Preparing young writers for the transition to school.

Cairney, Trevor

I write this article as a Grandfather of five children. When I first started writing for ALEA publications I was a young Dad fascinated by the way my two daughters were learning language and growing intellectually as they explored their world; my books and articles are littered with examples from their literacy experiences. Nearly 30 years later I write with the same voice but a richer experience, and a bit more knowledge of how children learn. And 5 grandchildren to observe! The world has changed in the last 30 years and so have some of the early experiences of children, but not much has changed about the fundamentals of preparing a child for school. As a blogger (http://www. trevorcairney.blogspot.com) seeking to answer the questions of young parents and beginning teachers, I have returned to the transition point for school entry time and again. Why? Because the years before school have a significant impact on what can be achieved at school. The influence of parents on school learning is enormous, as I have written many times over the years (e.g. Cairney & Munsie, 1995; Cairney, 1995b, Cairney & Ruge, 1998).

I have a modest goal for this contribution to Practically Primary: I will write mainly for parents, but as I do so, teachers should also be able to see the implications for what they do in preschools or in the first years of primary school. I'll offer some brief comments at the end specifically for teachers. I would love to explore this in more depth but I will control the urge and focus on some fundamentals. But more interested readers can pick up the conversations on my blog.

How can parents prepare their children for school?

In the rest of this article I want to suggest that there are at least ten key things that parents should do to prepare their children for school:

* Love them and give them time

* Talk to them

* Provide opportunities for play

* Create planned opportunities to learn

* Encourage creativity

* Read to them

* Share new media with them

* Listen to their questions and ask them good questions

* Help to orient them to school--lunch boxes, toileting, interest

* Be a supportive parent when they get there

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

I'll unpack each of these points (briefly) below.

1. Love them and give them time

Children need the security of family. While we live in an age where families generally fall short of the idealised TV version of family, research does show that the support of families is important. And by this, I mean family in whatever form. We know that ideally children flourish best with a mother and father who are both involved in their lives. But we also know that children in single parent families can also thrive with good support, sometimes with additional help from significant others from outside the family, or extended family. Teachers can also fill gaps in children's lives when there is only one parent at home, serving as role models and encouragers. For families in general, the key is to try to give priority to finding time to spend with your children. This will include sharing meals, play, structured activities, planning experiences that you share with them, reading to them and with them, watching TV together, involving yourself in outdoor activities such as sport and so on. While life is busy in the 21st century we need to find time for more than just basic care of our children.

Related post:

http://trevorcairney.blogspot.com/2008/05/ its-all-about-timehow-busy-lives-affect.html

2. Talk to them

From birth, children need to be stimulated through language. Parents should talk and communicate with children from birth. In fact, some have argued that we should talk, sing and read to our children in the womb! Researcher Catherine Snow (1993) observed parents from low-income families who seemed to support their children's learning well, as well as some who didn't. She found that the most significant contributions parents made were non-print related activities, particularly language interaction and talk. Effective home talk provided direct assistance to children's learning. They exchanged information with their children, showed affection and support, enforced discipline, kept them on task, and expressed feelings. Snow concluded that these interactions supported children's early literacy learning.

Sensory experience and talk as part of this is the first and most significant vehicle for learning. Talk is a key way that we express our emotions to our children, it's how we teach, share knowledge, monitor their learning, reinforce learning and so on. As children grow from babies to toddlers talk takes on even richer dimensions as language is the foundation of all learning; and in particular, for later literacy development and school learning.

