What's in the Kindergarten Beta?

Note: this entry is part of a series called "The Making of College Bound". Click here to read the series-to-date.

Recently we shared a sample tip from College Bound — our new online program designed to help parents raise college-ready high school graduates. Since the start of the school year we've been testing a beta version of College Bound with parents of kindergartners, and this week we'd like to tell you a little bit more about what’s in the kindergarten beta. Research shows that when parents support their children's education, teach them to aim high, and help them develop success-oriented character traits, they boost their kids' chances of success. We’ve built six topics with that goal in mind:

Aim High
In The ABCs of kindergarten learning, we ask first-graders to demonstrate the skills they learned in kindergarten so parents can identify how well their children are progressing through the school year.

Build Character
A positive attitude toward school will support a kindergartner all year long. In Nurture a love of learning, we show parents three simple, but effective ways to talk to their children and help them want to learn.

Recently more and more has been written about self-discipline, self-control, and self-regulation — and how they are related to success in school. But did you know that self-control can be taught? And it can begin in early childhood. Learning self-control shows parents an easy, and perhaps surprising, way to foster self-control in their children.

Support Learning
A parent's most important ally at school is her child’s instructor. By completing Partnering with your child's teacher, our moms and dads will be better prepared to establish this relationship for their children's school success.

In The road to reading, we break down the five fundamental building blocks of reading and provide specific activities that parents can do with their children to incorporate them into every day play.

To teach parents the five building blocks of early math, Math every day outlines the key skills and standards that children should learn in kindergarten. Then we show parents some playful ways to teach these skills.

As you can see, parenting for education success doesn't have to be a chore! College Bound inspires and guides parents to turn normal, everyday activities into opportunities for their children to learn and grow. As one of our parents enrolled in our beta put it, "College Bound gives me things for me and my daughter to do together. And at the same time, I'm teaching her. Now I know how to do it, I do it more!"

Comments

[Becky on November 17, 2009 at 10:11 PM]

Great post! I am a mother with 3 small children. I spend a lot of time working with them on their education. I believe that a good education is a mix between parents helping and supporting their kids, as well as the school/instructor. I feel that the public schools in are area are ok, however feel that they could do a better job. For example, I just finished reading a great book titled, "Lives of Passion, School of Hope" by Rick Posner that offered a lot of great educational tips where parents and teacher/schools could collaborate and work as a team. After reading this book, I now know what to ask for from my kids’ school.

[Becky on November 17, 2009 at 10:12 PM]

Oh oops, if you are interested in looking at Rick Posner's book further here is the link...

http://www.rickposner.com/

[Nancy Clarke on January 24, 2010 at 12:03 PM]

Although I do agree with the points on aiming high, love of learning, partnering with the school, promoting reading and numeracy at home...... what would you suggest to parents such as myself, who have done a lovely job, aiming low, promoting hatred of learning, dictating to parents with edicts, and sabotaging the long hours of work done at home in literacy and numeracy for children who are struggling in learning or have been identified as having a learning disability. As a parent, I too read the research on self-control, and this could be the only reason why my child is successful in school (a honour student), where the schools have done everything in their power to keep her out of the academic ranks, which includes targeted help for her reading and writing. As for numeracy, I tutored her, where she stands in the top 15 % of the class.
For every one parent who has a good relationship with the school and teachers, there is another 9 who would like to, but have already been judged and convicted under the label of a parent who does not conformed to the school in some aspect of their lives. In my case, my crime was to make a mockery of their belief that my child was not college material. Not only do parents need to change, but the schools need to change their behaviour and beliefs as well.