There is an opinion that the modern pace of life and the level of development of mankind has led to the fact that children should be sent to school from the age of six, or better, from the age of five. But psychologists insist that a third of seven-year-olds are not ready to go to school.

What about six year olds? And even without going into such reasoning, many parents whose children were born in winter or autumn face a difficult question: what time to send their child to school - at six and a half or at seven and a half? It is necessary to think over this question well and make the only correct decision, on which, perhaps, the whole future life of the child will depend. Therefore, as always, we go to a psychologist for advice.

Natalia Lvova, presenter:

Let's delve a little into the history of this issue. By whom and when was the age of a child ready for school, that is, the age of seven, determined?

Elena Gromova, family and child psychologist:

- The question of at what age a child can go to school is quite difficult, and to this day there are disputes on this topic. It so happened that in Russia it is seven years old, in the West it is five years old, but there is not a school as such, as we can understand for ourselves, but there is a system of continuous education, and somewhere from the age of five or six, in depending on the district, there is the so-called “pre-school”, where children prepare for school, but not at the expense of any specific activities, but primarily by learning in the game, acquiring certain knowledge, skills, skills in the game.

Why is the age of seven in Russia and is it customary to send a child to school at the age of seven? This is due to the age characteristics of the child. At the age of seven - you probably all heard that there is such a thing as a “crisis of seven years” (there is a crisis of three years, there is a crisis of seven years) - what is a “crisis of seven years” and why is it important that a child has it, and the child after this crisis went to school, but not before. The fact is that the neoplasm of this age - during the transition from the younger before school age to the older one, during the crisis of seven years, the formation of the internal position of the student takes place. The child is no longer satisfied with what he had before. He wants to build a new relationship with an adult, he has a cognitive need, and he becomes ready to be a student. This happens around the age of seven.

Hello, my name is Nikolay. My eldest child is five and a half years old - this is a girl, she already knows how to read and write. I am interested in the question: what time is it better to send her to school, at what age?

- Progress is evident, and children are more intellectually developed than we are or than our predecessors, than grandparents; but the fact is that intellectual development does not determine the level of a child's readiness for schooling. This is just one of the parameters, and if other parameters are not formed in the child - we will talk about this today - then it cannot be said that the child is already ripe for school. No matter how smart he is, he must still be able to use this knowledge and want to use this knowledge. Therefore, early intellectual development is not a guarantee that a child can go to school early.

Hello, my name is Evgenia. My question is: at what age is it better to send a child to school: from six and a half years old, or wait until seven and a half? What signs of a child's readiness for school should a parent know?

So what are the criteria. Psychological readiness for school, if we take the approach of N. I. Gutkina as a basis, is as follows.

The first parameter is motivational readiness- how much the child wants to go to school (or does not want to), and if he does not want to, then why.

The second parameter is an arbitrary sphere, to what extent the child is ready to act according to the rule and according to the model. I think that we will talk about this in more detail at the end, and I will tell parents how certain diagnostics can be done at home.

The third parameter is the speech sphere, how well the child has developed coherent speech, how well he uses vocabulary, and whether he has well developed phonemic hearing.

And the fourth parameter is intellectual readiness - what is most often talked about and considered to be decisive. It turns out that this is not a determinant, but one of the parameters of psychological readiness for school. Accordingly, if you want to understand whether your child is ready for school or not, you must look at these four parameters and draw certain conclusions - is the child ready for school in all respects or not. Most often, it happens that a child at six and a half years old can be ready, for example, in the speech sphere - he has a good vocabulary If parents read to him a lot, he tells very well from pictures, he has a well-developed coherent speech, he hears the sounds in a word well, but this child does not want to go to school at all - he has not played enough yet. Or this child has not yet developed an arbitrary sphere, he cannot sit for a long time, he cannot restrain his emotions, he cannot obey the rules of an adult and perform some uninteresting task. It is important that all four parameters are formed in the child by the age of seven - then we can say that the child is ready for school. It will be the age of 6 years and 8 months, 6 years and 9 months or 7 years and 5 months - it all depends on the individual child.

- My daughter will go to school at six and a half years old, but we are generally early - at 4 months she sat down, at 8 she went. From the age of four we go to the school of early development, where psychologists all in unison advise us not to overexposure the child. I see for myself that the child is ready for school, but still: am I taking away a year of childhood from her, when you can still play, and in modern school is it really hard to study?

- Still, my mother doubts if she asks such a question, and it seems that she is trying to persuade herself that, in general, she is doing the right thing. Early development and early intellectual development is not a guarantee that children are ready for schooling. If the child began to sit early, talk early, crawl early, this still does not mean anything. If a child seems very smart to his parents, as they say, he can read, count and write, this does not mean that he is ready for school. When asked if you are depriving a child of his childhood, the answer, it seems to me, will be unequivocal - yes, you are depriving him, because, of course, it is very difficult to study in a modern school - especially for children of six and a half years old. I would spend an extra year just to give the child the opportunity to just play.

- My son is ready for school at the age of five, he can read, count, write in block letters, is assiduous. There are still two years before school - won't he be bored if I send him to school from the age of seven, will interest disappear?

— Returning to the fact that the ability to read, count, write, like any early intellectual development, is not a guarantee that the child is ready for school. There are certain age patterns, and a five-year-old child cannot yet be a student at school, cannot yet do this work, he simply has not matured. No matter how our civilization moves forward, no matter how developed children are, age features remain at the same level. There are certain patterns in development that cannot be neglected.

As for whether he will be bored at school - that's a big question. Because if the remaining two years before school he actively continues to learn to read, write, count and go to different classes - yes, he will get tired of them and come to school tired, because, in fact, what kind of knowledge he should receive - he and so he already knows everything, the “professor” has come. If you finally understand that the most important thing for a child, the most decisive thing is the game, and give him the opportunity to just play enough these two years, and acquire the necessary knowledge, skills and abilities in the game, then your child will come to school and be able to pleasure to learn; then it will not be so important for you when you stop focusing so much on the topic of acquiring some skills.

The game "school" is one of the role-playing games where the child is embedded in a certain plot, plays a certain role - either a teacher or a student. As a rule, children are very fond of playing it, and I would tell you that this game is not only educational and very useful for children who will soon go to school, but it is also diagnostic. If a child in this game always wants to be only a teacher, it is worth considering - is he ready to go to school? If he wants to be a student and perform tasks, or these roles at least alternate, then we can say that perhaps he has already matured as a student.

- As a teacher and a student, can there be parents, or better peers, or plush animals?

- It can be toys, brothers and sisters, it can be friends, adults - it doesn’t matter. The main thing is that roles are clearly distributed in this game, and students must listen to what the teacher tells them, complete tasks, and the teacher must evaluate what they have done and make some demands on them, introduce certain rules. This is just a simulation of a real school, real relationship with which the child will encounter when he goes to the first grade.

