Stay at home Mothers the world over wish to prepare their children for School. School readiness is vital if a child is to face the Kindergarten years with confidence. Many parents will visit a toyshop, read the words on the box, spot the keyword “educational” and spend money (which could well be wasted) on the item.

Mothers afraid of the worst words ( almost) that they can hear , “Mom, I’m bored”, will instinctively turn to the easiest and most dangerous distraction, the television set. Mothers, you really could be more creative than this! With an internet-enabled desktop or laptop computer and a printer which uses cheap ink or toner, you can within minutes, download and print fun games, craft ideas and coloring pages – for FREE; from one of the many teacher websites, homeschooling sites or even parent and homework help sites.

Many stay at home mothers, because they do not hold a teaching qualification tend to relegate school work and even school readiness to teachers. Parents always have and always will be not only their child’s primary caregiver; but primary teacher too. Remember the theories and spine-chilling words, “Give me a child until he is 7, and I will show you the man”. Before your children enter the formal schooling years, they are learning from you. Are they learning what they should? Are you stimulating in your child a love of reading, a curiosity about the world in which they live?

Every parent should have a craft cupboard at their disposal for rainy days and even for when your child is sick and needs a few quiet activities that can be completed with a lap tray, a few resources and ingenuity; from his or her sick bed. Don’t rush off to the shops, unless you are going to purchase story books or activity books. Open you cupboard, get out the scissors, the glue, crayons and printed activity sheets which you can access for free of the Internet and spend some time with your child.

Children often value the presence of the parent more than the activity itself. A sick child deserves some of your time and a few hours of quality interaction. Together, you and your child could create a cut and paste collage on the themes you have chosen.

The school readiness skills are easy enough to cover and it can be great fun doing so. Coloring in pictures, cutting along a line and then around more difficult shapes are skills which can be practiced for an hour a day, or longer if the weather is bad and you are more or less trapped indoors. Sorting and classifying items into similar and different piles is an easy everyday activity that you can engage in while doing even the simplest of household chores. If you do recycle your garbage, as you should, you will probably have a bin full of glass bottles and jars.

Separate these items according to size or the product they once held. Count out loud, let your child count too. Fill each bottle of a series of five to seven bottles with varying amounts of water. You and your child can then place the bottles in rank from the one containing the least water to the one containing the most. Grab a metal household implement, a fork, a blunt knife or a spoon and start “playing” melodies by pinging on the bottles in sequence or randomly produce the sounds that emanate from each water-filled vessel.
The home computer has some use, but do not let it replace the television set as an electronic babysitter. Access one of the many free sites for teachers and pre-schoolers and let your child play interactive counting, alphabet and classifying games. Start by getting your children interested in the world around them from as soon as you possibly can. Spend time outdoors with your child, play with water and sand. Collect insects and leaves and feather and stones. Identify common garden birds, and keep slugs and snails and frogs and crickets in glass tank torture chambers for a few days before you release them.

Invest in a cheap science kit or home microscope. If you see a flea on the family dog, place it on a slide and magnify it so your child can see it properly. Talk about sucking mouthparts. If you can catch a mosquito do the same. If you find a dead butterfly show your child its incredibly built-in straw for drinking nectar. Generate curiosity in your child and get him ready for the many years of schooling which lie ahead.

The pre-school teacher will expect that your child has knowledge of self. Download big pictures of body parts and build a little person in his room. Label the parts in a neat print and play the “show me your nose” game every now and then. School ready children also possess knowledge of left and right. Easy – stand together, sing the songs: “you put your left leg in” and so on and your child will have fun learning.

What of placements? It is easy, find a few containers, dust off the old building blocks and start playing. Place the first block “inside” the box, the next “behind” the box and so on. Developing the fine-motor co-ordination required to master pen and pencil work, is no problem. Let your child manipulate small items like Lego pieces, use a household clothes peg to pick up small stones in the garden.

Need to work on the hand eye co-ordination for school readiness – easy peasy; play lots of ball games. Catch and throw and add a bat or two. Play marbles with your child and set up a good old-fashioned marble competition course with water-filled hazards here and there which should be avoided, or the marble is forfeited.

School readiness is important, but while you are thinking about ways to ensure your child will cope when he goes to school, enjoy the time you have at home with him. Quality time sprinkled with love and affirmation will produce a confident school-goer. Confident children face the world, including school, with no fear and openness to learning.