BEGIN WITH BOOKS / Parent Reading Tips

A regular reading habit gets your child ready for school -- By the time a child starts kindergarten, he will have passed through a great many developmental milestones.   The vast majority of children arrive with the foundational skills they need to start their learning journey.  However, to ensure that all children come to school ready to learn, many school districts across the country assess kindergarten readiness upon entry, to identify those children who may benefit from some extra help.  Charleston County uses The Developmental Indicators for the Assessment of Learning™, Fourth Edition (DIAL™-4) .   This screening tool targets five key developmental areas: motor , language , concepts , social-emotional, and self-help .  It provides guideposts for what children should know, and the skills they should have, to hit the ground running. The sooner developmental concerns are flagged, and supports put in place, the more likely a child is to catch up and keep...

Books and Everyday Activities Make Learning Fun and Easy -- Understanding the world around us would be impossible without numbers.   Psychologists tell us that we seem to come into the world knowing to pay special attention to them.   Even young babies can tell the difference between small amounts and have a basic understanding of more and less. 1,2,3    This sense of number may start early, but learning about numbers can, and should, last a lifetime.   Most children don’t count reliably to 10 until around age five.   But there are those who can count, or make a very good attempt, much sooner than that.   The more time a child spends counting before she enters kindergarten the better off she will be.   In fact, a child’s understanding of the principles of counting and simple math concepts by kindergarten is a key predictor of later school success.   Principles of counting?   Without even realizing it, we are following five basic pri...