- I want to send my son to school at 7 years and 8 months, we are "winter". Psychologists advise me the same way, but this year there is an opportunity to get to a very good teacher. And I also think about the army - after all, the sooner the son finishes school, the more time will be to go to college and avoid being drafted. What to do, tell me.

“Seven years and eight months…. Actually happens here different development events. It happens that a child at this age fits into school quite well, and it happens that he, it turns out, would have to wait a year. Therefore, I would not be content with the opinion of one specialist and would find an opportunity to find a highly specialized psychologist who could diagnose psychological readiness for school and give an adequate assessment - is a child really ready at this age - a particular child. As for the teacher, I understand that good teacher- this is very important for elementary school, and this is the right position - to look for a good teacher, and not just good school. But think about it: it is impossible to keep up with a teacher, a teacher can go on maternity leave, can quit or transfer to another job. You can bring your child to one teacher, and in a year there will be another. Therefore, it seems to me that we still need to focus on the child, on whether he wants to go to school, whether he is ready for it. And in a year, perhaps another new teacher will appear, to whom you will also gladly send the child away. I would say: here it is important to think not only about the teacher, but about what program the child will study under.

About the army. In fact, we cannot predict what will happen in n years, what will change in our legislation, at what age and how our boys will be drafted into the army. I would say that the chances of going to college for a child who went a year later - and even more so for a boy, will be much greater than for a child who went too early.

Natalia Lvova:

- Yes, especially since today they have been studying for 11 years. Anyway, at 18.

At the end of our conversation, Elena, maybe you will give some specific tests of a child's readiness for school, which parents can conduct at home with their children?

Elena Gromova:

- The first indicator, which I have already mentioned, is called the child's motivational readiness for schooling, if the child wants to go to school - ask him. If he says what he wants, then find out - what attracts him to school, why does he want to go to school. Here, a lot is revealed. interesting facts. A child can, for example, say that his friends from kindergarten will be at school, at school he will be able to play with them during breaks. This is not the reason we need, this is not a cognitive motive. Very often children say that they want to go to school because there will be no sleep at school - this is such a “pressing” answer, but this is not the reason we need.

The second indicator is an arbitrary sphere, the ability to act according to the rules and the ability to act according to the model. The ability to act according to the rules - you can invite the child to play the games "black and white", "yes and no", "flies - does not fly" and evaluate the arbitrariness of behavior. When you ask a child a question, you can’t say “black” and “white”, you can’t answer “yes” and “no” (but you really want to), ask questions that you just want to say “yes” or “no”, then you you can see if the child still has another answer, or if all this slips emotionally: “yes” and “no”, “black” and “white”.

Next - the ability to act according to the model. Here it can be like a three-dimensional version - that is, lay out some kind of mosaic pattern and ask the child to repeat to do the same. Or it can be a task on a plane, or better, both. You can draw something for a child - very simple: a tree, a house, and ask him to reproduce the same thing. The Kern-Jirasek test has been very popular for a long time - the phrase “he ate soup” is written, and here the dots are in a certain order, and the child must reproduce all this on the same blank sheet of paper.

If we are talking about the Kern-Jirasek test itself, then a person is still being drawn here, we are also looking at motor skills, how motor skills develop, how he depicts a person, which parts of the body and how he draws - this is additional information. You can also, for example, give some picture of geometric shapes, and the child can reproduce it, maybe draw something more difficult, and see how he coped with this task. If he copes and is close to the model, then the child can act according to the model. If you see a complete discrepancy or rather serious violations of the deviation from what was drawn, then it is worth concluding that the ability to act according to the model is still not formed. Some psychologists consider it right to give children a graphic dictation-cell to the right, cell to the left. In fact, this dictation is not an indicator, because children before the first, and sometimes even before the second grade, confuse “right” and “left”. Therefore, the methods that I showed you are very easy to use, more revealing.

Next is the speech area. The speech sphere is how well a child has a coherent speech, how good a vocabulary he has, and how phonemic hearing is developed. How to check it? Give the child a picture and ask them to make up a story based on it. It is better if there are several pictures about one thing - there are such split pictures, and you need to arrange them correctly - where is the beginning, where is the end of the story, and then tell. Here we will just see how competently the child builds speech, what words and how actively he uses in his speech. And the second point - phonemic hearing - is very simple, our well-known game of "cities" from childhood, or you can simplify it more - "fruits", "vegetables", and anything you like - invite the child to name words for a given sound. Think of words that begin with the sound "k" - and listen to the child. And the opposite option is when we pronounce the words to the child and say: this word has this sound, or it does not. This sound can be in the middle, and at the end, and at the beginning.

— Is this school readiness test, which you just mentioned, worth doing at the beginning school year when the child went to the preparatory group, and if we see any failures, deal with him specifically, and thus prepare him for school?

— Very good question, Natalia, I really like it. When I worked at a school and had the opportunity to see children who had just entered the first grade, I saw what areas they had not yet formed. I was very sorry that they did not do this earlier, did not find, perhaps, some other specialist to prepare. Because at the moment when they are already at school, it is very difficult, although you give some recommendations, to correct something. When I worked in kindergarten, then I always tried to carry out this diagnosis at the beginning of the school year, in the preparatory group, in order to give recommendations to parents and say that this area is already quite well formed for you, you will soon “ripen” completely, but here you need to work and work all year long.

This is actually a very correct approach, and, in theory, such diagnostics should be carried out in kindergartens. Sometimes it is possible, but we, unfortunately, do not have this: to see the child at least in April-March, and over the summer to correct it a little, tighten it up, read it. I would say that the role of reading aloud to children cannot be overestimated in preparing for school, because the cognitive moment is also involved here - the child learns and wants to learn something new; and speech sphere, first of all; and arbitrary, when the child sits and listens; and, of course, intellectual, because the child imagines what this or that character might look like, and generalizes and systematizes. So please read with your children at least in the summer!

Transcription of the video plot from the cycle of programs “Mom's School”

08.12.2018 21:40 766

Is the child ready for school? How to define it?

Parents often ask the question: how to understand if my child is ready for school, will he cope with its requirements and is it possible to prepare him at home? And does it even need to be done?

This is very important question, and it is desirable that the child be ready for school, otherwise he will fall into conditions where the requirements exceed his capabilities and this may be an unbearable burden on his psyche. And this common cause serious difficulties in learning and a decrease in interest in learning in general. In addition, faith in one's own strength decreases, and then various fears arise that hinder children's development quite strongly.

And so my answer is yes, the child needs to be prepared for school in different directions and in advance. Do not rely on kindergarten or special classes, be sensitive parents, you can help your children in many ways.

A modern school requires a child entering the first grade to have a certain level of development of thinking and speech, orientation in the world around him, arbitrariness of behavior (the ability to make an effort of will), the development of small movements of the hands, as well as a desire to go to school, a certain motivation for learning. I will list the main points that it is desirable to pay attention to parents of future first graders.

