Let's Go, Let's Go, L-E-Q-S-P-O

When I was in college at the football games I would cheer right along with the cheerleaders.  At one particular game I was with my now husband and cheering loud and proud.  Let's go, let's go, l-e-q-s-p-o! Keith looked at me and said, What in the world are you saying?  That makes no sense! I replied with, Of course it doesn't make sense it's a cheer!  You see I was of the generation that believed cheerleaders weren't bright... so if they made the cheer it wouldn't make sense.  (I do need to insert here that we went on to have two very bright daughters who were cheerleaders!)  Keith kindly explained that actually the cheer DID make sense.   It was let's go, let's go, l-e-t-s-g-o!

You see I wasn't a critical listener.  We actually train our children to not be critical or good listeners.  How many of us have said to our children, I'm not going to tell you again.  If I  have to tell you again, This is the third time I have asked you. We condition them to not listen until the third or fourth or so time.  But this lack of listening critically really can cause them grief in school.

In preschool and Kindergarten we teach phonological awareness.  This is the ability to hear rhyming words, hear syllables, hear sounds in words.  It gets sort of complicated but the first step is to listen critically.  This ability to hear individual sounds (not letters) in words helps them later in school when they spell.  So start now training your child to listen critically.  It's really easy and more importantly, fun.

Since it's the weekend, take a few minutes and stretch out in the backyard.   Have your child close their eyes.   For a few minutes have them just listen to all the sounds around.  It might be an air conditioner coming on, a car door shutting, a dog barking, the leaves on the tree, who knows.   Just be still and listen.  Then talk about the sounds you heard.

Another game to play is to have your child close their eyes.  You make a series of noises like clap, snap, stomp.   Have your child open their eyes and see if they can repeat the sounds in order.   What did you do?  Repeat the game again but delete a sound - clap...stomp.   This time ask your child which sound was missing.

These are silly games but will have huge payoffs for your child later down the road in school.
So in the meantime - let's go , let's go, you know the rest!