3. Provide opportunities for play

Children need to be stimulated. I get into trouble these days for over stimulating my grandchildren, but they love it! Kids are learning machines keen to see, hear, feel, smell and touch new things. Whether it's digging in a compost heap to find worms, slaters, crickets and other bugs, water play in the bath, making roads for matchbox cars in the yard, or a pillow house in the spare room, inventing stories in the dolls house or playing with puppets, kids love to play--especially with other people. Some children like to play alone and all children need to play with other children, but one of the key sites for early learning for children is the play activities they share with adults, particularly parents (and grandparents!) and care givers. Play can be structured, or completely unstructured and unplanned. It can be adult initiated or spontaneous, and it can be led by adults or by children themselves. The latter is very important.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Psychologists, educators and paediatricians see children's play as so important to optimal child development that it has been recognised by the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights as a right of every child. However, in a clinical report to the American Academy of Paediatrics, Kenneth R. Ginsburg (2007) concluded, 'children are being raised in an increasingly hurried and pressured style that may limit the protective benefits they would gain from child-driven play'.

In his widely cited article Ginsburg concludes that some of the benefits of play include the development of their imagination, dexterity, and physical, cognitive, and emotional strength. Play is important to healthy brain development and allows children to create and explore a world where they can achieve a sense of mastery.

Rather than being a waste of time in an increasingly 'time poor' world, play is vital to children's development and time is essential to create 'space' for play. There are challenges here for parents and teachers. How do we resist the temptation to structure children's life in and out of school so much that there is little opportunity for play? As well, how do we encourage children to spend time with other children engaging in play?

Related post:

I've written a whole series of play posts that parents and teachers might find useful. You can read my 'play' posts at:

http://trevorcairney.blogspot.com/search/label /play

4. Create planned opportunities to learn

Life is busy, but children who do well at school have had experience before school with some planned activities. I heard an experienced kindergarten teacher commenting recently that the big change she has noticed in kindergarten children over the last 20 years is that many children arrive at school unable to concentrate on school activities, or even follow a story. There is great diversity in what children can and cannot do when they hit school, but children who do well are those who have had an experience of some planned opportunities to learn prior to school. Some of these can be provided through preschool, but lots can occur in the home. No, parents shouldn't try to 'play school' at home, but some planned activities that require your children to concentrate and stay on task for 5-10 minutes will help. These opportunities can be very simple:

* Playing a game to completion

* Listening to stories right through

* Keeping at a single craft or drawing activity for more than 5 minutes

* Watching a television program right through together

* Spending time exploring a children's website together (more on this below)

* Being responsible for caring for a pet

* Going to the zoo, a children's museum or some other key site for learning together.

Related post:

http://trevorcairney.blogspot.com/2008/06/ teaching-and-learning-moments-in.html

5. Encourage creativity

Creativity can be stimulated in many ways and can be expressed in many forms. For example, children demonstrate creativity through:

* Drawing

* Singing and movement

* Play (both structured and unstructured)

* And, using language--the language of conversation, books and so on.

Parents can help their children to succeed at school by encouraging their children to take risks, invent, solve problems and seek to explore their worlds.

While not the only way to encourage creativity, play is one vital way to do so. Jones and Reynolds (1992) have argued that:

 In play, children invent the world for themselves and
 create a place for themselves in it. They are recreating
 their pasts and imagining their futures, while
 grounding themselves in the reality and fantasy of
 their lives here-and-now.

Children need to be encouraged to push the boundaries of learning, to experiment, take risks and test their ideas in varied contexts.

6. Read to them

When parents ask what they can do to help their children at home, my most common first response is 'Read to and with them'. While people are often looking for more complex answers there is no more fundamental way to support literacy.

Being read to and with an adult offers many opportunities for learning. Mem Fox talks about children needing to be read at least 1,000 books before the age of five to be successful readers. While we could quibble over the precise number, the principle is clear. Being read to teaches much about language (vocabulary, how language works at the sentence and text levels, concepts of print and how it works, the sounds and rhythms of language and so on), knowledge of the world and positive experiences with books.

The key is that reading should be enjoyable and that every child feels successful.

A few basic hints about reading to your children:

* Read early--at least from birth.

* Read often--at least daily.

* Make it special--treat books as if they are precious, anticipate reading as if it's the most special time of the day and make the text an extension of a warm and loving relationship.