1. The desire to learn is very important, and it is innate, but often disappears due to overwhelming demands, criticism, or improper training. Therefore, you can play school in advance, sometimes the child can act as a teacher, sometimes as a student. Maintain good relationship to school and learning. Teach your child to be independent, let him do a simple task every day, but completely on his own, without a mother. Praise the child for specific well-executed actions, saying: “this looks nice and neat, you did it quickly, you got very smooth lines, you told the poem clearly and expressively, like on a stage.” Such praise helps the child to improve and does not cause dependence on the word "Well done." And if something doesn’t work out for a child, don’t scold him, what a clumsy he is, but say: “You are studying, and tomorrow you will do better, and I will help.” But don't do the work for him. It is important that the child himself sees the goal, independently performs actions and, as a result, feels satisfaction from what he has done. This is the engine of development! And the result does not have to be perfect, do not form a perfectionist out of it who is afraid of mistakes. Everyone makes mistakes, they just need to be corrected. Therefore, let the result be acceptable, but not always ideal.
2. It is also important to be able to communicate, behave appropriately and respond to the situation. Does your baby communicate easily? Does he perceive situations correctly? Or does he have difficulty communicating, is too shy, afraid, or, on the contrary, behaves aggressively? Teach your child to communicate with children in the yard, attend circles, go to visit, let the child gain his communication experience and live in different situations, because there will be many of them at school and you need to be prepared for this.

1. Arbitrariness of behavior. This is the ability to do something in an organized manner according to the instructions, because everything schooling built on the principle that students fulfill the requirements of the teacher. And for this, volitional processes must be developed, as the ability to organize oneself, perform certain actions, or, on the contrary, refrain from something else, which, perhaps, is more desirable at this moment. And the ability to organize oneself is, for example, to prepare everything that is necessary for work, put it on the desktop, remove everything superfluous and, having gathered one’s attention, begin to complete tasks. Then clean up after yourself. Children learn this from their toys when they clean them up after the game, they know how to play alone or in a team according to the rules. Here for parents there is a large field of activity, since often children do not know how to organize themselves. Either they were not taught and everything was done for them, or the parents had no time, and the child was left to himself. Therefore, teach your child to monitor their space, their things, teach them to choose, set a goal and act. And be sure to bring the matter to the end and check what happened.

1. The ability to control yourself. This is when the results of the child's efforts correspond to the goal, and he can compare all the results with his goal, that is, check himself and, if there are errors, correct them. Control happens at the very beginning: “so, I need to redraw this house in my notebook.” Current control: "now I'm drawing the roof, everything turns out pretty smoothly" and control of the result: "done, check if all the details are in place."

1. Do not retrain left-handed children from the left hand to the right !!! Don't hurt your child! The choice of the right or left hand is not a whim of a child, but this is how his brain works. And breaking the functions laid down by nature breaks not only the psyche of the child, but also delays many processes in him, for example, speech, drawing. And as a result - tears when learning to write with the right hand, fluent reading and refusal to study.

1. Lead hand preparation. To strengthen and develop the hand and coordination of movements, children can be offered the following exercises: fastening and unbuttoning buttons; tying and untying ribbons, shoelaces. Now almost all children's clothing consists of Velcro, buttons and zippers, and there is no way for the hands to exercise naturally. Therefore, it is desirable to find clothes with buttons. It is useful to shift small objects (buttons, counting sticks, beads) with two fingers - forefinger and thumb, as well as small toys with three fingers that hold the pen when writing; games with clothespins allow you to develop the strength of the index and thumb (make the sun, chamomile, hedgehog); Ask the child to unscrew and screw in small nuts, corks in bubbles. Modeling from plasticine or clay has an excellent effect on the fingers of the child and on his psychological state.

Remember how you used to sort out buckwheat and try to do it with your child. This is not only the development of fine motor skills of the fingers, but also the stimulation of brain activity. Children get great pleasure from this process, and they also like to put letters, numbers, emoticons out of buckwheat or make pictures.

The child must learn to draw simple objects: trees, the sun, grass, flowers, houses, a person and distribute them on a piece of paper. Then you need to teach the child to shade pictures and various ornaments with colored pencils. The child must master the different directions of the pencil lead. He needs to be shown that it is better to start not from the center of the figure, but from the side lines to the center, gradually expanding or narrowing the scope of the pencil. Cultivating neatness in hatching will lead to fluency in the pencil and will make it easier in the future to master the writing of capital letters.

1. Clear pronunciation of sounds. It is important that parents monitor the purity and clarity of their pronunciation, do not lisp with the child, saying instead of hard consonants - soft or instead of hissing and R - whistling and L, for example, "Oh, you're my fat, slick, give me a hatch ..."

If a child of 4-5 years old has poor pronunciation of many sounds, contact a speech therapist, as incorrect pronunciation can affect the child's performance not only in elementary school, but also later. The success of the work of a speech therapist depends on the help of parents who perform all the homework of a specialist. Therefore, be active and start classes with a speech therapist a year before entering school. Speech sounds need long-term automation.

1. Develop visual and auditory attention and the ability to follow instructions. At school, attention difficulties lead to the fact that children are inattentive in the classroom, cannot follow the instructions of the teacher, begin to act impulsively without listening to the end of the task, perform it hastily or very slowly, which is why they have to receive teacher comments, the child loses the desire to learn.

Teach your child to listen to quiet sounds, for example, when walking in a forest or park (let's hear how the leaves fall, how the birds sing, how the plane flies, the wind blows, grass sprouts in spring ...). Play a game to see who hears the most sounds. Hide a loudly ticking clock at home for your child to find. Let the child guess who or what makes a certain sound.

A child should be able to follow a bright object with his eyes, the ability to follow his eyes in directions from left to right and from top to bottom is especially important - these are the prerequisites for the formation of reading skills. Visual attention develops in a preschooler in the process of studying with a picture loto, when it is necessary to fill in a large card with drawings on a particular topic with small cards.

Teach your toddler to follow the multi-step instructions: “come to the table, put down the album and bring out the red book and the green pencil” (four points in one sentence). This will prepare the child to fulfill the requirements of the teacher in the lesson. But start with two or three steps.

1. Develop the perception of speech sounds. Start with vowels: A, O, U, I. Then the vowels Y, E. Say or hum the vowels, and let the child clap when he hears, for example, A. After practicing the vowels, go to the consonants, which are no longer sung, but pronounced short, abrupt (not like in the alphabet). The child must hear a certain sound from a number of sounds or syllables.

1. Divide words into syllables. This can be done with hand claps. Speak the word and, together with the child, slap its syllabic structure. Start with simple words With open syllables: ma-ma, water-yes, lu-m, lu-na, no-bo, ma-shi-na. Later, connect words with closed syllables and confluences of consonants: pe-tukh, ve-nick, ban-ka, ved-ro, sta-kan, far-tuk, te-le-fon, ba-boch-ka, light -for, per-chat-ki, bridge, bread, candle.

1. Learn to isolate sounds from words. What sound do you hear at the beginning? What is the sound at the end? What sound is in third place? List all the sounds in the word in order. How many did they get? Buy your child plastic or magnetic letters and have them make words out of them.

