Ep 79 | What Is Kindergarten Readiness?

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Our goal at ReadyKids is to reach our children before they start kindergarten. So in that pre-K year, and not just working with the children, but providing a full level, a full level layer of support for the child, for the family, for their educators, and really ensuring that if they're ready for kindergarten, they are going to be testing on grade level in third grade, seventh grade, and graduating high school.

SPEAKER_01 0:32

Welcome to the Voices United in Education podcast. Each week we showcase the teachers, administrators, and community members who go the extra mile to contribute to the success of every student in Escambi County. You'll meet the real people behind the titles and learn about the amazing resources to support every student's success. Playing Ketchup seems to be par for the course with adulthood. Catching up on sleep, laundry, friends. No one, of course, likes to be behind, but when a child starts behind, they tend to stay behind. And playing ketchup not only makes learning not fun, but parenting as well. Extra parent teacher meetings, IEPs, tutoring, and even being held back a grade. But what can a parent do? My next guest is doing something to support parent efforts. Actually, it's a lot of somethings. She's the executive director of ReadyKids, an organization with a collection of programs to support families in early literacy for kindergarten readiness. Today she's going to share stories of impact, what kindergarten ready looks like, and how you can help. West Florida High School graduate, teacher at heart literacy devotee, Christy Craig. Hi, thanks for being here. I'm so glad that you're you're going to be here with us today talking about this. This is important stuff.

SPEAKER_00 1:53

Thank you. I'm so excited to be here.

SPEAKER_01 1:55

When I think about kindergarten, I kind of think of it as like the on-ramp to education. So when I read about being ready for kindergarten, I was confused because I kind of thought it was kindergarten that got them ready for the rest of education. Is that a mindset that you have to find yourself overcoming a lot?

SPEAKER_00 2:12

Absolutely. I was actually just at a presentation last month and I had a gentleman a little older in the audience come up to me afterwards and say, Kindergarten, I thought they just, you know, slept and took naps and played. Why are why are they needing to be ready for kindergarten? And I said, Oh my goodness, like that is not the case anymore. Of course, we we wish it was. At Ready Kids, we would love if it could really be focused on play, but it's not. Our kids are going into school, they're getting tested. And kindergarten readiness does not start in kindergarten. It starts before, it starts at home. And there's a lot that we can do to help our children be ready for school.

SPEAKER_01 2:49

And who knows? His mom may have helped him be ready for school, but he maybe didn't have that responsibility. He might have been from a home with more traditional, old-fashioned gender roles inside the home. So he that might have been an invisible bit of labor to him. So isn't that interesting that your impact that you're having is not only on kindergarten readiness, but also unknowingly gender equality. So congratulations.

SPEAKER_00 3:15

Thank you. I mean, and it really does, you know, you hear the village hear the term it takes a village, but it really does, it is not just on the teachers, it's not just on the parents, but it's on our our entire community to really be united in the success for our children.

SPEAKER_01 3:27

Yes. So many hands makes the load light. And that, of course, changes the generations of what's next for our community because it has a positive impact on the kids throughout their lives. Can you talk a little bit about that? How being behind, being not ready for kindergarten has kind of a negative butterfly effect on where the kids go, how far they go.

SPEAKER_00 3:52

It does. Absolutely. So once upon a time, we were really focused on looking at high school graduation rates and trying to support our children while they were in high school to get them to graduate on time. And then collectively, as a community and as a nation, we started to dial back that process and that mindset of saying, okay, well, graduation rates, probably we need to make sure they're ready before they get to high school. So they started looking at seventh and eighth grade math scores and third grade reading scores and realized that it really does truly begin at the beginning. So now there is this full-level layer of support starting all the way at kindergarten and before, where we're seeing if our students are not ready when they start their K-12 journey, they really are behind for a significant portion of that academic journey. So our goal at Ready Kids is to reach our children before they start kindergarten. So in that pre-K year, and not just working with the children, but providing a full level layer of support for the child, for the family, for their educators, and really ensuring that if they're ready for kindergarten, they are going to be testing on grade level in third grade, seventh grade, and graduating high school.