* Choose books carefully--think about the things your children like, talk to other parents about books that kids like, ask your child's preschool teacher for advice on books.

* Try to read the book with emotion, with invented sound effects, with different voices for characters and the narrator, changes in voice volume and tone.

* Be physically engaged--point to pictures (or parts of pictures) as you read, point to text devices and features.

* Make connections as you read with other books, experiences, TV etc (don't overdo this)--'This is a bit like the story....', 'This is a bit like Daddy doing....', 'This sounds like...'.

* Talk after you finish the book--again don't overdo it, it's all about response and reflection, it's not a comprehension test. 'Did you like...?' 'Don't you think this was like...?'

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Related post:

You can read a more detailed post on this at:

http://trevorcairney.blogspot.com/2008/01/ basic-literacy-support-reading-with.html

7. Share new media with them

One of the things that has changed most since my daughters were toddlers, is that the new media has had a huge impact on our world. While traditional books still have a vital place, new forms of media also fill children's worlds. Children who succeed at school and in life will also have had rich experiences prior to school with new media. These include:

* Film

* Video

* Video games

* Television

* Computers

Parents should try to both demonstrate new media use in their daily lives, but also to help their children explore the varied new media in their world. These include:

* Watching films and videos with your children, talking about them, and encouraging response.

* Providing access to computers--this should include demonstrating writing, web search strategies, varied communication forms (email, Facebook etc), children's websites, sites that provide information and so on.

* Playing computer games with them.

* Demonstrating new media (taking photos, videos, building websites, blogging etc).

If you struggle with new media yourself, the best thing you can do to help your child is to try to become more familiar with it and then explore it with your child.

8. Listen to children's questions and ask them good questions

Kids ask lots of questions. Sometimes their questions don't move beyond 'Why Mum?'. Professor Michelle Chouinard's (Professor of Psychology at University of California, Merced) suggests that preschool children ask an average of three questions every two minutes. As well, the findings of Hoetker & Ahlbrand 40 years ago, showing that teachers ask about 2-4 questions every minute, continues to be replicated. But sadly, many of these questions simply test knowledge and recall.

Questioning is a critical part of children's learning, but it needs to be used well. There are two dimensions to thinking about questioning:

* The questions children ask.

* The questions that we ask of them.

Here are a few basic principles about children, questions and learning that are useful for parents (and teachers) to know:

* Children's questions usually show that they are keen to learn--that there are gaps in their knowledge, new areas of interest. They need answers to things that puzzle them.

* Questions offer us a window into children's learning--what they are interested in; their learning styles; how well they are learning.

* Questions are also one way that children try to take control of their own learning; where they try to set an agenda and focus for their learning.

* Questions are a way for children to test their existing knowledge, or test their own hypotheses.

In short, parents and teachers should try to ask a variety of questions. While the younger the child the more use you will probably make of simple recall type questions, there is no reason to limit your questions to these questions.

I've written a blog post in which I use Bloom's Taxonomy as a framework for the type of questions we might ask our children. This is meant to show just how varied and rich questions can be.

http://trevorcairney.blogspot.com/2008/08/ questioning-key-part-of-learning.html

As you ask better questions of your children, they'll ask better questions of you. Prepare to be tested! Kids questions can stretch us. You'll need to have your wits about you because kids are good at catching you out with their questions. Earlier in the year just after he'd started Kindergarten my grandson Jacob suggested to his Dad that there was a number called a 'quintillion'. This is how the exchange unfolded:

Dad: 'There isn't a number called a quintillion.'

Jacob: 'Well, when do numbers stop?'

Dad: 'They don't, they go on forever.'

Jacob: 'Well, why couldn't one of them be a quintillion?'

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

End of conversation! Well, maybe not, they probably talked for ages about infinity.

9. Help to orient them to school

Parents also need to help orient and prepare their children for school. Thankfully, schools are so much better at doing this themselves than was once the case. If you spend time preparing your children for school it will pay rich dividends. Here are a few suggestions that might help:

* Try to send your four-year-olds to preschool; this is a great preparation for school.

