You know one of the surest ways to help your kids succeed in school is to be an involved parent. But not every mom and dad has the chance or support to be as engaged as they'd like. In fact, each year 37 percent of incoming kindergartners are not prepared to succeed in school. While some kids enter school with an understanding of more than 20,000 words, others understand fewer than 3,000, says Carol Rasco, executive director of Reading Is Fundamental (RIF), the nation's largest family literacy organization. Why the huge gap? "The richness of the language a child hears before kindergarten is a huge element," she says. Some kids are simply spoken to more, and hear more words per day, than others.
"Most Americans get that early literacy is important, but sixty-one percent believe that most kids will catch up in a year. They don't realize that the gap they enter school with is usually the gap they leave with," says Kim Davenport, senior vice president of education and programs for the nonprofit literacy organization Jumpstart. In fact, this gap is a better indication of the importance of early learning, she says, than anything else.
That's where you come in. "When we look at children's scores before our volunteers' literacy intervention and after, we can see that we are making gains of twenty to thirty percent in language and literacy development during the year," says Davenport. "We can tell our volunteers that they are making an impact."
more Mom Congress: Help Boost Your School's Reading Programs - PTA - Parenting.com
"Most Americans get that early literacy is important, but sixty-one percent believe that most kids will catch up in a year. They don't realize that the gap they enter school with is usually the gap they leave with," says Kim Davenport, senior vice president of education and programs for the nonprofit literacy organization Jumpstart. In fact, this gap is a better indication of the importance of early learning, she says, than anything else.
That's where you come in. "When we look at children's scores before our volunteers' literacy intervention and after, we can see that we are making gains of twenty to thirty percent in language and literacy development during the year," says Davenport. "We can tell our volunteers that they are making an impact."
more Mom Congress: Help Boost Your School's Reading Programs - PTA - Parenting.com