It can be difficult to know what parents should be doing at home to prepare their children for ‘big school’.
A new school readiness program, Pencil Paper Star Preschool has been designed to give parents a support network with fun to assist them to prepare their children for their exciting transition.
Program creator and early childhood educator, Maria Murace, who possesses more than 23 years of industry experience, says the program was spurred by an increasing number of prep and grade one teachers commenting on the alarming number of Australian children beginning school without adequate foundation skills.
“I have designed this school readiness program as a simple yet effective tool for parents to assist, connect with and observe their children when and where they choose, as they transition into enthusiastic and inquisitive learners.
“A digital workbook that aims to develop a child’s fundamental learning ability at a cognitive, physical, lingual, social and emotional level during the impressionable ages of three and a half to five.
“By taking a few minutes out of each day to assist in completing set literacy and numeracy tasks, children will grow immeasurably in readiness for what school has in store for them,” she said.
The programme is broken into five star blocks at different difficulty levels is carried out over a 10-week period, offering weekly lessons including visually stimulating work sheets, craft templates and a reward scheme to encourage participation.
Learning activities include: grasping a pencil to writing their name, recognising shapes, matching objects and arts and craft, to sound and letter recognition, rhyming words and the use of upper and lower case.
The programme comes in a range of fonts relevant to each Australian state’s education system: NSW Foundation; QLD Beginners; VIC, NT and WA Font; TAS School Font; SA Beginners and NZ Basic Font.
For further information visit: www.pencilpaperstar.com.au