For many years and countless parent conferences, I have been asked by parents how they could help their child at home. I love to give parents some simple ways they can keep their child practicing their skills without even realizing they are. The key to the battle is to make learning fun. Here are some simple strategies you can use for the first two years of your child’s school experience:
Kindergarten
In kindergarten, we are primarily teaching the individual sounds that the letters make and how to manipulate them.
- When you go grocery shopping and you put something in the cart, say the name of the object. Ask your child to tell you another word that begins with the same sound (bananas/bike).
- At home, you can write each letter of the alphabet on cards. Challenge your child to go around and put each card on an item that begins with that sound and eventually a word that ends with that sound.
- Give your child a word, then tell them to say the word without the first letter. This is what that would look like for the word back. “Say the word back.” Your child says it. “Now say back without the /b/” make sure you say the sound of the b not the actual letter name. Your child would say ack. It is important that your child can isolate the individual sounds.
- For math practice, you can ask your child to count how many windows are in your house. Then have them count how many doors. See if your child can tell you whether you have more windows or more doors. You can substitute other items to keep them counting.
First Grade
In 1st grade, your child should be reading so they are now working on fluency. Reading doesn’t have to be—and at this age, shouldn’t be—a marathon. Work on reading small amounts fluently. You want your child to feel success. This will build their confidence, which is invaluable.
- Invest in some card stock, then cut it into strips. On each strip, write a short sentence you will then cut in half. Put the strips in two containers or lay them face down in two piles, beginnings and ends. Your student will pick one from each pile and make a silly sentence they will read. (They can also write them down, which will help with remembering capital letters and periods.) Some examples are: The big dog / ate a fat bone. One gray cat / will chase a mouse. The teacher / can drive a car.
- For math practice, you can put together a math game kit containing some dice, a deck of cards, and some counters. Counters can be pom poms, buttons, etc. Give your child five counters, and you take five. Each player rolls two dice and adds the numbers together. Ask your child to tell you which number is higher. The person with the higher number gets to steal a counter. Continue the game until one person wins by having all the counters. You can use the card deck instead of dice by dividing the deck and having each person flip two cards to add together. Keep in mind that playing with cards can have higher totals since the numbers go up to ten, so you may want to begin with dice.
