When I first mentioned this, a local friend was, “Well, my (now 15 year old) son also had this in the neighborhood local school, what.” So when the 20-something page handout was emailed to all the parents, I wasn’t the only one wondering if we still needed to show up for it (I know because I asked around).
Newsflash: If you get the chance to go for this thing, go. It’s like the most productive 1 hour, worth umpteen books and googled articles and research papers. My first text after the course is to another mummy friend: U r NOT kidding it really was brilliant!
The Indian dad sitting next to me was taking notes on his iPhone. Actually the Asian mum on the other side of me too. Across the room a Caucasian mum I was chatting earlier with asks what kind of text the school uses, upon the suggestion we mimic text used in school in one of the suggested games we can play with our kids.
I spy a little notepad of the kind we sometimes use to jot the grocery list. Somewhere on HK Island is a fridge door with those tips stuck on it. Probably held in place with fruit and veggie magnets.
"Right...Where did you go to Kindergarten?"
I… never realized how much thought a Kindergarten puts toward also prepping parents as part of the process in prepping their children for the next level at Primary schools. (Well, in the introduction they do point out learning happens everywhere – not just for the 3 hours in school.)
Even more interestingly, we parents might get homework and suggestions, but we are reminded to make it fun (or at least not painful) for our kids. To not freak out if our kids keep getting it wrong because it’s perfectly normal and kids can develop and learn very differently so don’t compare. And to tell the difference between actual comprehension of the text and your child simply having memorized the whole story.
So notes! Here’s mine. Kind of. (Cos I think on some level you just had to be there.)
NUMBER 1: Developmental milestones like talking and reading don’t all happen at the same time for all kids.
Barring the 5 year old who never speaks (in which case yeah, you have to get that checked out), within a range, DON’T STRESS. Rockstar’s principal said it with the caps on. But the example I really liked was of Finnish secondary schools outperforming all others for like, 10 years – and they start formal education at age 7 years, versus say, the British who start at around 4 years and don’t really score very high at high school level. (Must tell our Finnish neighbors next time I meet them walking their Westie whose name is – wait for it – Rusmus. That’s gotta be the coolest name for a dog ever, though I probably spelt it wrong. )
Remembering that step-by-steps are not the same for every child, good reading programs should cover all the different ways the kids read.
Preferably also don’t buy reading schemes and take them home to read because they may cause a lot of frustration (and end up turning your child off to reading I guess).
"So that means you can read......"
NUMBER 2: Don’t just think books.
Nursery rhymes? Good.
Comics? Better than nothing.
Also exit signs. Billboards. Those are words too.
And text messages and computer screens are reading too. Because our kids are going to grow up with technology – possibly 90% of secondary school level assignments will be typed, by the time our kids reach that age, just so the schools can get more material in.
Y-eah writing is important but perfect handwriting isn’t the real goal: Neat handwriting does not a good writer make. (Think 1 line of perfectly formed letters vs a whole page of scrawled, original story ideas.)
NUMBER 3: Phonics are important, but not everything
Teach your child the main sound a letter makes. (But bear in mind words like enouGH, wOmen and intuiTIon can go horribly wrong if you only taught phonics).
Note to self: Explain to Rockstar that for words like the above, he has to look at the whole word. Like when he mixes his red cough mixture into the milk, the whole mixture turns pink. Ergo, sometimes he’s gonna have to memorize how some whole words sound.
NUMBER 4: Learning to read involves a variety of strategies that include:
1) Phonics – see above
2) Sight/ memory – Some rote learning is required. And use your child’s knowledge of certain words to build on others. Rockstar’s favorite is “NO!” He has made the connection to “go,” but not “so.” And they don’t have to be real words either. Nothing wrong with nonsense words.
3) Picture cues – Discuss a picture before reading the accompanying text to help your child work out what the text is saying.
4) Context cues – Your child has to get meaning from the text. It will help him complete sentences like “The girl ate the c—“ (ie picking the word “cake” instead of “car” or “sandwich” to fill that blank).
Also, be aware that context relies on experience and culture – for eg, Aussie books may use the word “truck” where British ones may use the word “lorry”. So, if the book says “lorry” but your child usually uses the word “truck”, mentioning that in some places a truck is known as a lorry when discussing the picture before tackling the text will help your child read the word “lorry” in the text when he gets the visual cue of the truck picture with the “L” word where he expected a “T” word.
"We like hiring candidates who can read"
Coming soon in Part 2: List of stuff you can do
