School Readiness

If your child is due to start school soon, there are lots of things you can do at home to help them be ready for school.  Take a look at the ideas below.
Ideas from -
 

Improving the Home Learning Environment

(November 2018)

HM Government and National Literacy Trust

 “The amount and style of language that caregivers use when talking with their child is one of the strongest predictors of children’s early language development. In particular, back and forth conversations between the parent and child that are age-appropriate and reflect the child’s personal interests are consistently associated with increases in vocabulary and use of language throughout development.”

 

Things you can do at home ...

  • Share books.
  • Have conversations.
  • Engage in make-believe play.
  • Go to the library.
  • Painting and drawing.
  • Play with/be taught letters
  • Play with/betaught numbers
  • Share songs/poems/rhymes
  • Play rhyming games.
  • Play games with opposites.
  • Use open questions with lots of possible answers. “What are you going to play with today?”, “How do you think the character will solve the problem?”
  • Use new words in the context of play and activities.
  • Ask decontextualized questions about past and future activities, “What did you do at the park last week?”, “What will you do on your field trip next week?” Tell your child about things you did in the past and will do in the future.
  • Talk about sounds at the beginning of words and words that start with the same sound e.g. words beginning with ‘p’.
  • Ask your child if they can give possible solutions to problems, e.g. their favourite hat is missin
  • Chat: encourage talking but crucially, reciprocal communication;   Play: language thrives when children interact and explore in a playful and creative manner; Read: sharing books, parents and children talking together .

 

 

 

Image from - Improving School Readiness – Creating a Better Start for London

Public Health England (August 2015)

Links to further ideas ...