Children enter school with a natural curiosity for learning and exploring their world. According to America's Children 2000, 66 percent of children entering kindergarten were able to recognize letters, and 29 percent knew the sounds made by letters that began words. Understanding what is expected of a child at developmental intervals assists parents and educators in setting standards of learning. The Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) sees your child as a unique individual who will learn at his own pace. To give us guidelines on what is appropriate for a child this age, we have developed high academic standards based on those established by national educational organizations. Standards show you, the parent, what your child needs to learn year by year. Through standards, you can see how your child is progressing in the educational setting and recognize what he needs to do to improve. This booklet reflects DoDEA's content standards. To view the complete standards, please refer to K-12 Educational Programs under Instruction on the DoDEA Web page: www.dodea.edu.

        Basically, all children follow the same development pattern (e.g., they learn to crawl before they learn to walk), but they have different growth rates (e.g., one may talk at two, one at three). Learning experiences should be meaningful and relevant, helping children make connections between what is being taught and their own life and experiences. DoDEA's programs reflect a safe and nurturing environment that encourages a child's physical, social, emotional, intellectual, and language development. Thus, when you come into an early childhood classroom, you'll see teachers using familiar objects and conducting activities similar to those you do at home. Making a connection between school learning and home helps a child accept the challenges of learning new information.

        The transition to kindergarten is an exciting but challenging experience in a child's life. Given the importance of making a connection to learning at this age, parents need to take active roles in their children's education. As a parent, you can guide your child in exploring and drawing from his educational experiences and applying this knowledge to his daily life outside of the classroom. In coordination with the classroom teacher, you can provide challenging opportunities at home that will maximize your child's achievement level.

Some of the things you can do:

Talk together
        Set aside a time each day to talk with your child. Talking together will help improve his self-expression, self-esteem, and vocabulary. Listening to your child validates his opinions and reinforces his importance in your life.

Take Time
        Set aside a time and place each day where your child will have the opportunity to interact with learning tools such as books, paper, scissors, and crayons. Let him explore his world by experimenting with art, copying, and writing. Use and create positive, meaningful family experiences such as family outings or daily activities to link your child to the learning process.

Encourage Curiosity
        Create a positive and challenging environment that invites asking questions. Help your child learn about his world by providing opportunities that encourage exploring and finding answers to his questions.

Read Aloud
        Reading is the key to academic success. To become a true reader, your child must develop the habit of reading-a lot. Make sure your child has daily contact with books. Students at this age need to be read to, and should have the opportunity to interact with written words, both at home and at school.

        Practice reading daily. Start out with very easy books. Read aloud to your child, and then have him start reading aloud to you as he learns the reading vocabulary. If your child has not yet learned to read, then have him retell the story in his own words. The best indicator of school success is one's ability to read. Present reading as a tool with which your child can discover and explore new worlds. Reading can be fun and entertaining, so model it as a daily routine for the entire family.

Promote Understanding
        Children need to understand that what they are learning will have an impact on their daily lives and/or their future. Learning must have value in a child's "real world" to develop the child's motivation to become a life-long learner. Thus, practical experiences that connect learning to the real world are very important. Provide experiences with clocks, money, calendars, and following directions that make this connection.

Review and Reward Schoolwork
        Have your child share his schoolwork with you, and praise him for his efforts and successes. Let him know that learning involves both success and failure. Stress that when we make mistakes, we are still learning.

Be Prepared
        Being prepared for school begins the night before. Help you child organize and set out his clothes and school materials the night before so he will be ready to get to school on time each day.

Stay Involved
        For maximum success, parents need to partner with the schools to help their children reach their full potential. Attend school activities and conferences. Talk with your school about a way that you personally can get involved. Children respond when parents take an active role in the educational process.