30 Blogs That Focus on Kindergarten Readiness

Moving into kindergarten is a big step, whether your little one is coming from a public preschool, a private one or a home-based preschool program. As you make the transition to kindergarten, there are some basic skills that you’ll need to work on together before the big day arrives, along with some things you’ll need to consider as a parent. These 30 blogs are all about helping children master those skills before school starts, and helping you make the right decisions for him when the time rolls around.

Reading Fundamentals

By the time your child is ready to begin kindergarten, he should be able to recite the alphabet with few problems and be able to recognize letters independently. These skills make up the foundation of reading and writing, and are emphasized heavily in most curricula. In these five blog posts, you’ll find information on promoting these fundamental skills, along with tips and tricks to help your child master them.

• Why is Letter Recognition Important?
• Ten Creative Ways to Teach Your Child the Alphabet
• Letter Recognition
• Teaching the Alphabet
• 7 Strategies to Teach Alphabet Letters

Color Recognition

Having a basic understanding of shapes and colors is one of the primary building blocks of cognitive development, which is one of the reasons why most preschool and kindergarten programs emphasize it so heavily. The activities, ideas and advice offered in these five blog posts can put your little one on the fast track to memorizing the names and being able to recognize his colors.

• Color Wheel (Teaching Kids Colors)
• 9 Color Recognition Activities for Your Preschooler
• How to Teach Your Kids Colors
• Helping Kids Learn Their Colors with The Color Closet from Twistframe
• How to Teach Kids Colors

For the rest of this article click here: http://www.parttimenanny.org/blog/30-blogs-that-focus-on-kindergarten-readiness/

Kathy Stemke's websites:
Moving Through all Seven Days link:http://www.lulu.com/content/e-book/moving-through-all-seven-days/7386965# http://www.helium.com/users/406242.html http://www.associatedcontent.com/user/237923/Kathy_stemke_dancekam.html Follow me on twitter: http://twitter.com/kathystemke Follow me on Facebook:http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=6147172660&topic=4910#!/kathymarescomatthews.stemke?ref=profile Follow me on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/pub/kathy-stemke/13/269/285

30 Blogs About Kindergarten Readiness

One of childhood’s major milestones is starting kindergarten. If you opted to forgo formal preschool in the interest of keeping your child at home for one last year, then his first year of school will also be his first year of experience with leaving home, a classroom environment and interacting with large groups of his peers. Thanks to the plethora of parenting and childcare blogs on the Internet, figuring out how to prepare your little one for his foray into the world of “big kid” school is as simple as clicking the mouse.

Entry Requirements
While the particular entry requirements of each kindergarten will vary from state to state and even from one school district to the next, there are some things that are so common as to be considered almost universal. These five blogs cover the typical entry requirements, and how you can make sure that you’re on the right track.

• About Those ‘Kindergarten-Entry Assessments’ in Race to the Top
• Kindergarten and Transitional Early Entry Kindergarten-What Does it all Mean?
• A Parent Primer For Kindergarten
• Paving the Way to Kindergarten for Young Children with Disabilities
• Kindergarten Readiness article via MiAEYC

Vaccinations
Theories that vaccines cause everything from autism to asthma have spurred a growing number of new parents to eschew vaccines altogether. While this trendy new practice is gathering steam, many of these parents find themselves in an unforeseen pickle when their child’s kindergarten requires vaccination records. These five blogs handle the subject of vaccinations and kindergarten enrollment.

• When People Decide Not to Vaccinate Their Children, I Take it Personally
• The Vaccine Debate
• Seeking, and Resisting, Vaccines
• Are Immunizations Important?
• You Can’t Have Your Cake and Eat it Too: Thoughts on Refusing Vaccines

Fort the rest of this article go here.

Kathy's websites: Moving Through all Seven Days link:http://www.lulu.com/content/e-book/moving-through-all-seven-days/7386965# http://www.helium.com/users/406242.html http://www.associatedcontent.com/user/237923/Kathy_stemke_dancekam.html Follow me on twitter: http://twitter.com/kathystemke Follow me on Facebook:http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=6147172660&topic=4910#!/kathymarescomatthews.stemke?ref=profile Follow me on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/pub/kathy-stemke/13/269/285

The 50 Best Blogs for Future Teachers

Jumping into the teaching profession certainly poses quite the potential for intimidation. After all, the very fate of future generations does hang in the balance and all. But no novice educator has to ride off into the career-tinted sunset alone after graduation. Plenty of seasoned professionals, administrators, and parents have beaucoup advice and experience to offer. Open up a little and listen to what they have to say; not all of it will necessarily stick, but learning experiences lurk in each little snippet. Supplement conversations with mentors and peers with the following blogs, or, if you’re especially brave, reach out and ask some of the writers for the best resources and approaches for helping your students shine.

1. School Counselor Blog: Danielle Schultz and her crew talk about the issues and strategies involved with counseling kindergarteners through 12th graders on both academic and personal matters.
2. The Principal Blog: Here, an elementary school principal opens up about the day-to-day elements of her job and shares resources and ideas that have helped her through different dilemmas.
3. Superintendent’s Blog: While it understandably doesn’t update as frequently as some of the other blogs listed here, this Bedford, Mass.-based read sheds quite a bit of light on what running an entire school district involves.
4. A Principal’s Reflections: Considered one of the best administrator bloggers on the Internet, New Milford High School’s Eric Sheninger is an award-winning, Google-certified instructor with amazing insight into the education industry.
5. School Counseling Matters: Aimed at parents and teachers, School Counseling Matters offers up some incredibly valuable resources about what all the eponymous career path entails.
6. Blogs at American Association of School Administrators: All the reads hosted here cover a wide range of administration positions, and therefore perspectives, so hop on over and learn a thing or two about what all goes into keeping a whole school chugging along as smoothly as possible.
7. Michael Smith’s Principals Page: Stop here for exceptionally detailed musings about everything principalia, which expands upon content from the surrounding website.
8. School Library Monthly: Libraries are essential to a successful academic institution, so teachers new and old should pay close attention to how they work and what they offer students, faculty, and staff alike.
9. The Principal of Change: George Couros is eager to forge progressive classroom strategies that enrich and engage students, teachers, and parents so everyone grows and learns something.
10. AASL Blog: The American Association of School Libraries keeps readers constantly updated about the latest news and views hailing from … well … exactly what its name implies.

For the remaining sites go to http://www.onlineuniversities.com/blog/2012/06/the-50-best-blogs-for-future-teachers/

Kathy Stemke's websites:
Moving Through all Seven Days link:http://www.lulu.com/content/e-book/moving-through-all-seven-days/7386965# http://www.helium.com/users/406242.html http://www.associatedcontent.com/user/237923/Kathy_stemke_dancekam.html Follow me on twitter: http://twitter.com/kathystemke Follow me on Facebook:http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=6147172660&topic=4910#!/kathymarescomatthews.stemke?ref=profile Follow me on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/pub/kathy-stemke/13/269/285

Check this out: http://writeononline.com/2010/03/11/moving-write-along-advice-from-the-experts-increasing-your-blogs-readership/