Learning Guide: Kindergarten

6 ways you can help

1. Read to your child every day, and talk together about what you've read. When you finish a book, have him tell you what happened first, in the middle, and last. Ask him how he felt about the book and why.
2. Use songs and nursery rhymes, word play and rhyming games to engage your child in the fun of language.
3. Challenge your child to find different ways that numbers are used at home. Places to start include telephone books, measuring cups, calendars, clocks, house numbers, and scales.
4. Explore shapes together: Search for them in the street, learn about circles, squares, cylinders and rectangles by opening boxes. Examine dishes, pots, baking tins, and the contours of the cupboard itself for shapes.
5. Make a shopping list together with your child. At the supermarket, ask him to help you find products and identify them.
6. Make a conscious effort to listen to your child -- and to help him learn to listen, too. Take a listening walk together. Point out quiet or loud sounds. Help him determine where the sounds came from. On your way home, see how many different sounds the two of you can remember.