* Help to prepare them (and you) for separation by providing planned opportunities for them to visit others, play at other children's homes, and take part in-group activities (e.g. mother's groups, playgroups, play dates etc).

* Make sure that you attend school Kindergarten orientation activities.

* Learn as much as you can about your child's school before you get there.

* Start talking to your child about going to school well before they are five. This is easy to do if they have older siblings. As you begin to buy clothes, lunch boxes and other things for school make it an exciting experience; create a sense of excitement and expectancy.

* Try to do the things that I've discussed in my earlier tips. If your child has experienced a rich learning environment, has been loved and supported, has been read to and so on, then they will have more chance of loving school and thriving.

* Don't send your child to school to early. There is a great temptation to send children to school even when they are well short of their fifth birthday. Think through whether this is wise in the light of your own child's development and needs.

Related post:

I've written a post on the 'best age' to start school for parents who might be interested.

http://trevorcairney.blogspot.com/2008/01/ starting-school-is-there-best-age.html

10. Be a supportive parent when they get there Once your child is at school, the task has only just begun, you now have a different but equally important role. Here are some Dos and Don'ts:

* DO make sure that your child gets to school on time and is always picked up or has a routine way to get home safely. Having your child left at the school gate in week 1 is a sure way to make school adjustment difficult.

* DO meet your child's teacher and offer to help as your circumstances permit (increasingly hard for working parents but flexible work practices help).

* DON'T be a 'helicopter parent' hovering around school all day every day.

* DO try to debrief with your child every day. Make sure that after school care is sound and supportive and if your children have a parent or family member at home to meet them ensure that they are first fed and allowed to relax before interrogating them about the day. Mealtimes are often a good time to chat about the day.

* DO make sure that you go to school, events as much as possible, and if you can volunteer for school-based activities, even if only once per term.

* DO remember that once your child is at school you haven't handed them over to teachers, you are still vital to their ongoing learning.

A word to teachers: When kids aren't prepared

Teachers reading this article will probably be saying, if only all children experienced this type of support. We know as teachers that in the real world we face neglected and even abused children, some that arrive hungry, others with disabilities or chronic conditions, many who are tired, and others whose lives are in crisis and chaos. This makes teaching more difficult but it doesn't really change much about the way we seek to support every child as individuals with particular needs and unique value. Parents are the most vital support that children have and while public schooling was established to do things that families couldn't do, schools are still dependent on the active support of families. I've spent a lot of my academic career thinking about the way we build partnerships with families. If you'd like to know more about this you could read Beyond Tokenism (Cairney & Munsie, 1995) or consult my personal website (http://www.trevorcairney.com) that has some relevant advice and a list of all my writing in this area.

References

Cairney, T. H. (1995). Pathways to literacy. London: Cassell.

Cairney, T.H. (2008). Community literacy practices and education. In B. Street (Ed), Encyclopaedia of Language and Education, London: Kluwer Academic Publishers.

Cairney, T.H. & Munsie, L. (1995) Beyond Tokenism: Parents as Partners in Literacy, Portsmouth (NH): Heinemann.

Cairney, T.H. & Ruge, J. (1998). Community literacy practices and schooling: Towards effective support for students. Canberra: DEET.

Ginsburg, K.R. (2007). The importance of play in promoting healthy child development and maintaining strong parent-child bonds. Pediatrics, Vol. 119, No. 1, pp 182-191.

Hoetker, James, and William P. Ahlbrand. (1969). The persistence of the recitation. American Educational Research Journal, 6(l):145-167.

Jones, E. & Reynolds, G. (1992). The Play's the Thing. Teachers' Roles in Children's Play, New York: Teachers College Press.

Snow, C. (1993). Families as social contexts for literacy development. In C. Daiute (Ed), The development of literacy through interaction, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Inc., pp 11-24.