Kindergarten is a critical year for a child.

Parents of Kindergarteners know that!  They know their children's future depends on a successful school experience.  They know that it begins in Kindergarten.

Parents know that the Kindergarten year is crucial to future learning expctations.  Many are willing to help set a course for success during their child's kindergarten year.  They simply don't know the WHAT, the WHY, and the HOW of it.

Any parent who's done an internet search has read expert opinions on the value of parental help and support for their children's early schooling.  That parent has also read list after list of skills to promote and teach, at home.  The WHY of each may seem unclear, yet all of the suggestions are good.

Parents trust the source.  They quickly realize, however, to implement them all would require their full-time attention.

That certainly isn't today's reality!

The kindergarten parent is left with the feeling that, although each suggestion is important, it shouldn't be so overwhelming and guilt-laden.  Today's kindergarten parent wants more!

She wants guidance and help in reaching her goal.
She wants to know what to do...what essential skills to teach.
She wants to know why she is doing it.
She wants to know how to do it...effectively.
She wants the experts to respect her commitment to work and family.
She wants them to respect her wallet.

In short, today's parent wants the experts in education to provide her with no-nonsense ways and means to support her child's kindergarten program.  She wants to know what the key factors are and how to teach them in a user-friendly format, free of educational jargon.

Ever walk into a teachers' store looking for material to use with your preschooler?  Were you blown away...

by the colorful, eye-appealing display, and
by the enormous variety available...
each one asking you...
to take it...
to consider it...
to buy it?

Did you start loading your cart?  Were you shocked at the cost?  Did you realize you had hundreds of dollars worth of product in your cart...in the euphoria of the moment? 

When reality hit, did you begin the selection process?  How many of those items contained substance and quality?  How many were duplications...where only the pictures and colors had changed?

• Did you become paralyzed by the choice? 

• Did you begin to feel uptight?

• Did you replace the goods because of uncertainty?

• Did you walk out of the store, empty-handed?

Were you shaken in your belief that YOU COULD help your child...that you needed guidance the store clerk couldn't provide?

I know...because I've been there and done that, as the saying goes...both as a parent and as a professional educator!

I, too, sought out teachers' stores and publisher catalogs.  I was looking for materials -- a program, perhaps -- that would meet the needs of my "at risk" students.

Eye-appealing and costly, most of it was single-use, material.  My department budget didn't allow for all I needed.  Even the best of it did not have all the kindergarten elements I needed...to make up what my "at risk" first graders didn't get in kindergarten.

Take heart...kindergarten-tips-and-skill-lessons.com will guide you.

Want the best for your child?  Read on!

The importance of YOUR work with YOUR preschooler MUST NOT and CANNOT be underestimated.  Consider this...

"By the Year 2000, all children in America
will start school ready to learn."

So said the US President and State Governors in 1992.

In 1993, the National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES) filed a report entitled: 

Public School Kindergarten Teachers' Views
on Childrens' Readiness for School.

Among the Highlights of the report is the following statement:

"Only 27 percent of public school kindergarten
teachers assume that by the end of the kindergarten
year allchildren will be ready for first grade."

Nancy Kerr is President of the National Children's Reading Foundation.  In the January 2001 Newsletter, she cites results of recent research studies, which reveal...

"...failure in reading and math at 7th and probably10th grades can first be accurately predicted by how well parents prepare their children to begin school, and thereafter by whether a school's reading program brings a child's reading skill up to grade level during
1st, 2nd, and 3rd grades." (p.1)

Still not convinced on the importance of YOUR contribution to YOUR child's academic preparation in kindergarten?

The following quote MAY convince you...

"Below-level reading skills in students at 3rd grade
can be used to predict failure at 7th grade."

Now, here's the kicker...

"Yet these students who are struggling to read at 3rd grade can be identified earlier, most by September or October of their Kindergarten year."  (p.3)

Most can be identified "BY SEPTEMBER OR OCTOBER OF THEIR KINDERGARTEN YEAR!"

You CAN strengthen skill and ability development while your child is still in Kindergarten.  Your home-schooling during the first five years have a powerful impact on your child's future success.  Extend it through the kindergarten year!

What does it take to help your kindergartener?

It takes a commitment of time.
It takes a bit of preparation...

to become comfortable with helpful activities that you COULD and WOULD do...

if only you KNEW!

Your time commitment for the development of kindergarten skills and abilities need not take more than 20 to 30 minutes, daily.

The value of that commitment?  PRICELESS!

As Rod Paige, a former US Secretary of Education has said,

"There is no more powerful advocate for children than a parent armed with information and options."

Click here to discover the first of five pillars to preparation for learning.

                                    Alphabet Knowledge