(Parents) Please help I need to prepare my soon to be 5yrs old daughter for kindergarten.?
922783
Children at this age feed off of our emotions.  If they sense that we are fearful or stressed, they will also be fearful or stressed.  The very best thing you can do for your precious gift from God is to portray your pride in her.  Your positive attitude towards her abilities to succeed, your excitement about her new adventure and your pride in her self confidence will make her feel empowered.  Empowerment is the best gift we can give our kids.
943889
I home school my kids and have had wonderful results with a book called "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons" by Siegfried Engelmann.  I know several 3 and 4 yr olds who have learned with this program.  You can take it at your own pace and you see results very early in the program.  There are also some wonderful curriculum out there for preschool, some have been mentioned already:\n\nhttp://www.mfwbooks.com/\nhttp://www.sonlight.com/\nhttp://www.bright-beginnings.net/\nhttp://www.caitscurriculum.com/\n\nHere are some great links to websites dedicated to early childhood learning.  I use them often for great ideas for learning and fun!:\n\nhttp://www.handsofachild.com/2/\nhttp://www.preschoolrainbow.org/index.htm\nhttp://www.muddlepuddle.co.uk/index.htm\nhttp://www.enchantedlearning.com/Home.html\n\nI hope that helps, if you are planning on home schooling after preschool I would recommend finding a home school support group in your area and get plugged in with other families who homeschool.  \n\nBlessings.
331382
Contact the school board in your area they will have the procedures and guidleines in a packet for you.They will tell you what curriculums are acceptable for the state in which you live. Then ask yourself why do you want to home school? If it is for selfish reasons like you don't want your five yr old to leave you.Or you think they will learn bad habits, you need to think again. These things will happen anyway and your not really helping them. Ask yourself is your child already shy or outgoing? Keeping them home because they are shy is not good it only sets it in stone. I home schooled my youngest son it's not an easy task and it is a very big commitment. You just can't pick and choose when you feel like teaching and what you feel like teaching( although many do). You must teach even when you don't feel good or they are in a bad mood. What kind of relationship do you have with your child? Does he listen well? You'll only be hurting your child if you don't do it the correct way. Many home school children fall very far behind because mom is not very consistant or tough. My son is now in Public High School and in Honors programs but my friend who is home schooling her children do nothing but crafts and play games and seem very behind for their age in all their academic studies.She won't get out of bed until 9:30am and stops teaching at Lunchtime. They go shopping everyday. Is this teaching her children?? You also need some support people, parents  or friends who can lend a hand now and then to give your child a variety of teaching techniques. And you must absolutely get them involved in other activities in the outside world, such as soccer or ballet or some type of group sport. Not a homeschooling group. It keeps them too sheltered and they never learn how to put up with negative people. Which the world is full of. Hope this helps feel free to e-mail me if you have any problems and good luck.
1033080
You could use the Dolch Sight words preschool list and when she gets good at them, move on to the kindergarten list. And make your own flash cards either with a word processor and cardstock and scissors/paper cutter, or hand print them on index cards.  My son really liked labled tongue depressors (big thick popsicle/craft sticks) instead of cards:\n\nThe lists and printable flashcards are available at:\nhttp://www.kidzone.ws/dolch/preschool.htm\n\nalso online free "Dolch Kits" that include printable flashcards are available at:\nhttp://www.theschoolbell.com/Links/Dolch/Contents.html\n\nYou could also use rhyming words and easy blends to make your own flashcards.  A good place to find worksheets for easy words (and then make flashcards based on the worksheets) is at Starfall:\nhttp://www.starfall.com/n/N-info/level-a.htm\n\nHave fun!
381647
Hire someone or homeschool her at night and on your days off.  If you hire a babysitter for the daytime then have the baby sitter go over the workbooks that you use for homeschooling. That could be the time that she does homework or even have the babysitter teach her. Thats a good job for a college student and most would be free some times of the day. She could help you educate. It would be good for an education major.
975450
One letter at a time until she gets it down...\n\nwrite the first letter about 10 times in a row, let her watch you write it and tell her the letter each time.  Then let her trace it.  Then 10 more times write the letter but not full use little dots, let her trace it.  Then once she gets tracing it and saying the letter, let her write it herself about 20 times.  If she gets it down move to the next letter.  Same process until all letters are completely learned.  Then try putting two letters together with the same process and add more as she progresses until the entire name is learned.  Don't burn her out in one sitting though as she may become frustrated and give up, or to much info at one time and she may forget.  \n\nThat is how I taught my son.  Hope it works for you!  Good Luck!
928570
yes, help her study... play a memory came, with flash cards. REALLY HELPS..and im in college. play jepoardy. don't push her over the limit tho. I find that writing things a few times helps me learn it .
962729
Ask about the student to teacher ratio, the types of classes they teach. For example, will your son spend 2 hours a day on reading, 2 hours on writing/spelling and just 15 minutes in art, library or a p.e class? Make sure they have a well balanced curriculum. Also, I'd find out the schools policy on parents volunteering in the classroom. Some schools make it easy for parents where some schools make it difficult. I'd also check out their test scores, but just out of curiosity. I wouldn't base my entire decision on standardized test scores as they are pretty biased. Another good thing to do is to talk to current parents to get a good feel of the school atmosphere and the attitude of the staff and administrators.
