A back-to-school guide for parents and children

Ebony, August, 2004 by Joy Bennett Kinnon

What three words strike fear into the hearts of parents and little children? Back To School. For students, it's a time of new beginnings, new teachers, classes and friends and the ending of lazy summer days. For parents, it's the beginning of new routines, planning and shopping for school clothes and supplies. But being prepared is the key to make the beginning of the school year smooth as butter for both parents and students.

ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

For parents of kindergartners, school preparation begins before the kindergarten door. It begins in the womb, infancy, toddler and preschool stages, says Evelyn K. Moore, president and co-founder of the National Black Child Development Institute (NBCDI), with the creation of a "literacy rich," nurturing home environment.

"Many of our homes are not literacy rich," Moore says. "Children lucky enough to grow up in language and literacy-rich settings start out on the path to literacy already understanding how books, notes, lists, signs, menus, magazines and newspapers work."

Alarmed that 60 percent of Black fourth-graders lack basic reading skills, the Black Child Development Institute has launched a national early literary public education engagement campaign to help parents and teachers improve African-American children's literacy performance. The goal of the "Love to Read" campaign is to "make reading a source of deep and endless pleasure," says Barbara Bowman, a past president of the Erickson Institute and the editor of the "Love to Read" report. To that end the report's authors offer a number of suggestions to link an emotional and reassuring atmosphere with the practical experience of learning to read. The suggestions include:

* Talk to infants even before birth.

* Vocalize to infants' sounds such as cooing, baby talk and full sentences.

* Read board books.

* Talk to toddlers often, even if they don't understand every, word.

* Read to toddlers in your lap and teach them to turn pages, as well as to follow the print from left to right.

* Teach preschoolers to print their names, learn colors and the letters of the alphabet.

* Show preschoolers by example how to speak and listen, and let them watch you read.

Finally, Moore suggests that parents of preschoolers make sure their children receive the required immunizations. Each year in January the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) releases the immunizaton schedule for children and adolescents. The 2004 schedule was expanded to reflect the new AAP recommendation that encourages all children between 6 and 24 months of age to receive a flu shot. Also included this year is the recommended catch-up schedule for children who fall behind or start their immunizations late.

HIGH SCHOOL

The fast-paced high school environment is a dramatic change from elementary school for most entering high school freshmen.

Most high schools have several orientation sessions for entering freshmen and their parents. "My advice for students is to get in early and understand it better, so when they enter school in September, nothing is a surprise for them," says Arthur Slater, principal at Chicago's Kenwood Academy High School. There are several pre-orientation sessions for entering students at the school. "We meet with our freshmen class in February and again in May with a freshmen open house, and the parents and freshmen in June for a three-day orientation," says Dr. Shelby T. Wyatt, guidance counselor at Kenwood. There they collect all emergency forms, review study skills necessary for high school success such as how to read their textbooks by outline, highlight and to look up key words.

Potential high school students also learn how to manage the change-of-class time so different from elementary school, where most classes are taught from a single classroom. "We talk to the students about how to study and how to get to class on time because we only have a 4-minute passing period between class periods," Wyatt says. The school's "Make Believe Class Schedule" activity, which runs students and their parents through a typical class day, has been very successful, he says. "Parents sometimes forget how much of a rush it can be to get from the first floor to the third floor when you have to swim and change your clothes; then you have a test to get to on the third floor and you have to carry your books around for seven classes because you didn't have enough time to go back to your locker," Wyatt adds.

Preparation is key, the educators conclude. Before entering high school, students must also have up-to-date immunizations, medical, dental, vision and hearing exams, all academic transcripts, and their social security numbers.

COLLEGE

It's hard to tell who has a more difficult time with college entrance procedures, parents or their newly independent college freshman. Anxiety reaches its height for incoming college freshmen shortly after their high school graduation. But experts say college-bound students shouldn't spend the summer before college in angst. "The best thing they should do during the summer is to relax," says Tonya Guillory, National Achievement Scholar Program coordinator at Howard University. "I would recommend you spend time during the summer reading. The more you read scholarly work, the better you are at writing." A large portion of college life will inlcude writing.