Free Workshops Show Parents How to Prepare Their Child for School Success

January 4, 2017 1:45 pm
Free Workshops Show Parents How to Prepare Their Child for School Success

From birth to age 5 a child learns at a speed unmatched the rest of his or her life

Forks Elementary School Early Learning Coalition 2017 brings READY! for Kindergarten to Forks and La Push. These are workshops for parents and caregivers of children ages birth to five. The workshops teach families new skills and helpful tips to nurture a child’s development in ways that foster essential early literacy, math, and social-emotional skills.

The free workshops, age-specific learning targets, and take-home activities and tools, equip parents and caregivers to help babies and young children develop strong brain connections for success in school.

“Parents and caregivers are a child’s first and most influential teachers,” says Robert Shadle, Principal of Forks Elementary School. “Using READY! for Kindergarten, we can show families how to be the most important and effective teachers they can be to cultivate their child’s development from birth to age five.”

Birth to age five is important because a child’s earliest learning experiences influence success in school and beyond. Actively engaging families is the most effective way to make those critical developmental years count.

“Each year, across the country, about 40 percent of students entering kindergarten are below the national standards in language and literacy skills,” said The Children’s Reading Foundation. “Most parents believe children who start behind will catch up within a year or two – but that is not the reality. These students struggle to catch up, but sadly most of them never do. The readiness gap before kindergarten is created from the time a child is born until age five, so at home is the easiest place to change a child’s academic trajectory.”

On Jan. 18, at the Forks Elementary School Stage at 5 p.m. you will be able to sign up for the three sessions. You will be able to see samples of the free materials for learning how to work with your own child, in your own home, on your own time.

For more information about the Forks Elementary Early Learning Coalition READY! for Kindergarten workshops, contact Janet Thompson 360 374-6262 ext. 459 or Sandra Velasquez 360 374-6262 ext. 472.