Preparing my august born 3 year old for school next year

[laurad107]

I know its a whole year away but with everything I have read about August born babies suffering at school I wondered if anyone could offer me any advice on how to prepare my daughter for school next year. I just cant imagine her little four year old self being ready.
I don't really like the other option of holding her back as then she would miss reception and the schools in my area apparently don't do any tiered starting, just a few weeks of mornings then straight to all day monday to friday.
I thought I might order some jollyphonics books as she loves books and obviously will make sure she can get herself dressed and fed properly and luckily she has been totally potty trained for a while now.
My biggest worry is that she has the attention span of a knat! Apparently I did too.
Any thoughts would be really appreciated. Thanks

Am I right in thinking that your daughter is 3 having had her birthday in the last few days? It isn't surprising that she has a short attention span, a young child is supposed to be able to concentrate for the number of minutes of their age, eg a 2 year old for 2 minutes, a 3 year old for 3 minutes.
Do you go to any parent and toddler groups, do they do singing or story time, will she sit in the group and sing/listen to the story. Is she starting at nursery this year, that will prepare her very well for school.
In a year she will be a lot more mature - compare your 3 year old to how she was on her 2nd birthday, a massive difference.
There is very little formal sit down learning in reception, it is much more learning through play. And from what I can see, children have a much better attention span when they are learning from doing something fun, to just sitting still listening.

She won't be the only young one in reception. Both my DC seemed to do nothing but play in the sandpit for the first half of reception, but when they were ready they romped through reading and writing.

Having said that if I could go back I'd do more painting/colouring/craft stuff as their fine motor control is not that good and it prepares them for handwriting. (DS is now in KS2 needing extra help with writing). There is a lot more to school than reading phonics.

If you can get her to:

go to the loo independently and wash hands
dress and undress for PE independently
find her own coat, hat and gloves and put them on.

That'll be just fine

A bonus would be recognising her own name
using scissors
writing own name

that'll be even better

Have you got anywhere that you can access your free 15 hours per week early years "education" for her? My DS is same age, will start school next year in reception, and goes to a day nursery because we are both WOHP. The structure, socialising and all that is good preparation.

I wouldn't worry about the jolly phonics stuff, it's the practical stuff that is more useful - dressing, toileting, eating, and as you say she's already pretty proficient at those.

Does she spend a lot of time with other children - learning social skills is so important.

My August born is about to start junior school. She's already working at level 3 in English and we didn't do any phonics at all before starting school. We enjoyed having a pre-schooler who didn't have to do any formalised learning. The time goes by so quickly, enjoy it!

This is not my quotation

'The best way to help a child be 5 is to let them be 4 when they are 4, and the best way to help a child be 4 is to let them be 3 when they are 3.'

The best way to prepare your DD is to share a wide range of modern and classic stories - everything ranging from the gruffalo to hansel and gretel. Use a varied vocabulary (not just good - brilliant, fantastic, amazing, super etc) and talk about everything you do.
Make up stories and role play favourite books. Children who have been exposed to a rich literary environment do better with reading. Play with sounds and sound out words of objects for your DD to find - don't worry to much about the actual letters yet unless she's interested. The important thing is to be able to hear the different sounds. E.g saying can you find the d-o-g? using phonetic sounds.
If she goes to a pre school or nursery they will be able to help and this is a good way to support children to gain social skills. You could have a look at the EYFS to see what would be appropriate for your child as it is an individually tailored curriculum. The teacher will support your child to move on from where they are at.
Most of all please remember that there is so much more to learning than sitting down and reading and writing and that in order to do those things anyway you have to have a good knowledge of how books and language work. Good Luck

I'm a year ahead of you- DD turned 4 three weeks ago and is about to start school. Do try not to worry, a year is a long time and she will have grown up a lot!

Don't worry too much about the jolly phonics, at least not yet. Maybe in a few months you could start talking about letters and sounds and see if she's interested. Don't push it unless she's keen.

It's more important to build up her self-esteem, independence and confidence IMO. Lots of stories, art activities, dressing up, general play, being around other children. Let her make her own sandwich sometimes, or brush her teeth, or pack her bag to go somewhere. Give her lots of praise when she tries to do things herself, show her how to use words to explain how she's feeling rather than just crying or shouting.

So, basically, just be a loving, encouraging parent (as I'm sure you are!) and she'll get there.

Don't prepare her, just let her be. She's just turned 3 years old ...practically a baby!

Chill out if you can. They change SO much between 3 and 4. Yes, she will be a younger one, but there will be other younger ones and the teachers are aware of this. I presume she will start some sort of nursery or pre-school if she hasn't been doing that already this year. That will prepare her re school structure, sharing etc, and the rest is mostly being an attentive, loving parent .