Making Sense of Number Sense: What Is It and How Can My Child Get It?

     I hold up a clear plastic jar, filled with colored cubes and ask a group of second-graders to guess how many there are. Estimates vary from 100 - always a popular number with the young crowd - to 1,000, to 20. After writing these numbers on the board, I bring out a second jar, the same size as the first. This one is about half full of colored cubes. "I counted these cubes when I put them in this morning," I tell the students. "So, I know that this jar has 30 cubes inside." I then place the half-full jar next to the full one, and ask, "Before we count the cubes in the full jar, would anyone like to change their estimate?"

How to Raise a Reader

Starting with Letter Recognition 

      In today's educational system, children are expected to learn things earlier and earlier. I entered the teaching arena as a college student in the late 1980's. When I took my first full-time teaching job in 1992, first graders came to school in the fall to learn their letters. Today, many students enroll in kindergarten and are already reading. The standards differ from state to state, but overall, the trend is now toward letter and sound recognition being taught in preschool and students finish kindergarten reading. Student's who enter kindergarten without at least a base knowledge of letter recognition and some phonics may be at a disadvantage. Reading is the basis for all other educational experiences. Most low achieving schools have one thing in common; they have low achievement scores in reading.

     So now, you find yourself jumping from potty training into pre-reading skills. Some may argue that it is too much, too soon. But, if handled properly, it can be a fun and exciting time for you and your preschooler. No matter the age of your child, you can do so much at home to help him become a life-long reader; and it doesn't require multiple trips to the teacher store or a huge time commitment.