5 Academic Hacks for Preschoolers

When people think of early childhood academic learning, they often think of just ABC 123, but it is so much more than that! Natalie breaks down 5 common skills that are missed as a preview to her course Prepare your Child for Kindergarten.

Hey, it's Natalie and welcome back to Primary Focus, the parent's guide to elementary school. This video is inspired by my course, Preparing Your Child for Kindergarten, which starts June 12th. I've wrapped up all the things that I wish I could tell parents before they enrolled their child in kindergarten.

Over five weeks, we'll dive into important social, emotional skills, math skills, reading, and writing skills that will give your child an advantage when they start kindergarten. This course is perfect if you've got a three, four, or five year old that's starting kindergarten either in the. fall or within the next two school years.

The best part is I teamed up with Johns Hopkins to host this course. So, you know, it's going to be science based, but also because the university is helping me out, it is at the lowest price it will ever be. This class is a hundred dollars, which means it's only 20 a session. Think about the investment you'll make in your child's education for just a hundred bucks.

Check out the details in the description below. And when you're ready to enroll in the course make sure to hit check out as guest and I hope to see you there

this video is part two in this series of mistakes parents make before the child starts kindergarten. I'll make sure to tag part one here and at the end which covers social emotional learning.

And while you're at it, make sure to like this video and subscribe to this channel.

Before I really dive in, I want you to know I'm not making this video to scare you, I'm making it to support you. I was a kindergarten teacher for most of my career. I saw kids enter kindergarten with all sorts of different backgrounds, levels, and abilities and interest in school.

I want you to know that wherever you and your child are, your child will have a kindergarten teacher that is ready for you. But I couldn't help but notice over the years, I met students that had some of these background skills and they overall seemed to have a better experience in school.

And not just academically, they adjusted to kindergarten faster, were more ready to make friends, and just seemed less overwhelmed by the entire transition altogether. Kindergarten holds a lot of new challenges, and the more we can prepare your child for it, the easier of a transition it will be for them.

So I'm making this video so you can provide your child with some experience Experiences and to help them cultivate these skills before they have that big first year in kindergarten. Let's dive into it.

Number one is so easy. You don't even need pencil and paper for it. This is all about academic conversation.

When you're talking to your child, I want you to try and speak to them sometimes like they're another adult. I'm not suggesting that you start opening up topics that they're not ready to hear about but you can increase the level of vocabulary that you're using and how complex the sentences and conversations you have with your child are.

Children are learning by absorbing the language that we hear around them and by letting them model academic conversations, they will be more ready for school. One of the great ways you can do this is just start visiting places that inspire academic conversation. Museums, visiting historical places, going on nature walks.

A lot of us get stuck in just saying, I see this, I see that. What color is this? Your child can handle more than that. Use your five senses. What are they hearing? What are they seeing? Smelling, what are they feeling help your child make connections between these different experiences,

just generally speak to them at a higher level. Even if they're not ready to use the words or speak that way themself, they're absorbing words from you. in kindergarten, your child would be expected to answer questions in full sentences and be able to elaborate on things, adding more detail to it.

But if they are used to having yes no conversations or answering with one word this is going to be a growing pain in kindergarten. This is important too because children write the way that they speak.

So if they're used to just giving the minimal amount of words to answer something, they are going to write that way too. And writing is going to be harder for them if they just have nothing to say. One easy way to build vocabulary in children is by saying the more difficult vocabulary word and then immediately defining it with an easy one.

For example, I might say, I see a lavender light purple flower, or this morning I went on a strenuous difficult run. This way they're pairing the words right next to each other and starting to make connections that like, hey, strenuous must also mean difficult.

Number two, this is a biggie and this is how we teach the alphabet, the alphabet can seem like it's just reciting that song. But if you teach your child the alphabet song and stop there, they don't know the alphabet.

I'm sorry to break it to you. And every year I had parents that proudly came into class exclaiming that their child knew all of their letters. And when I got to work with them, it was like. No, they don't, and I'm really sorry about that, but your child has a long way to go to understanding the alphabet.

Now before I dive in any further, I want you to know there's no expectation your child knows the alphabet going into kindergarten. However, it will give them a huge advantage if they know a good portion of the letters. Remember, your child is not just learning academic things in kindergarten.