1046688
I expect there will be many answers suggesting that it isn't too early to rub textbooks against one's pregnant belly, but I think one can relax quite a bit; as a retired teacher, here's my suggestion:\n\nThe most important first lesson a child can learn is how to be socialized.  You can be sure the other kids will let him know what's ok, and what isn't!  This is the purpose of any organized education before First Grade.\n\nSome people like to get a start on teaching the alphabet before 1st G., but, because when we are very young our attention span is small and our retention is slight, I don't think there's much use in drilling the alphabet until the age of 5 or 6.  Really.  \n\nHere's when I would suggest that you get serious:  2d or 3d G.  Pay attention to what interests the child; observe how his mind works:  does he think analytically?  Deductively?  Intuitively?  (At all?  ...Sorry, couldn't resist).\n\nI'd start making exciting materials available to him as he begins to show interest:  building toys for the analytically inclined; colorful age-appropriate magazines for the introspective, and so on.  Tailor the item for the child's special interest; and yet, be sure to add subjects that are new and exciting from time to time!
263389
Don't worry mom your daughter will do fine shes made it this far she will go all the way ,I'm sure she has anxiety she has a lot on her but you can take care of that tell her is only expected to her best and that either way you are very proud of her give her a big hug mom that goes a long way.You don't no how lucky you are in this day and time kids don't get half as far as your daughter and Ill be the first to admit it I have 5 all grown now and none of them graduated.
1044250
Try the local library, check out you child's school website they usually have bunches of links. Math is mostly learning the fact families very well and learning to carry. (addition) I also got the little workbook at Wal-mart that goes by grade once I pinpointed what help my daughter needed.
946376
Show her some of your "A" tests and remind her that you are a much better student than many parents can bribe their kids into being, with the suggestion that this is a sort of reward- you are a good student and can stand to miss a half-day of school. Explain calmly and clearly your points about the teachers expecting students to not show up. You can also mention how even the school administration didn't feel it was necessary to have a whole day of school- aren't the last three hours of school just as important as the first five? Make sure to present your points maturely and rationally, without any whining, and your mom is sure to be impressed and agree to let you stay home.\n\nIf she makes you go anyway, you can skip homeroom and your classes and just hide in the library and read. Make it a 5-hour discover-interesting-books day, it'll be awesome. I wish I had a 5-hour block of time I could devote to just browsing a library, I need to expand the types of books I read and I've glanced at really interesting titles that I never had time to check out. Like ventriloquism, learn ventriloquism! You'll be able to screw with people for the rest of your life.
932147
If you have a good library try "Five In A Row". My girls are enjoying it. This is a literature based program that teaches Social Studies, Language, Art, Math and Science. I would suggest adding another math program and a phonics program. \n I also like using "Teach Your Child to Read In 100 Easy Lessons"  for phonics. This can be bought at Walmart On-line. \nFor additional math I use Alpha Omega Lifepac but there are MANY to chose from. \n3Moms.com is great for encouragement and they have a bundle of sample lessons so you can see what is best for your family to use. \nFor extra work I like to use www.schoolexpress.com. They have a variety of free printable worksheets on many subjects.\nA fun on-line place to learn is www.factmonster.com.\nAnother fun and educational free place to learn to read is Starfall.com\nI have been home schooling for 6 years and every year I find something new and exciting from my searches. Another great place to search on the web to find any answer is www.ask.com. Ask Jeeves finds specific web sites for your specific question.
748914
You're on the right track. Since she is just a baby now you want to keep it as simple as Dora. Since you want to teach it to her and are willing to learn it yourself, learn ahead of her. Get the tapes and things and learn it yourself.( try www.Rossettastone.com) to know if she's actually learning, try having Spanish day's when you know the language better. try to just use Spanish the whole day and see if she gets it or has no idea what you're saying. (a lot of people use this technique, and it is recommended to students learning sign language.) Have her repeat the word's back to you, and whole sentences when she's ready.  Some children get it so quick, they ask for aqua instead of water without thinking. you'll do fine, any more questions and I'll be happy to answer, or just ASK!
865686
Find a good tutor, check into homeschooling co-ops, get a good teacher's manual...learn right along with your kid.
529775
Hi Vashes,\n\nChildren of quite a young age cannot be dealt with force. \nYour daughter needs to start giving respect to her school and studies. This kind of discipline does not sprout all of a sudden. Your child will generally follow your example. Maintain a disciplined decorum in your home. Things like "get up at 6", " Fold your bedspread", "Brush your teeth", "Place your brush in the stand", "eat at the dining table", "study at your study table", etc should be slowly inculcated in her. You should give her own private space where she can maintain her things and also study. This kind of ambience would influence the kid and would help her respect her school and studies. Link her performance with rewards like " a trip to the amusement park", "holiday in a farm", etc. Its a slow process and instead of commanding her to do all these things, estabilish it to her that its her responsibilty to take care of these things.\n\nRegards\nVj
559429
Kids need to relax too.  Don't burn them out before they reach kindergarten.  A good mix of educational, fun and educational, and some just plain fun - will lead to a healthier balanced and happier child. Don't let the latest/ trendiest eduactional theory cause you to steal your childs childhood away.  It is a question of balance.\n\nBesides even playing with water and sand can be educational to a bright enquiring mind.