SPEAKER_01 5:15

So there's a clear correlation, possibly causation between not being ready for kindergarten and not graduating on time from high school. Absolutely. And the research is there for it. Is there any research on the social impact or the emotional mental health impact of not being ready for kindergarten?

SPEAKER_00 5:37

Absolutely. And we are so excited that the social emotional concept is coming to light. It's becoming much more important for our students, for our community. And we're even seeing in the curriculum that was adopted this year through Leap Street that the curriculum is being adapted to be more mindful of growing the social emotional skills. And while we work with pre-K students at ReadyKids, we do have a great relationship with our kindergarten teachers. And they'll tell us that a child who comes in, who can listen, who can sit still, who can get along with their friends, they are that is much more important than the academic component because they're teachable. So when you're trying to cater a classroom to just a few children who are struggling even just to sit still or pay attention, that takes away from the other children who are there to learn as well.

SPEAKER_01 6:28

Wow. I I don't think I ever really connected those things. Readiness isn't just about their intellectual readiness, but also their social readiness. And I could see where it would be really confusing to a kid to suddenly being launched into a social setting that they're not emotionally prepared for. So does it feel like an exaggeration to say that kids who are going to kindergarten ready are less likely to commit acts of violence or, you know, is that dramatic?

SPEAKER_00 6:58

Am I being over It's not dramatic. It's all connected. I mean, we do see the the results of those who, you know, end up in the jail system or those who end up on the streets, those who are struggling with poverty. All of that is connected to education and it really comes back to that early foundation.

SPEAKER_01 7:15

Wow. Okay. So what does being ready for kindergarten mean? Like talk to us like we're that guy that you just spoke with from a different generation, a different time, and maybe someone who doesn't have a large cognitive labor load.

SPEAKER_00 7:30

Definitely. So when we talk about children being ready for school, there are a lot of different things that come into play. You think about the basics like understanding your numbers, your colors, your counting, you're recognizing the letters in your alphabet, you're recognizing um words and print, you're understanding what the difference is between the concept of a number or of a letter. A lot of times, if you haven't seen the alphabet before you've come to school, I mean, it might as well be like an adult looking at Greek. You know, they're just foreign concepts on a page that really mean nothing. So we start by making these concepts meaningful for children, talking about the letters in their name, the letters of their friends, the letters in the names of their family, colors that are their favorite and things they like to wear, the patterns on their clothing or their lunchbox or their backpack, and really connecting the dots for them in a way that is meaningful.

SPEAKER_01 8:25

Those sound like very accessible activities that a parent can do with their kid. How would a parent know that their kid is ready, though? Like, is there a threshold of not ready versus ready that a parent could easily assess how they're doing? Because you know how parents are, right? It's it's either you're so overwhelmed by working your multiple jobs and trying to pay the bills that you're like ready who? Or you're completely obsessed helicopter parenting and just worried all the time about things you don't need to worry about. So how can a parent relieve their their sleepless nights either way?

SPEAKER_00 9:03

What I would say for relieving the sleepless nights is if you are just talking with your child, introducing language into your everyday activities, you are doing exactly what you need to. It is truly as simple as using the world around you and the things that you have on hand to build learning opportunities into those everyday moments. But you're right, there's no handbook. There's no handbook for when they're born. There's no really a handbook for when a child is getting ready for school. But there are so many resources out there along with our local school district. Ready Kids really likes to rely on information from the Office of Early Learning, which does actually provide a template for what kindergarten readiness looks like. And I have that here with me today. And it talks about what you can do to build that social emotional development, to build their social cues, to build physical development and all of those academic components we were talking about earlier as well.

SPEAKER_01 10:00

Is there anything that you want to share from that sheet that would help parents kind of assess if their kid is on track or maybe a little bit behind?

