

So what should parents know about how much their kids need to be prepared? When it comes to reading their child should have some basic words, known as sight words in their repertoire. This means that there should be at least some words they can recognize in print by just a glance. Decoding will also be done in the first grade, which means that while the child will not know the first right off the bat, they will be able to decipher what the word is thanks to its proximity to other words they already know. Sounding out is a helpful tool when talking about decoding in reading.

As far as writing goes, again there should be several words the child can write with varying degrees of success. Writing a letter the wrong direction is perfectly normal by a first grader, but as the year goes on the letters in which they have problems with should be rarer and rarer. It helps most parents to understand that at first it may seem like their child is lagging behind the class. This is normal as most kids will have initial struggles. Victory is achieved when their child learns from their mistakes and is able to correct them as the year wanes on.

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What To Expect When You Are Expecting a First Grader

December 19, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Entering the first year of grade school can be an intimidating task for both the child and the child’s parents. Knowing exactly what is expected can sometimes seem more difficult than it needs to be and most parents in the know understand that somewhere a school will tell you exactly what they want the student to know and what they expect the student to learn. Schools don’t want what they expect of the child to be a secret. They understand that the best way for the child to learn much of anything will be by working in concert with the parents and so they want the parents well armed.

As far as reading goes, most school have basic guidelines set up in which they expect the children to be able to recognize some words in their reading right away. These words are not going to be the more difficult words in the vocabulary by any stretch but if your child can’t recognize a word like “cat” then it may be time to buckle down and figure out why.

As far as writing goes, again the school is not expecting your child to write the treaty of Versailles but they should be able to write their own name as well as several other basic words. Again, the inability to write cat or dog should be an alarm that it is time to sit down with the child and try and figure out why they are having problems. Mathematics may actually be the real key to understanding where your child is compared to others. Most children at the beginning of first grade should be able to count above 30 and at times skip from 5, to 10, to 15 without much difficulty. Numbers are going to be key in this first year and a firm grasp on them can only help the child develop along the way.

Filed Under: Students, Teacher Tips Tagged With: , ,
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