Preparing for primary school is not an easy task. Some parents wait until the last minute, while others teach their children to read and count almost from the cradle. Who is right?
Generally speaking, preparation for primary school is not only about reading and math. It is also about the ability to hear, listen, and understand. The desire to learn , after all! You can teach your heir letters and numbers as early as two years old. But what next? How will the baby use these skills? Let’s discuss when to start preparing for primary school and how to properly teach a child to read and count.
Preparing your child for school together with specialists
What does preparation for primary school include? At what age should classes begin?
Preparation for primary school is a whole complex of knowledge, skills and abilities: development of speech, attention, memory, thinking, cognition of the surrounding world, learning the basics of mathematics, literacy. Moreover, the child’s brain must mature in order to perceive abstract symbols, letters and numbers. This happens around the age of 5. Therefore, 5 years is the ideal age to start preparing a child for school.
Nowadays, it is true, early development is fashionable. But many neuropsychologists and psychologists believe that it is precisely because of early development that children now have so many neuroses, enuresis and tics – the child’s brain cannot cope with the huge flow of information.
The psychologist told me not to limit the child in games and walks. He said that this is also development. Then he will study better. What is the connection here?
The cerebral cortex is responsible for knowledge and skills . However, knowledge must be fueled by sensorics, motor skills and emotions. And the subcortex is responsible for this. For example, a child must understand the properties of an object: what it is – warm, cold, smooth, rough. The more children move and learn about this world: run, play, walk, try, touch, study, the faster their subcortical structures will form. And a developed subcortex is the “foundation” for the cerebral cortex.
What should be the optimal duration of classes? After all, kids get tired quickly…
For 5-year-olds — 20-25 minutes, for 6-year-olds — 25-30 minutes. You can do it twice a week, or a little bit every day. But! Preparing for elementary school does not mean that you should sit your child at the table and make him cram. The lesson should be interesting! Otherwise, the kid will not sit for even five minutes. Think of some kind of game. For preschoolers, play is the main activity. For example, “let’s help the letter A find a friend.” In addition, there should be frequent changes in activity: read a little, count a little, listen a little, move a little… This is an interactive lesson.
What games are there to prepare a child for school?
There are a lot of games to prepare a child for school. For example, go for a walk with your child – ask him to compare two different trees. What do they have in common, what are the differences? And how is a tree different from a flower? The child learns to analyze, compare, reason. And how many veins does a leaf have? And which leaf has more veins, and which has fewer? Here you have your math lessons. Imagine how much knowledge a child will receive on a walk!
Another option for outdoor games to prepare a child for school: ask him to lay out a letter or a number from pebbles, twigs, acorns – anything! Children do this very willingly. You can also draw letters with your finger on the child’s palm, on the back, so that he guesses.
What is the correct way to teach a child to read? First letters, then syllables?
Parents often ask how to teach a child to read correctly. But most do it… incorrectly. The most common mistake is “torn” syllables. The child does not read smoothly: ma-ma, but breaks off sounds: m-a-m-a. And then you have to retrain him, which is always more difficult. Another mistake is teaching reading to a child who does not pronounce some sounds: incorrect pronunciation will lead to errors in writing (and will reinforce incorrect pronunciation).
So what is the right way to teach a child to read? Introduce him to vowels and consonants. Work on syllables. For example, what happens if he combines the sounds U and M? UUUUUM. Let the child draw out the first sound as long as possible until he reaches the second. You can draw a path from the vowel to the consonant: U runs to M. It is necessary to achieve the merging of sounds. In addition, the child must understand what he is reading. Ask him, what is UM? Children usually say: “The mind is in our head.” How many letters are in this word? What sound is U? A vowel. Why? Because it is voiced. What sound is M? A consonant. Why? Because there is an obstacle. This is what we are discussing.
Another question about how to properly teach a child to read. I would not advise learning from an alphabet in which the letter and sound diverge. For example, on the page with the letter O there is a cucumber. It is pronounced as Agurets! The child may be confused. But if under the letter O there is a cloud, a lake – great. It is better to teach letters by naming them not as in the alphabet, for example BE, but as the sound B. Otherwise, when syllabic fusion occurs, you will get BEA instead of BA.
And the last thing on the topic of “how to teach a child to read correctly”. Don’t get angry if he can’t do something. Remember: when the baby was learning to walk, we were happy with his every step. And we supported him until he learned to walk on his own. So, it should be the same with reading.
