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Missy Poo 01:41 PM 07-04-2016
I have been lurking around tis forum for a month or so just reading. Haven't finished yet. Just signed up last night. Just started working in a daycare about three years ago, I work mainly with infants and toddlers and I manage the Food Program. I will start going to CDA classes in Sept.

I need a little advise about a 5 yr old dcg who has been coming to us since she was 1 1/2. She is going to start kindy this fall and we cannot get her interested in learning her abc's. Her mom is not to concerned about it. She knows some of them, but whenever we try to sit her down to teach her, she just fights us and runs off having a fit. Any suggestions would be helpful to me and the other teacher.
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Mike 05:46 PM 07-04-2016
With my tutoring, I've done different things to help kids learn.
Make a game out of it. Hide some letters and see if she can find them then tell you what they are.
Let her lead. Have her show you the letters she knows. That will boost her ego and it may be easier to get her interested.
Treats. One girl I taught loves m&m's so I made it a game with treats. When finding and identifying a few letters meant she got an m&m, she found and identified lots of them.

Kids love to learn if it's fun. If making it fun still doesn't work, might have to just hold off and try later.
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Michael 07:41 PM 07-04-2016
Welcome to the forum!
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Thriftylady 05:54 AM 07-05-2016
Welcome! I would just do as normal with the other kids and hopefully she picks up on it. If mom isn't concerned, there isn't much you can do. I have this parent right now, but different issues. It makes is hard when it seems like we care more than the parents do. But it is hard to tell what is going through a parents mind. They could know there is some issue and just not want to tell, they could fear that it means more work at home, we never know.
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Blackcat31 06:08 AM 07-05-2016
Originally Posted by Missy Poo:
I have been lurking around tis forum for a month or so just reading. Haven't finished yet. Just signed up last night. Just started working in a daycare about three years ago, I work mainly with infants and toddlers and I manage the Food Program. I will start going to CDA classes in Sept.

I need a little advise about a 5 yr old dcg who has been coming to us since she was 1 1/2. She is going to start kindy this fall and we cannot get her interested in learning her abc's. Her mom is not to concerned about it. She knows some of them, but whenever we try to sit her down to teach her, she just fights us and runs off having a fit. Any suggestions would be helpful to me and the other teacher.
Welcome to the forum!


In regards to this little girl, I wouldn't force her to sit or "work" on anything.

Embed the learning into play.

It's easy to play a game of "I-spy" or a matching game with letters. It's easy to turn a play-doh activity into a letter learning activity etc...

She is showing you she doesn't want to learn via seat time or worksheets (they are totally developmentally inappropriate anyways) she is showing you she wants to move and run and interact with her peers.

You can easily fit the learning into what she is currently doing. Almost any game or activity can have literacy elements within and the kids learn WHILE having fun!
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CityGarden 07:38 AM 07-05-2016
Welcome to the forum!

With a 5 year old who will in Kindergarten this August/September I would suggest her parent start having her watch Leapfrog Letter Factory DVD. I am not a fan of TV for children but this is a really helpful DVD and given the limited time would be a real help. ZooPhonics is AMAZING too and would be my first choice but I have found when you a weaving learning into play that can take a bit longer time wise than you have a present.

One thing I plan on doing for my Pre-K parents that could help your program in the future is to:

- Host a group parent meeting (or send a letter) explaining the kindergarten registration process for public school and the application for private school. First time parents often don't realize how early this process starts and what all is involved.

- At the meeting or in the letter I would discuss what their children are expected to know/demonstrate prior to entering Kindergarten and in many cases out here prior to private school admissions "play dates". Since my program is play based I would give examples of how their children are learning these items day to day at the school and I would also give them detailed ideas of things they can do to supplement our efforts at home.
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MrsSteinel'sHouse 09:20 AM 07-05-2016
If she passed the kindergarten screening, I wouldn't worry about it
I do not sit down and work on letters with anyone and my kids have all done fine in Kindergarten. We play, letters are around us, we play with letters. Generally they pick up enough before kindergarten but I never stress over it. I feel we push the little ones too much anyway. I do recommend that my parents don't send them to kindergarten until 6 since they expect them to be reading by the end of the year!
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AmyKidsCo 12:19 PM 07-05-2016
Welcome!

ITA with MrsSteinel'sHouse - if she passed the screening don't worry about trying to teach her letters. She'll learn them when she's interested, and will most likely be more interested if she's not pushed. Most children start with the beginning letter of their own name, then their friends' names, then Mom, Dad, etc.
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Missy Poo 06:34 PM 07-05-2016
Originally Posted by Mike:
With my tutoring, I've done different things to help kids learn.
Make a game out of it. Hide some letters and see if she can find them then tell you what they are.
Let her lead. Have her show you the letters she knows. That will boost her ego and it may be easier to get her interested.
Treats. One girl I taught loves m&m's so I made it a game with treats. When finding and identifying a few letters meant she got an m&m, she found and identified lots of them.

Kids love to learn if it's fun. If making it fun still doesn't work, might have to just hold off and try later.
Okay, that sounds like a idea we can try on her.
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Missy Poo 06:39 PM 07-05-2016
Originally Posted by MrsSteinel'sHouse:
If she passed the kindergarten screening, I wouldn't worry about it
I do not sit down and work on letters with anyone and my kids have all done fine in Kindergarten. We play, letters are around us, we play with letters. Generally they pick up enough before kindergarten but I never stress over it. I feel we push the little ones too much anyway. I do recommend that my parents don't send them to kindergarten until 6 since they expect them to be reading by the end of the year!
Dcg will turn 6 in Dec. Actually I caught her reciting some letters, not in order, today while she was playing with a doll. Maybe she knows more than I thought.
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Missy Poo 07:38 PM 07-05-2016
Originally Posted by CityGarden:
Welcome to the forum!

With a 5 year old who will in Kindergarten this August/September I would suggest her parent start having her watch Leapfrog Letter Factory DVD. I am not a fan of TV for children but this is a really helpful DVD and given the limited time would be a real help. ZooPhonics is AMAZING too and would be my first choice but I have found when you a weaving learning into play that can take a bit longer time wise than you have a present.

One thing I plan on doing for my Pre-K parents that could help your program in the future is to:

- Host a group parent meeting (or send a letter) explaining the kindergarten registration process for public school and the application for private school. First time parents often don't realize how early this process starts and what all is involved.

- At the meeting or in the letter I would discuss what their children are expected to know/demonstrate prior to entering Kindergarten and in many cases out here prior to private school admissions "play dates". Since my program is play based I would give examples of how their children are learning these items day to day at the school and I would also give them detailed ideas of things they can do to supplement our efforts at home.
We have a copy of The Letter Factory and she does like it. I hope she is getting something out of it.

I do like your idea about having a meeting or letter. The letter would most like what we could do. I didn't say in my OP that our daycare is run by the mission here and some of our kids are in a homeless situation. That is what makes it so hard to try to prepare our little ones cause most of them are not here long enough. The dcg I am talking about is an exception. Her and her two older sisters ( 10and 12) has been coming to us for at least 3 1/2 years. The older one ages out in Sept. So this is nothing new to mom. As you can guess all of our families are low income and they seem to be stuck in this " poverty cycle". They really don't know how to get out of this cycle and their kids grow up with this same way of living.
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