1. Learn to retell fairy tales or stories. The child must learn to retell the content of the cartoon with the obligatory ability to name the characters without waving their arms. If your child is having trouble getting started, help them with questions. By the age of 6, children should correctly build sentences, be able to read a poem with expression, tell a fairy tale, describe a picture or a series of pictures, connect the beginning, continuation and end of the story. Discuss what you have read with your child:

• Find out difficult words before reading or during reading.
• Ask if you liked the piece. How?
• What new, interesting things did he learn?
• Ask the child to tell you about the main character, the main event of the story, poem.
• How is nature described?
• What words and phrases do you remember?
• What did the book teach him?
• Invite the child to draw a picture for the episode they like.
• Learn the passage by imitating the voice of the characters in the work.

1. Should a child be taught to read? Yes, it is desirable to teach, since most children come to the first grade already knowing how to read. On this topic, read my article “Should a child be taught to read before school”? And if you have any questions, write to me on my website and I will answer: http://izumrudnoeserdce.ru/dlya-vas/zanyatiya-s-detmi

Anna Kolesnikova, speech therapist, psychologist, candidate of pedagogical sciences.

Development of arbitrariness of behavior

In the formation of voluntary behavior, that is, the child's ability to act not at will, but on the instructions of an adult, the leading role, oddly enough, belongs to the game. It's about about a role-playing game in which there are rules and the child must subordinate his behavior to them. It can be a game at school, a store, a hospital, as well as outdoor games with certain rules. If it is difficult to organize such games at home, then it is quite possible for parents to play the well-known game “Yes” and “no” with your child. In such a game, the child learns to act not on the first impulse, but according to the rule.
Black, white do not take, "yes" and "no" do not speak
The host goes around the players and says to everyone: “You have been sent a hundred rubles. Buy what you want, don’t take black, white, don’t say “yes” and “no!” After that, he conducts a conversation with the participant in the game, asks various questions, provoking someone to say one of the forbidden words in the conversation: "black", "white", "yes", "no". Children in the game listen carefully to the questions and follow their speech.

Leading:What is sold in

bakery?

Child:Bread.

Leading: Which?

Child: Soft.
Leading: Which bread do you like more: black or white?

Child:Any.
Leading: What kind of flour are buns made from?

Child:From wheat.

Also, the development of arbitrariness is facilitated by any actions according to a given pattern: drawing patterns, constructing from geometric shapes, folding from paper.

School psychologists have developed special methods to determine the level of readiness of the child for school. Ask for help from a psychologist who works in the kindergarten your child attends, or at the children's district clinic - they will explain to you how to find the right specialist.
Try to answer ("yes" or "no") to the questions of this test. It will help you understand if your child is ready for school.

· Can your child do something on their own that requires concentration for 25-30 minutes (for example, building a designer or puzzles)?

· Does your child say that he wants to go to school because there he will learn a lot of new and interesting things, will find new friends?

· Can your child write a picture story of at least 5 sentences on their own?

· Does your child know a few poems by heart?

· Is it true that your child in the presence of strangers behaves at ease, is not shy?

· Does your child know how to change a noun by numbers (for example: frame - frames, ear - ears, person - people, child - children)?

· Can your child solve addition and subtraction problems within ten?

· Can your child solve sum or difference problems (for example: “There are 3 apples and 2 pears in a vase. How many fruits are in the vase?”; “There were 10 sweets in the vase. 3 sweets were eaten. How many are left?”)?

· Can your child repeat the sentence exactly (for example: “Bunny, jump on the stump!”)?

· Does your child like to color pictures, draw, sculpt from plasticine?

· Does your child know how to use scissors and glue (for example, to make an application)?

· Can your child generalize concepts (for example, name in one word (namely furniture) a table, sofa, chair, armchair)?

· Can your child compare two objects, that is, name the similarities and differences between them (for example, a pen and a pencil, a tree and a bush)?

· Does your child know the name of the seasons, months, days of the week, their sequence?

· Can your child understand and follow verbal instructions accurately?

15 - 17 questions, you can count that your child is ready for school. You did not study with him in vain, and school difficulties, if they arise, will be easily overcome.

If you answered yes to 10 - 14 questions, means, your child has learned a lot. The content of the questions to which you answered in the negative will tell you the topics for further studies.

If you answered yes to 9 (or less) questions, so you should, firstly, read special literature, Secondly, try to spend more time with your child, third, seek help from specialists.

How to choose a school for a future first grader?

The first year of school is no less difficult than the first year of a child's life. This means that it is extremely important to deliberately approach the choice of a school so that this year, and all subsequent years, will be successful, bright and easy for your child, and not under the sign of tears, failures and unwillingness to go to school, which is becoming more and more aggravated from class to class .

It is necessary to start with the main thing: with an assessment of the abilities, the intellectual potential of the child. Parents should soberly assess the levels of abilities, skills, general school maturity of their child. It should be remembered that all this is not the same thing.

Do not try to impose on the child that educational level that he "will not pull." If you understand (or don’t admit it, but the teachers and the psychologist told you about it at the interview) that the child, due to the level of his abilities, simply “will not pull through” a very complex program of a special school with a “bias” - do not torture your child, yourself and teachers.

Hoping that the child, standing on tiptoe, will still reach the high bar you proposed, you risk getting the opposite effect: he will hate the school, the teacher, and the learning process itself, and, perhaps, his attitude towards you, who doomed him to backbreaking work. Worse, he can forever take on the role of a loser, imbued with a sense of failure - and then all the rest of his school years will be hard labor for him. The probability of achieving this effect is much higher than the probability of a miracle in which intellectually middle child suddenly easily master the program for gifted children.

In addition, constant study “at the limit of possibilities” can adversely affect the health of the baby, that is, there is a high probability of the appearance of psychosomatic diseases - from a general weakening of the immune system and constant acute respiratory infections to more complex cases of disorders of the nervous system or digestive system.

If you do not want this for your child, adequately assess the level of his abilities and do not try to shove an average kid in terms of intelligence into a “strong, advanced” school. Do not break a little person's life, because it consists not only of academic success, and not only intelligence can be the dignity of your baby. Love him as he is, without any conditions like “if you will ....”, and do not try to make him what he is not.

Keep in mind that a too “medium” school will have an equally detrimental effect on a child with developed abilities and a strong intellect. He will simply be bored there, uninteresting, and the effect will be achieved exactly the same: he will form a negative attitude towards learning, and work in full force he won't. And the intellect, not developing, languishes. Therefore, if a child “shone” at the age of 7, this does not mean that he will remain the same at 10 years old and at 17. Mind is fire, without fuel and without work on it, it simply goes out and smolders.

The next moment: determining the inclinations of the child. Often parents try too early to determine the future of the baby in terms of orientation - humanitarian, mathematical or natural sciences, sending him to the appropriate "profile" school. Alas, most often it turns out to be corresponding not to the inclinations of the child himself, but to the ideas of his parents on the topic “who to be”.

