McMinnville School District’s three-part READY! for Kindergarten workshops are open for registration (see below). Sessions for all district families will be held at Sue Buel Elementary on Thursdays, Oct. 4, Jan. 10 and April 4.
Targeted to parents with children ages birth to five years old, the workshops are designed to help parent participants prepare children with the early learning skills needed to start and stay at grade level throughout their school career.
“We know that parents are a child’s first teacher and that children learn best by actively engaging with people they love and trust,” said Stephanie Legard, director of Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment for the McMinnville School District. “These workshops help parents be mindful of the learning opportunities available during day-to-day interactions with their children at home.”
Using a research-based curriculum, the workshops teach age-appropriate activities that show parents simple ways to talk, sing, read and play with their child that foster essential pre-literacy, pre-math and social-emotional skills.
Each participating family leaves the workshop with a child development manual and a bag of high-quality, developmentally appropriate toys and books. All Ready for Kindergarten services and resources are provided at no cost to families.
Now in its eighth year, the program has proven effective, with new assessment data that shows children whose parents participated in the READY! for Kindergarten program significantly outperformed nonparticipant children in Marion, Polk and Yamhill counties, as well as the Oregon state-wide average, on the Oregon Kindergarten Assessment.
Each workshop covers a different topic and includes free childcare, dinner for participating families and the opportunity to connect with other parents who have children of the same age. The sessions are designed to build on each other and grow along with the child.
9/6/2018