There are a lot of life lessons, adjusting to the schedule, so if you can give them a leg up academically,

it's going to give them the advantage settling into the school routine and not be overwhelmed with the curriculum

So back to the alphabet. Yes, the letter names are important, however, I want you to think about when you are reading and writing, how often you're saying the letter names versus using the letter sounds. The letter sounds are your bread and butter. Because if you know all the names of the 26 letters, that's really cool, it's a great party trick for a child that age, but they're not really usable from there.

We're not sitting around just identifying the letters. A real reader and writer can use them. So the letter sounds are going to be more important. Now, again, your child doesn't need to enter kindergarten using all of them, but if you've taken the time to teach them what the letter B looks like and what it's called, take the time to teach them what it says.

It says buh. Note here, it does not say buh, it says buh, we'll cover a lot more about alphabet techniques and simple things that you can do to help your child make these connections. But if you do anything, just help your child understand that all these letters make sounds and they'll use them one day when they start to read and write.

Number three, let's talk about early writing skills. When your child is in kindergarten, they're going to be learning to write small sentences and this is something that builds over the course of the year.

But did you know that there are prerequisites to being able to write a sentence? And it starts actually with conversation. We'll have an entire class dedicated to this in the course, talking and drawing are precursors to writing. You might notice that in daycares and preschools, educators are often transcribing a sentence underneath a picture that your child drew.

This is not just because they wanted you to understand what it was, this is actually working on writing together. And your child probably sat and had a discussion with this educator explain what they wanted to write, and was asked to watch while they wrote it to make this connection that the text on the page actually says something and it's not just random black dots sitting there.

When you sit down and you are drawing with your child, take the time to transcribe with them too. And just know that these are early writing skills.

Number four hmm perfect counting on fingers. Let's talk about number sense and yes We will have a full session on math one huge mistake that I see people make is teaching children to rely on using their fingers for early counting skills try to take it a step further than just having them count in order or showing things on their fingers. Children need to see and touch and experience numbers. This is the same thing as letters.

A lot of kids can count, but they don't actually understand what they're saying. So a deep understanding of numbers from a young age will benefit them for the rest of their lives.

And the last one, number five, assuming academics this age are easy. While it can be way more straightforward than some of the social emotional skills, early childhood learning is messy and it's complex. Kids need a lot of exposure to new concepts and patient adults around them while they learn.

Take the alphabet for example. We've got the letter names, sounds, uppercase, lowercase, recognizing them, handwriting, and then understanding that the letter A looks different when you write it compared to when you see it in a book. Most of these skills we think are kind of like level 1 are actually really complex and have a lot of individual skills building into them.

be patient with your child and be patient with yourself. It is really frustrating to teach kids sometimes because we don't remember learning these things

I don't remember learning how to write the numbers 1 to 10. I thought this was something we just knew. No, every last thing has to be taught, and there are stepping stones to every new skill. So make sure you appreciate each step, celebrate along the way, and understand your child's not going to get it on the first try.

They won't get most things on the second try either. A lot of the things that we learn, especially reading and writing, are not natural. These are man made systems that your child is privileged to learn. So there's a reason why we dedicate so much of our lives to learning. So if you feel frustrated at different points, or you feel like it's too difficult to teach your child something, I just want you to know, it's okay.

And there's a reason why most colleges have a school of education dedicated to teaching how to teach these skills.

So those are five really common mistakes that I see parents making before their child enrolls in kindergarten. I hope that you enroll in my class

I've intentionally created this class to lift you up, but not tire you out. I know that you're busy and you don't have a lot of extra time to give. So everything that I'm teaching will translate into simple activities and things that you can think about to support your child. The class starts June 12th and it runs for five weeks.

You can attend live or watch the replays. Click the link in the description to learn more. And when you're ready to enroll, hit checkout as guest and that will get you started. Before we go, if you've got any questions about the class, make sure to comment them below and I will make sure to answer it so that you and anyone else wondering can find out the answer.

if you're watching this right now and you've already sent a child through kindergarten, or you are a teacher, we would love to hear what advice you have for preparing kids for school. This was part two make sure that you check out part one of the series which covers social emotional learning. And I've got a ton more videos about teaching your children to read, supporting them in school, solving conflicts with teachers, and anything else you might be wondering as your child gets ready for kindergarten.

Thanks for watching. My name's Natalie. I'll see you next time.