However, the education of a pronounced humanist in a school with a mathematical bias, as well as attempts to make a linguist out of a mathematician, are doomed to failure in advance with the same consequences that are described in the paragraph above.

So remember: first grade is not the time for professional self-determination. The child will still show his inclinations, and it is better to set the time to decide on the specialization of education in the middle, and even in the upper grades. That is, it is never too late to move to a “profile school” later, and at the initial stage, priorities should be different.

Let's continue talking about them. The next crucial point is the first teacher. No matter how wonderful the “school in general” is, the personality of the first teacher leaves an indelible imprint and forms the first (most important!) impression. If the first teacher brings children not only knowledge, but also light and warmth, success in learning will be higher even for the most difficult children.

Well, or at least a positive attitude towards school and study will be formed - and this is already a lot.

If it is dry, strict, or simply does not suit your child in terms of temperament, look for other options. Even the fact that Freken Bok is an honored teacher Russian Federation, is considered an excellent methodologist and has a huge experience, should not confuse you. Your child cannot appreciate these reasons, but such a person can beat off the taste for learning for sure. After all, a truly good teacher is a warm person who loves children much more than his subject, and is interested in children more than professional success.

A separate moment is the mismatch of temperaments. Your child can be alive, like mercury, fidget, and the teacher - phlegmatic. Or vice versa: she is fast, cheerful, and your child is slow, as they say, "slow-thinking." In the case of such a clear discrepancy, especially if the level of professionalism of the teacher is not very high, the child will have a difficult time.
How do you know if a teacher is right for you? There are 2 ways: “word of mouth” and “on your own skin”.

The first way is to ask parents whose children are already studying at the same school with the teacher who is recruiting first-graders in the next academic year. It would be even better to talk with the little students themselves - do they like studying, the teacher, are they good at school?

The second way is to attend "preparatory courses" that are available at almost any school: usually the sub-courses are taught by the same teachers who take first-graders. Thus, both your baby and the teacher have the opportunity to look at and get used to each other, and if it turns out that there is “incompatibility”, it’s not too late to move to another group (after asking the parents or the head teacher of an elementary school - who would be recommended to your child, based on his personality traits).

There are many other factors that must be taken into account when choosing a school: this is its proximity to home, and the cost of education, and the question of whether to choose a state or non-state educational institution, and the so-called “contingent” of students and teachers, and educational program, and the state of the school and its technical equipment, and the availability of extended day groups.

Organization of a healthy environment

About vaccination

Before entering school, the health of the child is a matter of special concern for parents. Together with the application for the admission of the child to school, parents must provide a medical examination card of the future first-grader from the clinic. If your child went to kindergarten, then it is quite possible that he already passed the medical examination there.

And if the child is at home, then during the summer months he needs to visit a number of specialists: a neuropathologist, speech therapist, cardiologist, orthopedist, pediatrician, dentist, psychologist. And this is a completely fair demand of doctors. Because it is in the primary grades that all health problems appear, which over time can develop into a chronic form.

Based on their conclusion, the pediatrician fills out the first grader's medical record, determines the physical education group that your baby will attend, and makes recommendations to parents and teachers. For any health disorders, the child needs to create a special daily routine, nutrition, physical and mental stress, which will make the first steps in learning as easy as possible.

Now it is important not only to determine whether the child is physically healthy and develops correctly, but also to assess in general whether the child's body is ready for school, whether its organs and systems of the future first-grader can cope with the colossal load that studies place on a small person.

Vision problems are the scourge of our time.
Books, televisions, computers - all this makes our eyes tired excessively. As a result, vision falls, myopia develops.
The worst thing is that myopia develops in our children, and more and more often myopia occurs among preschoolers.

This issue should not be taken lightly. A child with glasses is by no means a touching “serious and business-like kid”, because vision is by no means restored over the years, and someone who has “only” minus one by school can become the owner of minus six or even more by university.

But even if, thanks to the measures taken, the vision remains at the same level where it initially fell, in the end it may adversely affect the rest of life. Today, there are many professions for the development of which one hundred percent vision is required. And access to them for a child is closed even at preschool age only because attention was not paid to his vision in time.

Yes, of course, with myopia, you can resort to surgery. But it doesn't come cheap. Yes, and only persons over 18 years of age are allowed to enter it. And by this age, most of the guys have already decided on their profession, and myopia, as we said above, can develop quite significantly.

All these problems can be avoided by paying attention to the prevention of myopia. The most important thing to pay attention to is strengthening the general physical condition of the child. This should consist not only in taking vitamin-mineral complexes and dietary supplements, but also in doing feasible physical activity. It is also worth following the correct mode of the day.

Do not allow the child to overload the eyes. It’s great when a kid already knows how to read, write and count by school. But this does not mean that he should study books and educational programs all day long. Communication with a computer and TV should be limited. When reading, standard rules must be observed - correct posture, distance from the eyes to the book, lighting.

An excellent prevention is exercises for the eyes. Do them with your child regularly, do not be lazy. Your example will be of great help to him. In addition, this way you will help relax your eyes. Standard exercises for training the external and internal muscles of the eyes will take you no more than 10 minutes.

How to form the correct posture?

The medical term "scoliosis" in our time is known, unfortunately, to very many.

Scoliosis is a pathological lateral curvature of the spine, often leading to the development of other diseases due to improper location or compression of organs, as well as pinching of nerves.

During periods of the most rapid growth (at 6–8 and 10–12 years old), the risk of developing scoliosis increases - and, accordingly, preventive measures can and should be taken in advance.

Children need to purchase a comfortable bed that does not distort the spine, limit the load, offer a modern “urban” or youth backpack instead of a bag with a uniform load on the shoulders and a comfortable, orthopedic back (there are models with special plastic inserts and waist belts that transfer part of the load to the hips) , pick up a comfortable chair at home, a table according to height, etc.

The main "enemy" of the child's spine is incorrect posture during school and homework.

In the early stages, a mild curvature of the spine can be detected only with the help of x-rays, and often scoliosis is detected during an examination prescribed for other reasons. Meanwhile, the sooner it is detected, the more successful the treatment will be, so at the first suspicions it is necessary to consult with specialists. The simplest test for the presence of scoliosis can be done by everyone at home: it is enough to undress the child to the waist, put his back to himself and ask him to relax, take a familiar and comfortable position. In this case, you need to pay attention to the height of the shoulders (one may be higher than the other; the shoulders may be somewhat reduced forward), the type of shoulder blades (the angle of one may protrude more than the other), the distance from the arm pressed to the side to the waist (may be different clearance).

When leaning forward (so that the child touches the floor with his hands, as in a gymnastic exercise), the curvature of the spine can be seen with the naked eye, to check, you can run your finger along the protruding line of the processes of the vertebrae and make sure how much it deviates from a straight line. If these signs are found, an examination by a surgeon or orthopedist is necessary.

Fortunately, in most cases, scoliosis is quite amenable to correction - if you carefully monitor the development of the child, do not postpone the visit to the doctor and strictly follow his recommendations.

