Parents guide to helping your kid succeed at kindergarten

Parents of kindergarten children are advised to resist the urge to finish homework or send them to tutoring. Here’s why.

Parents of pupils entering their first year of school are advised to resist the urge to complete homework for their child or send them to tutoring.

The advice is among a range of tips experts have offered parents of children in the crucial first years of school as part of a News Corp series on how to best set up a child for academic success.

Veteran Kindergarten teacher Cheryl Turi and author of The Parents Guide to Kindergarten said enthusiastic mums and dads must resist the urge to help too much, especially when it comes to homework.

“Always encourage your child to do it and never do it for them,” she said.

“They won’t learn from the process and it does not allow them to learn from their mistakes and accept the consequences.”

Experts have revealed their top tips for helping kindergarten kids adjust to primary school.

The same rationale of helping their child discover the right answer for themselves rather than telling them applies to reading, writing and maths.

“When your child asks mathematical-related questions, don’t just give the answer – use everyday objects to work it out together,” Ms Turi said.

Former education minister Adrian Piccoli. Picture: Toby Zerna

Former education minister Adrian Piccoli and author of 12 Ways Your Child Can Get The Best Out Of School said one of the first things a parent could do was model respect for a child’s teacher by not speaking negatively about them at home.

“(Teachers) have to have an ongoing relationship with your child for at least a year so you want that to be a positive one and you want your child to respect their teacher and their authority and intelligence,” he said.

He said if a parent did take issue with something, parents should be careful to handle the issue by privately discussing concerns in a polite and restrained manner by making an appointment and definitely not in front of students.

The biggest lesson a child could learn in kindergarten was to enjoy learning.

“If you’re jamming tutoring down their throat in kindergarten they’re going to think school is a pain in the neck,” he said.

University of Western Sydney Children’s tech expert Dr Joanne Orlando said during kindergarten one hour of screen time was the absolute maximum and said to keep an eye on what “homework” was completed on the computer.

“It is also important that the hour is not in their room by themselves, it is important for parents to be part of it,” she said.

That includes playing so-called educational games which she said vary in quality and usefulness.

“Just because a game is labelled educational does not mean it is actually educational. Some games are just pretty easy for kids, if it is not getting their brain thinking they’re not going to learn anything,“ she said.