SPEAKER_00 10:09

Absolutely. So I have a sheet in front of me. It is a one-pager. So it is very accessible, easily digestible. And it literally says, Is your child prepared for kindergarten? And it talks about those early literacy skills and how you can incorporate reading your child's facial expressions, reading their favorite books over and over because repetition is incredible. If they start to memorize what words they're hearing and seeing them on the page, that's helping them to get familiar with that as a word that they can later read. And it's also developing the vocabulary that they're banking in their brain. You can use finger play, nursery rhymes, following along in a recipe while you're cooking, playing games that require listening and thinking, like i Spy, and honestly, just providing opportunities for back and forth conversation. And that just means that when you say something, you give them time to respond. I know as an adult, it's really hard to find time to do anything, but if you can just give your child that time to think through something, let them make decisions, let them be silly with it. They don't have to get the answer right, but building that confidence by letting them just, you know, have an answer and going with it.

SPEAKER_01 11:19

You mentioned a lot of what I would call analog exercises, analog activities. Is there an element to readiness that has to or should include screens, computers, tablets?

SPEAKER_00 11:32

You know, we're not necessarily against screen time at ReadyKids. We, of course, say that that one-on-one time with your grown-up is going to be the most impactful and the most beneficial, but there are ways to incorporate screen time that can be educational. And also it's, you know, it's helpful to have that downtime as a child, too. You certainly don't want it to be that you're just cramming this information into their brain and you're not making it fun. So I always say everything in moderation.

SPEAKER_01 11:58

So the readiness scores for our county are just under 50%. I think your website said 48%. That seems low to me. Is it that low compared to other counties in Florida?

SPEAKER_00 12:12

So that's a great question. No, no, it's not. Um, so this year it's actually 45% that are ready in Escambia County, and I believe 49% that are ready across the state. So, really, when you're considering local scores compared to the statewide average, we're right in line with where the rest of Florida is. So, while yes, it is a concern that we want to continue addressing and continue helping our children and our families, there's no cause for concern for Scambia County specifically to feel like we're significantly behind the mark.

SPEAKER_01 12:47

So yeah, that there's a lot, there's a lot there because you want kids to be ready. And when you when you hear that statistic, it kind of hits you, you know, wow, that's really low. And I have mixed feelings, knowing that the whole state is also at that same rate. And because you shared the the ways to get your kid ready are so accessible and I mean free, right?

SPEAKER_00 13:12

Yes, very free, exactly. One thing I didn't mention as a resource is something that we provide at Ready Kids, and that is called Ready Rosie. And that is a platform that is sent straight to your phone in video format. So no need to read, just turn it on, two minutes, very accessible. But what I love is you do not have to download another app. Just enter your phone number or your email address, and it comes directly to you every single Monday with lots and lots of ideas for how to turn everyday moments into learning opportunities.

SPEAKER_01 13:43

Oh, I love that. That's really cool. That's such a a huge relief, I think, for parents to know that that's accessible, that they don't have to sign up or go anywhere, that it can just go straight to their phone. That's amazing. Are there, you have a lot of programs. Are there any other programs that you specifically want to highlight? While, I mean, uh we presume that these are parents listening to this podcast episode, right? So what would what would be top of mind for you program-wise for them to know about?

SPEAKER_00 14:10

Certainly, Ready Rosie is top of mind. Again, it's entirely free for them. It gives you great activities every single week. And they're so accessible. It's I I think as parents, we get into this mindset of feeling like we're running out of ideas. We're we're not creative enough to think of like how we can make learning fun. And every single week, I'm inspired by the ideas that they send. It's like, oh, you know, you guys can cook together, or you can create your own recipe book, or have your child pretend to take your order, or line all of their stuffed animals or their action figures up in a row and count them and sort them and count the steps to the bedroom when you're getting ready for bed and who took more steps and why. So all of these ideas where it's really fun, it gets the kid engaged and energized, but they're learning along the way and they don't even know it.

SPEAKER_01 14:58

Oh, that's so cute. I can just see like older siblings teaching the younger siblings that too. And then that's where you have what you alluded to earlier, where a whole, you know, family gets changed by the activities of just being ready. The culture of learning and the habits that are in the home would totally take a shift.