How to do homework with a younger student?

The main thing Find a way to get your child interested in learning turn execution homework into an exciting pastime, not into a hated duty(it can be a game - a competition invented by you together with a child, a game - a journey, moral or material stimulation).
It is important to properly organize the preparation of lessons: draw up a daily routine with your child and actively encourage its implementation; explain to him that how quickly and well he does his homework depends on how much time he will have for games and interesting activities.

The correct daily routine requires that after school the child rest, take a walk, and only after that begin to prepare lessons.

It is desirable that the student sits down for lessons at the same time.

· While doing homework, the child should not be distracted: turn off the TV, computer, remove toys from the table.

· Agree with the child the time for which he must complete his homework (put a clock in front of him). This technique will help teach the student to value his time, not to be distracted.

Tell the child that homework should be done according to the principle from simple to complex, from oral to written (for example, in Russian, you first need to learn the rule, and then do a written exercise).

Every 15-25 minutes (depending on the age of the student) take a short break, during which the child can perform several physical exercises to relieve fatigue of the muscles of the back and eyes.

· Do not make scenes if the child made a mistake or wrote dirty in a notebook. The student should not associate the completion of lessons with unpleasant emotions. On the contrary, praise your child more often for a job well done. Patience, a friendly tone is an important condition successful help little student.

Gradually teach your child to be independent. Don't sit next to him all the time. Do not rush to give him a ready answer. Better tell me where to look for this answer.

· Teach your child self-control. If you notice a mistake in a notebook, do not rush to show where it is, especially do not correct it. Let the student try to find the mistake himself; you just tell me which line it is on.

· Think carefully about whether it is advisable to load the child with additional tasks, make him do homework first in a draft, and then rewrite it in a notebook. The child is overtired, often begins to learn not better, but worse. He loses interest in studying, which becomes boring and hard work for him. Keep a sense of proportion!

Show sincere interest not only in grades, but also in what the child especially likes at school, what subjects he likes and what not, what classmates he has, with whom he is friends.

How to teach a child to do homework?

School is about to start and of course homework. It makes sense to prepare for them in advance.

Most parents will definitely help their children, but the degree of help varies: some only control the process, while others will complete all the tasks with the child, without leaving him a single step. Few children enjoy studying, especially at home. In order for this process to move forward, parents use a variety of methods: explanations, persuasion, gifts, threats of promises and punishments.

Why do children have a reluctance to prepare lessons?

At school, children are in suspense: yesterday they conducted a survey, today they wrote tests, tomorrow they have a test, and they also have to pass a drawing, recite a poem, run a “hundred-meter race” ... When a student comes home, he dreams of throwing all these worries off his shoulders and relaxing. But even here, vigilant parents keep their eyes on the whole evening until all homework is ready. Where is the child to relax then? It is necessary to find the optimal approach to the process of completing lessons in order to minimize negative emotions.

Make a plan for doing homework.

Many children who are accustomed to “on-call” lessons at school are helped by a schedule that clearly defines the time when they need to get to work. This could be right after getting home from school, or after a walk, or after dinner - decide this together with your child. It is important to strictly observe the approved regimen, which will subsequently save you and your student from unnecessary wrangling. During the allotted time, nothing should distract the child (phone calls, cartoons, etc.), as if he were at school in a lesson.

Set the execution order.

A familiar question: where to start? Some prefer to do written lessons and then start reading oral assignments. You can quickly complete all the easy ones, and then "puff" on the remaining difficult tasks, knowing that the rest of the lessons are already ready. Another option is to do "homework" in the order in which the lessons are arranged in the schedule for tomorrow. In any case, it is necessary to establish the order for each child individually, taking into account his character and abilities.

Do not sit over the soul!

Do not think that without your presence the child will stop writing or reading. At first, it seems to you that this is how you help the child: he can turn to you for advice at any time. Time passes and you become addicted: many children stop working when the parent moves away from the child, and does not devote his full attention to him. This is a very harmful "attachment", because at school teachers do not stand above everyone. Let your child begin to do everything on his own, do not worry if he needs help - he will turn to you. Check out the tutorials.

Many children are very worried that they will bring work with mistakes to school or forget to do something. By checking homework assignments, you will calm yourself and give confidence to the student. The child will have a sense of completeness, and you will make sure that he has mastered the material covered and tomorrow he will be ready to “absorb” new knowledge. First, check those lessons that are done correctly, praise the performer, note that he coped with the task himself and without errors. This will be a great stimulus for the child and give him self-confidence. And for those tasks where errors are found, invite the student to find and correct them himself. The child should try, because he will want to confirm his ability to work independently, and you can only slightly guide him. If it is difficult for your student to complete everything at once, and then be able to find the mistakes made, break the task into parts and check it in stages. The positive side of this approach is that when an error is detected immediately, you do not have to redo the entire task.

Homework cannot last all evening.

When a child sits on homework for several hours in a row, he, of course, will get tired and this will affect the quality of the lessons. If you see that some task is not given to him now, then offer to take a break or change the subject - let him read the assignments in literature for now, and then you can return to mathematics.

Why is there a delay in the time allotted for preparing lessons?

First: find out how well the child understood new material taken at school. Secondly: he can just play for time and wait that you, in the end, will not stand it and do the lessons with him (or for him). But there are many cases when a child is given a hard time learning in general and he is not able to cope with such a volume of tasks. Then you will have to consult with a teacher or seek help from a tutor.

How to study with a first grader while there is no homework?

A lot of responsible and interested parents are worried that there are no homework in the 1st grade, and therefore they themselves try to load the child: they give dictations, make them solve examples, tasks, etc. You should not do this. remember, that the main thing in the 1st grade is not to form some skills of the child, but to develop the psychological functions necessary for productive learning activities, to teach how to learn, to maintain and strengthen the desire to go to school.

Here are some tips on how you can engage with a first grader:

Read with your child children's books in turn (at first you read most of the text, and then gradually pass the "palm" to the child). Your main task is not to “train” a first grader for fast reading, but to instill in him an interest in this process itself.

Do not force the child to write endless lines of letters, because he still does not know how to right write. And if you ask a child to repeatedly repeat the spelling of a letter, then his hand will “remember” exactly this - incorrect - spelling of this letter. Better take up modeling, drawing letters, constructing them from wire. Such activities contribute to the memorization of the visual image of the letter and the development of fine motor skills.

Do math practically, using any life situations . For example, to consolidate counting skills, count the steps of the stairs in your entrance, the trees under the window, etc. together with your child. Make up the conditions of the tasks (or ask the child to come up with them) from specific things and objects that can be seen on the street, in the apartment, etc. e. For example, standing by the road, you can "see" the following problem: 3 cars go in one direction, and 5 cars in the other. How many cars are on the road? How many more cars go one way than the other?

Constantly draw the attention of the child to the phenomena and patterns of the world around. Do not force a first grader to memorize paragraphs from a textbook on the world around them. It is better to talk with him about everything that will attract his attention: “Why do trees shed their leaves in autumn? How is a computer arranged? And the more questions a child asks, the better.

