August

Get Ready for School

Skills to Practice this Month

Praise your child for having good manners, using polite words, and cooperating with others. Upon entering kindergarten, many children are able to interact with other children and adults in a helpful and polite manner.

Activities

Create a game about using polite words. This activity is a great way to build word and story-telling skills as well.

1 - Write the words “please” and “thank you” on cards.

2 - On other cards write the names of the people in your home or whom your child sees daily, like parents and brothers or sisters. On others, write down people whom your child may only see occasionally, such as a store clerk, a librarian, or another family member.

3 - Put the “people cards” in one pile and have your child choose one from the pile and tell how she has been polite in the past or could be in the future with that person. For example, your child chooses “nurse at the doctor’s office” from the people pile. She tells about how she once asked the nurse for a sticker by saying “please”, or how she might tell the nurse “thank you” for being so nice the next time she goes to the doctor.

Model good manners for your child by making sure you use good manners and polite words, like “please” and “thank you” yourself.

Create a Polite Behavior Box in your home by cutting a slit in the top of a box. Each day, once a week, or as often as you decide, ask family members to write on paper how other family members were polite, helpful, and showed good manners. Once a week, read these aloud to each other.

Talk to your child about what it means to play well with others. Discuss ways to get along with others.

Get Ready to Read

Skills to Practice this Month

Make book sharing time a special time for you and your child. Talk about the parts of a book, talk about the pictures in the book, ask questions about the characters. Children who enjoy looking at and talking about books will want to learn how to read.