SPEAKER_00 15:16

Absolutely. And what better way to bring your family together and to unite truly in this early education arena than to make it a full family event and make it fun for everyone? How long has this program been around? So Ready Kids has been around since 2007. We just brought Ready Rosie on in about 2020, which was really timely with the pandemic and having to shift our mindset and how we were learning. But at that same time, we were also introducing another program, kindergarten Here We Come. And that's something we do in the summertime. We've done it now two years in a row and have doubled our attendance from the first year. So we're really excited. But it's a one-day workshop with different dates offered where the entire family does come out and they get to learn and practice what it looks like to be ready for school. So parents and caregivers, they're in one classroom and they're getting all of the hands-on tips for how they can spend the entire summer practicing those readiness skills. And then in another classroom, our rising kindergartners are actually in a real classroom setting with a real teacher and they are practicing all of those skills. They're getting to count, they're getting to dance, they're listening to a story, they're lining up for the bathroom, they're practicing raising their hands so that when they do start school in the summer, this is not new for them.

SPEAKER_01 16:35

Oh my gosh, that's so cute. I and I love that because it's also really practical. Really, really practical. And this, the origin of ready kids started with e-care, right? Can you talk about that a little bit?

SPEAKER_00 16:48

Absolutely. So, yes, we did start having conversations as a community in 2006. And e-care, every child or reader in a scambia was born. And our community really saw that there were services for birth to three, there were services once you started school, but this critical age of four years old was being missed. And this to us was a very, very important year where you're just about to start school. You know, you've already at this point had about 85% of your brain and your neurons firing and getting developed in your brain. So, so kids were ready to take some new knowledge and to be a little bit more hands-on with their own learning process. And so Ready Kids, e care at the time, was born out of that, that realization that this critical age was being missed. We rebranded in 2021 because every child or reader in a scambia is a little bit of a mouthful. And we really wanted a name that reflected our mission, which is getting kids ready. So ready kids.

SPEAKER_01 17:50

I love that. And you specifically said four-year-old kids. I mean, that is a really specific target market, just four years old, which I'm sure every parent will feel like just goes by in the blink of an eye. The development that happens between four and five feels just like they're a different tiny human than they were a year ago. Do you have programs that are for kids outside of that age range?

SPEAKER_00 18:15

So our programming really is laser focused on four-year-olds in that pre-K age, but uh Ready Rosie has content that is filterable from birth to age nine, both in English and Spanish. And we attend a lot of community outreach events. So with the school district, parent university, different things happening in the community, like Fred Levin Way, and all kinds of outreach events where we do provide services and books for children really from birth to teen.

SPEAKER_01 18:45

You personally don't normally get to speak to parents directly, parents of four-year-olds. Is there anything that you would want them to hear from you right now if they were listening to this?

SPEAKER_00 18:57

Absolutely. First of all, you are doing a great job. You've got this, you are rocking it. And if you take nothing else away from today, just talk with your child. Talking, giving them the opportunity to exercise their voice and using what you have on hand is all that it takes. I think we have this mindset that we we need to go out and buy something special, or I needed to, you know, graduate myself. That's not the case. Any level of education can be inspiring for your child. And maybe you didn't have such a great experience in school yourself. That's okay. But if you can make it exciting for your child and encourage them and just talk about how fun school's gonna be and they're gonna make friends and they're gonna love their teacher, that that's gonna go a long way for your child and their success in school.

SPEAKER_01 19:46

I love that. Thank you so much for being here. Before we wrap up, tell people where they can learn more about the program, enroll their kid in the program, or maybe just even share about it with other parents.

SPEAKER_00 19:58

Definitely. The best way to learn about our programs and to find any of the content we talked about today is on our website, ReadyKidsfl shortforflorida.org. Perfect. Thank you again. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_01 20:13

Thanks for listening. Be sure to subscribe and share. Voices United in Education is a production of Scandy County Public Schools.