Develop the child's imagination, fantasy: let him draw, say, his mood, a fabulous bird, or come up with his own fairy tale with such, for example, heroes as a hedgehog, Little Red Riding Hood, Baba Yaga, etc.

Make with your child what he is interested in , and what you yourself know and love.

Welcome your child's successes and accept their failures. Be with him always and everywhere, trust him.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of an extended day group?

Advantages. The child visits the extended day group in the afternoon, after school. Here he is under the supervision of a qualified teacher, has a full hot lunch, will definitely take a walk in good weather, will be able to visit various clubs and sports clubs (depending on the school’s capabilities), prepare lessons under the guidance of a teacher, play with classmates, just chat with them after school time. If you have to choose between an extended day group and the fact that the child will be at home alone until the evening, then perhaps you should choose the first. You will work much more calmly knowing that your child is protected from various troubles.

Flaws. An extended day group most often consists of 20 - 25 people, it's almost like a class. The child is forced to be in a children's team (sometimes very restless, conflicting) all day long. The nervous system of a younger student, especially a first-grader, is under enormous stress. Many children (depending on the type of nervous system, temperament) get tired by the end of the first half of the day, get overexcited from learning activities, various emotions. They become whiny, irritable, uncontrollable. After the lessons, they need to change the environment, be in silence, do quiet games alone, which is hardly achievable in an extended day group.

Therefore, if you have the opportunity to pick up your child after school, or at least after lunch, be sure to use it. Thus, you protect the nervous system of the child from unnecessary stress and mental stress.

What should be the daily routine of a younger student?

Compliance with the daily routine helps the child cope with the academic load, helps to strengthen his health, protects his nervous system from overwork.
Sleep duration children of primary school age fluctuates within 10-12 hours . Even a slight, but systematic lack of sleep adversely affects the well-being and health of the child. When organizing sleep, make sure that the child goes to bed and gets up at a certain time (for example, he gets up at 7:30, which means he should go to bed at 20:30). Teach him to perform all hygiene procedures prescribed before going to bed, do not allow active games, do not give a hearty dinner, coffee, strong tea. In the room where the child falls asleep, create a calm environment: turn off the bright lights and the TV, stop loud conversations.

morning exercises contributes to the entry into the rhythm of the working day. It should not be carried out occasionally, but regularly. Organize a sports corner, purchase special equipment, turn on rhythmic music, do a few exercises yourself, and then charging for your child will soon become a pleasant habit.

When organizing a child’s nutrition, pay attention not only to the quality and calorie content of food, but also to the correct diet, that is, eating during the day at a strictly defined time. It is recommended to feed a child 7-10 years old at least four times a day, approximately every 3-4 hours.

What should be the homemade breakfast of a junior schoolchild?

It is known that schoolchildren who receive a full breakfast at home study better, suffer less from overweight and colds.
Breakfast for a child should definitely include fruits, grains and dairy products! There are certain foods that stimulate the mental activity of a student. For example, to maintain brain function, glucose is needed, which is contained in tea and chocolates. Relevant in the school diet vitamin B6(memory vitamin), helping to think faster, concentrating attention). Contained in pasta from durum wheat, bananas, potatoes, nuts.

Vitamin F relieves confusion. Contained in greens, cabbage.
Magnesium helps to cope with insomnia, anxiety, stress. There is a lot of it in processed cheese, potatoes, milk. In order for the child to have breakfast with appetite, use fantasy. For example, decorate ordinary porridge with a handful of fresh berries or put a funny little man on a plate from pieces of fruit. Try making the following breakfast foods for your child:
pasta salad. Boil multi-colored durum pasta, put in a colander, cool. Pitted olives cut into rings, mix with pasta. Add green peas. Salt to taste. Drizzle with olive oil or season with mayonnaise.

Porridge "Good morning! Add fresh fruits, dried fruits, nuts, seeds to herculean flakes. Pour boiling milk, hold on fire for 1 - 2 minutes, close the lid, let it brew. After 3-5 minutes, the porridge is ready. Add honey, sugar, salt, butter to taste.

In the morning he should receive a hot breakfast. Lunch - at a strictly defined time, always with the first course. Dinner should be light, and should be given 1-1.5 hours before bedtime. At school, the child must receive a hot breakfast, and not a bun with tea, with an extended day - breakfast and lunch. Constantly remind your child to wash their hands before eating, not to eat unwashed fruits and vegetables, to eat carefully, chewing food thoroughly.
Rest should be active . After several hours of work at a school desk, the child needs to stay in the fresh air and outdoor sports games, a walk is also desirable after doing homework.
In the daily routine, strictly defined hours should be provided for doing homework. For a second-grader, this time should not exceed one hour, for a third-grader - one and a half hours, for a fourth-grader - two hours.

The optimal time for doing homework: 15:00-17:00.

Do not forget to include visiting circles or sports sections, doing homework in the school day.
In order for the child to get used to observing the daily routine, make it with him. Agree on all the requirements, in the first weeks help him get used to it, do not encourage unreasonable failure to comply with the regimen, and be sure to praise the child for his diligence and diligence.
Universal Tips:

· Wake the child calmly. Waking up, he should see your smile and hear your gentle voice. Do not push him in the morning, do not pull on trifles, do not reproach him for mistakes and oversights, even if they “warned him yesterday”.

Do not send your child to school without breakfast; he will have to work hard before school lunch.

· Do not say goodbye, warning and guiding: “look, do not indulge”, “behave”, “so that today there are no bad marks”, etc. Wish him good luck, cheer him up, find a few affectionate words. He has a tough day ahead of him.

If you see that the child is upset, but is silent, do not ask, let him calm down, then he will tell everything himself ..

· After listening to the teacher's remark, do not rush to arrange a thrashing and try to ensure that your conversation with the teacher takes place without the child.

· After school, do not rush to sit down for lessons, you need two or three hours of rest (and in the first grade it would be good to sleep for an hour and a half) to restore strength. Best time for the preparation of lessons from 15 to 17 hours. Classes in the evenings are useless, tomorrow you will have to start all over again.

· Do not force to do all the lessons in one sitting, after 15-20 minutes of classes, 10-15-minute "breaks" are needed.

10. During the preparation of lessons, do not sit "over your soul", let the child work on his own, but if you need our help, be patient. Calm tone, support (“don't worry, everything will work out”, “let's figure it out together”, “I'll help you”), praise (even if it doesn't work out very well) are necessary. Don't focus on grades.

11. When communicating with a child, try to avoid conditions. "If you do, then .., ". Sometimes the conditions become impossible, regardless of the child, and you can find yourself in a very difficult situation.

Find (try to find) at least half an hour during the day, when you belong only to the child, do not be distracted by household chores, TV, communication with other family members. At this moment, the most important thing is his work, care, joy and failure.

