Readiness for Formal Learning – The 3 Rs

PRE – WRITING

Readiness for writing is the child’ s ability to hold a pencil correctly and manipulate it to make the fine movements needed to write. Some of the pre-writing or readiness activities that help:

• Colouring pictures with large crayons.
• Colouring, tracing or drawing within lines.
• Scribbling from left to right.
• Cutting paper with a pair of special scissors.
• Threading large beads on a needle or string.
• Stacking small, wooden blocks, one on top of the other.
• Fitting constructional toys together.
• Finger tracing in the air, then on sand tray or slate.

Writing follows familiarity with letters of the alphabet, which follows from understanding and talking the language.

CHILDREN SHOULD NOT BE MADE TO WRITE TILL THEY ARE AT LEAST FOUR YEARS OLD, BUT ALLOWED TO SCRIBBLE AND DRAW TILL THEN.

PRE – NUMERACY

Readiness for mathematics is understanding quantity, volume, space, time etc. and development of logical thinking in children, which is derived from their discoveries and experiences of play activity.

• When children lift up objects, they experience lightness or heaviness.
• Block-building introduces size, relationships, number, quantity and a three dimensional view.
• Dancing allows children to explore and understand space through their bodies.
• Collage and construction activities provide experiences in sorting and classifying.
• Clean-up time provides opportunities for comparing, sorting, counting and arranging.
• Distributing plates, cups, crayons or pencils to other children teaches one-to- one correspondence and counting.
• Ordering, sorting, classifying, sequencing, separating and experiencing one-to-one correspondence helps to lay the foundation for mathematical concepts.

PRE – READING

How do we start teaching children to read? Do we begin with sounds, alphabet, words or sentences? Many people believe that reading involves knowing the letters of the alphabet, how to put them together to make words, and how to string words together to read sentences.

• In order to read, children need to be able recognise minute differences in size, shape and sounds. While these skills need some maturity, they can be developed with practice.
• Activities like sorting, matching, classifying and perceiving patterns help children to relate symbols to sounds and meaning.
• Another important factor in learning to read with meaning, is understanding the spoken language, for which they have to hear the spoken language often.
• Children who have heard the language and express themselves fully and clearly are likely to have better readiness then those who have not heard the language or understand it well.
• Children who are familiar with books and to whom stories have been read and told are more curious about reading and trying to understand.

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