THOMSON — Sitting at a table with his peers to work on his letters and numbers, 5-year-old Princeton McNair recited and recognized the letters of his name as his teacher encouraged him.
“P, E, T, R, O, I, N!” said McNair excitedly as the pencil in front of him shifted from letter to letter over his worksheet.
Across the hall, McNair’s fellow rising kindergarteners have finished their worksheets and took turns at various stations focused on painting, educational games on a tablet, playing in the toy kitchen, playing with clay, working puzzles and using building blocks.
The McDuffie County School System offers several free programs over the summer months including its Rising Kindergarten Summer Transition Program.
Parents register their children for the program through their individual school and must agree to send their children all 29 days of the program. It starts at 8 a.m. and ends around 2:30 p.m. which gives parents a full day of schooling for their children.
“All of our sites have breakfast and lunch as well as transportation included. So there’s no charge to any parent for their children to attend these programs. There are no barriers for our students to be able to attend and be a part of these programs,” said Dr. Lynn Cato, Director of Curriculum and Instruction for the McDuffie County School District.
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School system officials target children who need the program most.
“We have to serve those children in what’s called ‘priority order’ though. So, first priority are those who did not get to go to any sort of lottery funded or Pre-K head start. Second priority are those who attended a program but not for the entire school year and might not have benefitted as much as those who attended the full year. And third are students who have gone to a Pre-K or head start program the entire year but still may benefit from some transition work.”
No matter the age, Cato thinks it is always a good idea for children to be given the opportunity to refresh knowledge while also looking ahead to future material.
“When you preview the content, you’re giving students access and building their confidence in the classroom” because “you give a base of reference from which to draw from,” she said.
According to Cato and kindergarten teacher Zebearl Scott, learning should be encouraged both at school and at home. The school system’s summer programs help encourage parents to get involved by sending home assignments for students.
“We have to partner with parents in order to make our programs successful,” said Cato.
“With our summer transition program for our kindergarteners, we send home scripted activities with materials. We model it and then we send home the materials for the parents. So, that’s something that they can do on the spot and be a part of their children’s education.”
Summer programs such as this have a strong impact on the child for the rest of the coming school year.
“I think that it takes a very well-rounded experience for students,” said Cato. “You have to have things in place that are both safety nets for students who may struggle, but you also have to have opportunities for students to be accelerated because when you accelerate those students; you’re giving them the opportunity to explore in greater depths those concepts that they learn.”
Not only does the Rising Kindergarten Transition program offer a head start on learning, but it also helps parents get their children ready for school outside of learning.
“The other thing that we do in that program that’s unique is the transition coaches are charged with helping those students and families ensure that they have everything they need to start kindergarten. For example, if a student hasn’t met the immunization requirements, they make sure to help that parent make an appointment either with a pediatrician or with the health department to take care of those things. They help the families, who might qualify for childcare incentives, for payment through the [Department of Family and Children Services] office,” she said. “It’s kind of a full service for them.”
While some parents may feel their child is advanced enough for kindergarten and do not need a summer program, Cato believes students can also benefit from various opportunities.
“Every student can benefit from as much exposure and instruction as possible. We find the transition for our students into kindergarten, from this program, is so much smoother than those who are entering Kindergarten who had no formal schooling experience. Without that, you spend a good part of the first part of kindergarten ‘teaching children to do school.’ Like – how do we share with one another and things of that nature.”
Early learning and exposure to school also helps develop students’ social skills, Cato said. It helps them develop their language skills and teaches them how to communicate with their fellow students.
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“Learning to communicate with their peers is such an important foundation that translates into learning how to read,” she said.
Cato said those children who have gone to Pre-K or go through the readiness program have a different set of skills than those who haven’t and it’s obvious the ones who have.
“You can definitely tell,” she said. “Typically those students, I would say, know the structure of a school and a classroom, and you can watch them interact with their peers in a healthy manner, and they are more receptive to learning new things.””
Sometimes the difference can be dramatic and lead towards more advanced communication skills within students. Children who’ve gone through the preschool programs tend to be better able to communicate with others.
“They are more defined in what they are able to communicate with people. Sometimes, when children don’t have language, what you find is that they develop some behavior issues out of frustration because they don’t know how to tell somebody what their needs are,” she said. “Through programs like this one, children are better able to express themselves than those who have not had those opportunities, and they are able to get along well with a wide variety of children and adults because they’ve had those experiences.”
For parents who might not have the opportunity to have their children in a summer or head start learning program, Cato and Scott say parents can work with their children in various forms to try and help prepare them for kindergarten.
Letter sounds, letter recognition, number recognition, counting skills, identifying patterns and learning about rhyming words are among the basics parents can help with. And when it comes to numbers, teachers say to not forget about zero.
“Many parents forget to start at zero, but that number becomes really important once they start to learn about tens and number places,” says Scott.
Parents should focus on teaching without making it a hassle that disrupts the day. Learning can be an easy, daily habit that instills a norm for conversation and helpfulness, according to ato.
“Don’t add to your workload, mom; use things that you already do to help your child learn to do these skills. As you go about your daily life, seize the opportunities that you have with them. Like if you’re doing dishes, have them sort out the utensils and put them in the proper place. ‘This is a fork, find all the forks and put them together.’ Being very intentional and teaching children words for objects, and just talking with children to try and elicit responses other than ‘yes’ or ‘no.’ Ask them open-ended questions like ‘What fun thing did you learn today?’’ said Cato. “Teach children to be excited about learning and that it’s a positive and fun thing. Teach them how to name emotions so that they can recognize what it is they are feeling and be able to communicate that. Help them to understand that sad and mad are different emotions, those are things that parents can do because it gives children words to use and helps them describe it.”
