🎓 Skills Your Child Will Develop
- 🏫 School Readiness — Activities that practice school-like expectations — sitting at a table, listening to instructions, transitioning between activities — directly prepare children for the structure of a kindergarten day.
- ✏️ Fine Motor & Writing Readiness — The fine motor skills developed through drawing, cutting, and manipulating small objects directly build the hand strength and pencil control that kindergarten writing demands.
- 🔢 Early Mathematical Thinking — Hands-on counting, sorting, pattern work, and early number sense build the mathematical foundation that kindergarten math curriculum builds on and that research consistently links to long-term math achievement.
- 💬 Language & Communication — A child who can express needs clearly, tell a sequential story, ask for help appropriately, and answer questions in complete sentences has the language toolkit that classroom participation requires.
Public libraries are a great resource for parents and a fun place for a child to spend time. Libraries have kept up with newer technologies and now offer much more than a place to check out books. Checking out library books is a great way to prepare for kindergarten, but the other library services are valuable as well.
Books
Books are a great tool to use in kindergarten preparation. Read books to your child to develop a love of books. There are books on the alphabet, shapes, numbers, colors, and manners. There are too many subjects to count available at your library.
Read books to learn information you need to know to help your child learn. Many books are available on parenting and child development. Read them and use your new knowledge to assist in your child's success.
Story Times
Story Time or Story Hour provides more than one learning opportunity. Preschoolers are exposed to new reading materials and hearing another adult read. Watching and listening to someone else read gives preschoolers the opportunity to understand that the rules for reading are the same for everyone. Books are read from front to back, top to bottom and left to right all of the time.
Story hour provides preschoolers the opportunity to build some necessary social skills as well. Sitting still and remaining quiet is a challenge to most preschoolers, but it is necessary at story time. Waiting to take a turn or ask a question is a skill that takes practice. Story time provides an opportunity to practice these skills.
Computers and Software
Most libraries have public access computer terminals. Children's libraries have age appropriate computer games and software available for use in their computer section. Allow your preschooler a reasonable amount of time to use these computers. Fifteen to thirty minutes a day is plenty of computer time for a child under five years old.
Pay attention to the games available on the library computer terminals. Many quality reading and math software programs are available on the preschool level. Libraries tend to purchase these types of quality games. These games may be good to purchase if you have a home computer your preschooler is allowed to use.
Educational Programming
Depending on the size of your community, your library may provide many educational programs. Summer reading programs happen in libraries of all sizes. Even young preschoolers can participate in these programs with the help of parents. These free or nearly free resources provide a great opportunity for parents and their preschoolers.
Take the time to go to your local library. Talk with the children's librarian and get information on the available resources. Your library is one place that you often get something for nothing!
