Professional development
Understanding Children
Pre-school to Big School – Let’s Count paves the way for smooth transitions
Freya Lucas
Mar 30, 2020
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The number one trait which supports children to have a successful start to school is confidence. Experienced educators, from both the early childhood and primary settings, know that school readiness is about the development of the whole child - their social and emotional skills, physical skills, communication skills and cognitive skills.
Underpinning all those areas is one core trait - confidence.Confident children are ready to speak up, advocate for themselves and others, and take the risks that come with learning something new.
One of the ways in which confidence develops in children is through a range of experiences where they can experiment, discuss, explore, question and make sense of the world around them. Joining in with these types of experiences is an important part of later cognitive growth in key areas such as literacy and numeracy.
Numeracy is a core part of everyday life, just like reading and writing.
The sooner children start engaging with numeracy, the better. The journey starts in early childhood as children experiment with early numerical concepts such as size, shape and rote counting. Concepts like these are important in laying down the foundations for valuable skills in later life.
Research tells us that 25 per cent of children from Australia’s most disadvantaged communities are starting school already behind on numeracy skills - a statistic that can sadly follow them throughout their lives, without help and support.
Let’s Count is a freely available innovative, evidence based program which has been designed to improve the numeracy skills of three to five year olds. Since its launch in 2009, the program has positively impacted up to 122,000 children, parents and educators throughout Australia.
Underpinned by credible curriculum sources such as the EYLF, Let’s Count meets NQS requirements and has been awarded Silver for Best eLearning Design in the category of Free eLearning Resources by LearnX.
The Let’s Count program is designed to assist educators in early childhood contexts, and works in partnership with the parents and family members to promote positive numeracy experiences for young children, based on noticing, exploring and talking about numerical concepts using everyday activities.
Rather than asking busy educators and parents to find more time in their day for specialised activities, the Let’s Count program opens their eyes to how many easily available numeracy moments and resources there are in the everyday, through activities such as going for a walk, cooking, or doing the shopping.
The program is practical, tangible and fun, and gives children the opportunity to engage with the numeracy they encounter as part of their everyday lives: counting, sorting, identifying shapes and telling the time, to name but a few.
Let’s Count explores these play based activities in the ways that are most relevant to young children. Best of all, the program is offered free of charge to eligible services, thanks to funding from the Australian Government Department of Education, Skills and Employment through the National Innovation and Science Agenda and Orica.
For more information and to register please visit the Lets Count website, here.
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