· Choose a single tactic for communication of all adults in the family with the child, resolve your disagreements about pedagogical tactics without him. If something does not work out, consult a teacher, doctor, psychologist, do not consider superfluous literature for parents, there you will find a lot of useful things.

· Be attentive to the child's complaints of headache, fatigue, poor condition. Most often, these are objective indicators of fatigue, learning difficulties.

Keep in mind that even “very big” children (we often say “You are already big” to a 7-8-year-old child) love a bedtime story, a song and gentle stroking. All this calms them, helps to relieve the tension that has accumulated in the back and fall asleep peacefully. Try not to remember troubles before going to bed, do not sort things out, do not discuss tomorrow's test, etc. Tomorrow is a new day, and we must do everything to make it calm, kind and joyful.

How to help a child learn?

Should reading be taught before going to school?

NECESSARY! The earlier a child begins to read, the more he likes to do it and the better he copes with reading.
Scientists give a number of reasons why a child should be taught to read, starting not even from preschool age, but from early childhood:

· Children are hyperactive, inquisitive. If a child at the age of 7 is given the opportunity to quench his thirst for knowledge, hyperactivity will decrease, which will protect him from injury and allow him to explore the world around him more successfully.

Almost all children aged “2 to 5” have unique abilities, including the ability to absorb knowledge. Everyone knows the ease with which young children memorize new and sometimes even incomprehensible information.

· Having learned to read at an early age, the child is able to master much more information than those of their peers who were deprived of such an opportunity. If he learned to read early, then in grade 1 he will be able to do the material that is usually given to children under the age of 12.

· The child who learned to read early loves to read. Many parents think that children who can already read will be bored in 1st grade. To say that the more children know, the more they will be bored, is the same as to say that children who know nothing will be interested in everything and forget about boredom. If the class is not interesting, then everyone will be bored. If it is interesting, then only those who are not able to understand anything will get bored. And one more curious fact: when a child is taught to read at home, success is one hundred percent, regardless of the method used.

PARENTS NOTE! Usually the best students in any class are good readers.

Most younger students love to read, but they cannot choose books themselves, so it is important that adults help them in this matter. When choosing books for your child, make sure that they correspond to his age, have a variety of topics (fairy tales, stories about nature, about children, poems, adventures, scientific and educational literature, etc.) and be sure to take into account the individual interests of your son or daughter. Also pay attention to the illustrations. They should be bright, "speaking", that is, reflecting the content of the work. When reading books with drawings, you can simultaneously ask the child questions like: “What episode does this drawing fit for?”, “What did the artist depict, in your opinion, right, and what was wrong?” Looking at the illustrations together will encourage the little reader to continue reading.

On the eve of the new school year, many parents of first graders are wondering if their child is ready for school. New acquaintances, new knowledge and new responsibilities can quickly fill the life of a young student with emotions and experiences unusual for him. ELLE has collected advice from psychologists on why it is important to prepare children for school and how to conduct it correctly.

PHOTO GettyImages

By law, children can go to first grade between the ages of six and a half and eight. As a result, it often happens that some children in the class are older or younger than their classmates by almost a year. For someone, such a difference in age - respectively, in psychological development - can be quite critical.

Home school readiness checks can be very helpful for those boys and girls whose parents feel they are often insecure. For children of 6 years, significant changes are usually characteristic both in physiology and in psychological development. Just during this period, the stage of formation of the logical thinking of the child begins, which plays a very important role in educational process further.

Psychologists agreed on three main parameters that indicate the degree of readiness of the child for school.

First, it is the motivation to study. The child must demonstrate readiness to study at school, understand the importance of this process and look forward to the crucial moment - September 1. If a child went to kindergarten, as a rule, he has already developed the motivation to study, but children who stayed at home with their mother or with a nanny may feel this motivation to a lesser extent. In such a situation, parents are encouraged to conduct a series of conversations with a preschooler, explaining to him in a playful manner why it is so important to study and that a whole new fascinating world of knowledge and communication awaits him at school.

It is believed that the motivation of a preschooler to right level when he is able to focus on the result and is ready to achieve success through overcoming, independently restraining his impulsiveness - whether in the game or in daily communication with the family.

Secondly, psychological readiness for school is determined by the level of emotional development of the child and his endurance. By this age, he should already demonstrate perseverance, not giving vent to his impulses, but keeping his attention on what is happening. This is easy to check at home by giving a child a task that is clearly not one of his favorites (for example, help mom wash the dishes or cut a salad) or by watching his reaction when he is waiting for his turn in a board game. It is believed that a child is ready for school if he can independently work out any interesting thing or game for 20-30 minutes.

The third most important indicator of a child's readiness for school is the level of development of his intellect and motor skills. This is the easiest indicator to evaluate, as any violations are very easy to notice, and there are many tests, books with exercises and entertaining games to identify them. Here the child's ability to write relatively smoothly, read, fixing his eyes on a certain line, listen and understand information, subsequently answering questions is assessed.

How to understand whether a child is ready for school, and what to do if his unwillingness to go to the first grade according to the criteria listed above is clearly visible? It is very important for parents to understand that such a child at first will very much need their help and support. In addition, in order to avoid severe stress on the very first day of school, you can take a walk with your child to school several times, showing and telling him about your experiences and first impressions of school life, and also play school at home.

How do you know if your child is ready to go to school?

School psychologists have developed special methods to determine the level of readiness of the child for school. Seek help from a psychologist who works in the kindergarten your child attends.

Try to answer ("yes" or "no") to the questions of this test. It will help you understand if your child is ready for school.

1. Can your child do something on their own that requires concentration for 25-30 minutes (for example, building a designer or puzzles)?

2. Does your child say that he wants to go to school because there he will learn a lot of new and interesting things, will find new friends?

3. Can your child write a picture story of at least 5 sentences on their own?

4. Does your child know a few poems by heart?

5. Is it true that your child in the presence of strangers behaves at ease, is not shy?

6. Can your child change a noun by numbers (for example: frame - frames, ear - ears, person - people, child - children)?

9. Can your child solve addition and subtraction problems within ten?

10. Can your child repeat the sentence exactly (for example: “Bunny, jump on the stump”)?

11. Does your child like to color pictures, draw, sculpt from plasticine?

12. Does your child know how to use scissors and glue (for example, to make an application)?

13. Can your child generalize concepts (for example, name in one word, namely: furniture) table, sofa, chair, armchair)?

14. Can your child compare two objects, that is, name the similarities and differences between them (for example, a pen and a pencil, a tree and a bush)?

15. Does your child know the names of the seasons, months, days of the week, their sequence?

16. Can your child understand and follow verbal instructions accurately?

If you answered yes to 15-16 questions, you can assume that your child is quite ready for school. You did not study with him in vain, and school difficulties, if they arise, will be easily overcome.

If you answered yes to 9-13 questions, then your child has learned a lot. The content of the questions to which you answered in the negative will tell you the topics for further studies.

If you answered yes to 8 (or less) questions, then you should, firstly, read special literature, secondly, try to spend more time with your child, and thirdly, seek help from specialists.