Parents often ask the team at Better Tuition how they can make sure their young child is ready for school?  The first thing to say is that not all children are ready for reading Heidegger’s Being and Time by the time they start Reception (P1 in Scotland, junior infants in Ireland)!

Heidegger...not suitable for pre-schoolers!

This is why, in many countries such as Hungary and Finland, children are not considered ready for school until they are seven – and overall academic achievement is actually higher in those countries than in ours!

However,  it is certainly true that all pre-school children can enjoy literacy-related activities that will help bring them closer to learning to read.  This will really help them get ready for school – just be careful not to push them so much that you put them off!

Get ready for school: sound it out

If your child has attended nursery since they turned three, they will probably have learned all or some letter sounds (phonics).   My little boy, who started Reception in September, hadn’t covered all the letter sounds at nursery but he enjoyed phonics so we practised at home.

Most schools introduce the letters in chunks, starting with:  s, p, a, i, n, t.  All the letter groups are listed here, with actions to help children remember the sounds.

Many parents feel a bit anxious about introducing sounds, in case they get it wrong: watch this (with or without your child!) and the catchy tunes will soon having you sounding out letters like an early years expert.  My little boy loved these songs and would dance around performing the actions and singing his heart out for anyone who wanted to watch him.

Get ready for school: gripped with enthusiasm

Writing can often be slower to come than letter recognition – pencil grip is a frequent problem with 4 year olds and older children alike.  Don’t worry if this is the case: let your child scribble and encourage him/ her to colour in.  Don’t do much letter formation if they can’t master the dynamic tripod posture.

If your child gets ’grip rage’ when attempting to write letters with a pencil, let them write their name with their fingers in sand or, if you haven’t any sand to hand (!) sprinkle a flat surface with flour and let them write letters or draw pictures with their finger:  they LOVE this, especially if the flour sprinkled surface is a precursor to home made pizza!

The next step could be to let them write their name with a wet paintbrush on the same floury surface.  After this they will have built up their confidence enough to have another try with a pencil or crayon.

Get ready for school: the next stages

You should encourage your child to identify initial sounds, such as c for cat – I Spy is ideal for this – then final sounds – such as the g in dog.   We also use the Jolly Phonics DVD, which teaches all the letters plus blends, which is the next stage.  It’s pretty dated but very thorough.

A final word of advice

Finally, let’s go back to the beginning: don’t push your pre-school child if he or she is not yet ready to learn to read or write.  This is very common and not a cause for concern.  Your child does not need to be able to read in order to be ready for school.  Keep reading to your child, take them to the library and praise them when they show an interest in books: they will love reading forever if you let them wait until they are ready.