Ready Freddy

Welcome to Ready Freddy! 

Welcome and thank you for participating in Ready Freddy! The program will be broken down into 4 sessions that you can complete from home. 

 

Each week you will receive an email (if you registered) that will help guide you through each session, which will focus on a different topic important to helping families transition to kindergarten and to promoting academic success. All the activities are intended to be fun and encourage conversations with your child about their upcoming transition to kindergarten!

 

As you go through the activities, we would love to see pictures of you and your child! Share your photos on social media using the hashtags #ReadyFreddyYork and #LIVEUNITED.


More information and online resources:

 

Kindergarten Here I Come! is an activity guide that helps you prepare your child for kindergarten.  


What's up this week?

It's the final week for Ready Freddy!

Welcome to Week Five! This week’s session is designed to help parents and children reflect upon, synthesize, and articulate what they learned over the past four weeks and to recognize the importance of doing so. 


Research shows that the more students think about what they have learned, recognize what they know and what they don’t know, consider how ideas relate, and evaluate the outcomes of their efforts; the more successful they are in school. The most effective learners are aware of their strengths and limitations.


While children differ in their natural tendencies to reflect on their learning, they can be taught to be thoughtful about their own learning and thinking. Parents can encourage children to monitor and reflect on their learning by asking reflective questions (“How did you know that”; “Does that remind you of something you already know?”; “I wonder how we could find out?”; “What did you learn?”) and modeling (“Hmm. I’m not sure what that means.”; “I’m still having trouble. I’ll have to keep practicing!”).


Week 5: More than Counting


Your feedback is important to us!

Please take a quick survey to share feedback on this year's Ready Freddy program. (CLICK HERE to take the survey) 

 

As you go through the activities this week, we would love to see pictures of you and your child! Share your photos on social media using the hashtags #ReadyFreddyYork and #LIVEUNITED.


More information and online resources

 

WITF has great online resources, including The path to kindergarten starts here, which includes helpful videos for ways to incorporate learning into everyday play.

 

National Association for the Education of Young Children has school readiness articles on their website that include topics such as building relationships with teachers, social-emotional development, transition tips, etc.  

It's Week Four for Ready Freddy!

Welcome to Week Four! This week’s session is designed to help parents and children understand the key ideas about how numbers work. These foundations will be the base that children will build upon to learn mathematics in school.

 

To learn number concepts, children need lots of practice working with numbers. They need to count out loud to learn the sequence of numbers, they need to count objects to connect number names to an amount, and they need to learn to identify and write the numerals. But, children also need to think about how numbers relate to each other.

 

Parents can help by encouraging children to order (e.g., “I’m thinking of a number that comes before 15 and after 13.”), compare (e.g., “I have two cookies and you have 5. Who has more?”), estimate (e.g., “You started with 10 carrots. How many carrots do you think you have now?”) and combine numbers (e.g., “I said you have to take 3 bites. You had two, you need one more. 2 + 1 more is 3.”).


Week 4: More than Counting


As you go through the activities this week, we would love to see pictures of you and your child! Share your photos on social media using the hashtags #ReadyFreddyYork and #LIVEUNITED.

It's Week Three for Ready Freddy!

Welcome to Week Three! This week’s session is designed to help parents and children recognize how to build a foundation for reading and writing in multiple ways. Children need a good vocabulary, lots of knowledge about the world and how things work, the ability to recognize words that rhyme and the sounds in words, and many opportunities to “play” with writing materials.

 

Reading

There are many approaches parents can take to help get their child ready to read and write. Just talking, talking, talking can help! Research shows that how and how much parents talk to their children influences their reading achievement later in school. Also, reading one to two stories every day is a very powerful way to prepare your child for future academic success.

 

Writing

Making children aware of when and why you write (e.g., I’m going to write a shopping list, so I’ll remember what to buy at the store) and giving children the opportunity to use writing materials (pens, paper, etc.) helps motivate children to write themselves.

Week 3: Each child is unique; parents know best! 

 

As you go through the activities this week, we would love to see pictures of you and your child! Share your photos on social media using the hashtags #ReadyFreddyYork and #LIVEUNITED.

It's Week Two for Ready Freddy!

Welcome to Week Two! This week’s session is designed to help parents and children appreciate that every child is unique. Because parents know their child’s skills, abilities, and interest better than anyone else, they must be involved in school. Parent involvement helps ensure that all children are challenged and supported so they can reach their full potential.

 

As children enter kindergarten, they are expected to be on their way to mastering academic skills. However, children vary in their skills and interest. One child might be able to draw elaborate pictures, while another loves to sing. One child might know their numbers because they love to play board games, while another never sits still and can climb up any structure on the playground. 

 

If parents communicate this information to teachers, they can use it to help their children grow. For example, hopscotch may help the “climber” learn about numbers, music could help the “singer” learn to spell new words, and the “drawer” might be ready to start writing letters.  

Week 2: Each child is unique; parents know best! 

Week 1: Welcome Video and Story Time

Upcoming Ready Freddy Sessions to be Posted Here!

 

Week 5: August 7

Miss Mingo and the First Day of School Book and Virtual Story Time with Activities

More information and online resources


Look at some of Freddy’s favorite books!


York City School District’s First 10 Initiative 10 Books to Read Before Kindergarten


These titles (and many more!) are available through York County Libraries.

 

United Way of York County distributes books at no cost through Little Free Libraries and Reading Ready Corners. Click here to find a location near you.

 

Learning is everywhere provides great activities to do with your children using everyday items. When you click on the month/location, you will be directed to a page with instructions that list activities for preschoolers and kindergartners. Many of the activities will encourage writing, drawing, reading, storytelling, social and emotional development, scientific thinking and so much more!

Ready Freddy is a program of FOCUS, an early childhood initiative of United Way of York County, in partnership with Red Lion Area School District with generous support from The Donley Foundation, Donald and Dorothy Stabler Foundation, and PNC Foundation.