Getting your child ready for school starts very early. You can help your child by paying special attention to certain areas.
General Knowledge: Teach your child his or her home address, telephone number and full name and birth date. When your child asks questions about the world, try to answer them as well as you can, or take your child to the library to look up the answer.
Self-help: Your child should know how to dress and undress, and how to use zips, buttons, press-studs, velcro and so on. They should also have made a start on learning to tie their own shoelaces. Children in Grade One also need to know how to blow their own noses, and to go to the toilet independently.
Label their Belongings: All your child's clothes, stationery and so on should be marked clearly. Show your child where the label is and teach them to recognise it - this will make it easier for them to find and put away their things at school. Teach your child to be responsible about their belongings and you will be saving money on replacements as well as teaching them an important life skill.
Feed Your Child Well: Children perform better at school if they have a healthy breakfast and a healthy packed lunch. A wholewheat sandwich and a piece of fruit are enough for a school snack if the child is coming home at lunchtime. If they will be in aftercare or somewhere that doesn't provide lunch after school, add an extra sandwich and some nuts, raisins, carrot sticks or other vegetables. It seems much easier to pop in a packet of chips and a cooldrink, but a quick sandwich and filling a juice bottle with water or fruit juice is cheaper and much better for your child.
Language
Development:
- She should know
some nursery rhymes
- Can use expressive
and receptive language
- Can follow
instructions
- Able to produce the
different sounds of a language, in other words have command of a language
- Can put sentences
together to make herself understood
- Able to take turns
in a conversation.
Pre-reading
Skills:
- Can name basic
colours
- Know the letters of
the alphabet
- Know the names and
sounds of letters
- Be able to
recognize their written name
- Have print
awareness (She knows how to hold a book and that we read from left to
right)
- Have an interest in
books and reading.
Cognitive
Skills:
- Understand the
concept of size – bigger and smaller
- Know opposites
- Can build jigsaw
puzzles
- Can master
sequencing cards
- Can pay attention
and plan the execution of an activity
- Know different
shapes
- Can copy patterns
- Know position in
space – above, below, in front, behind, etc.
- Can persist in
challenging task
- Able to categorize
objects
- Have a degree of
intellectual curiosity.
Numeracy:
- Can count up to at
least 10
- Understand the concepts
of counting, sorting and grouping
- Know the different
times of day – morning, afternoon and night
Social
Skills:
- Knows how to ask
for something
- Can share
- Can take turns
- Able to listen
quietly
- Can relate
appropriately to adults and peers.
Physical
Skills:
- Can use the
bathroom on her own
- Can blow her nose
- Can wash her hands
- Able to catch and
throw a ball
- Can balance on 1
foot for a certain time
- Able to walk up and
down stairs
- Able to use
scissors, pencils and crayons
- Able to stack
blocks
- Can hop
- Can use a knife and
fork to eat
- Able to cross her
midline.
Emotional
Skills:
- Can ask for help
- Realize that she
cannot always get her own way
- Able to manage
anger and frustration
- Can work
independently
- Can cope with
criticism and failure
- Able to separate
from a caregiver
- Able to effectively
express her feelings and needs
- Hold her own in a
group activity
- Able to postpone
the need for immediate gratification.
This checklist should give you an
indication if your child is school ready.
A child’s first year in school is
extremely important, because it is the first building block for the following
11 years. I believe that it is important that it should be a positive
experience, where the child is adequately equipped to manage in the classroom,
with many success experiences. When they are able to do something, it becomes
enjoyable to do it.
Good luck for Grade 1!
http://parentingcenter.co.za/a-school-readiness-checklist/
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