Primary education Early Learning Club teaches parents to be child’s first educators

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Coloring, clapping, counting and cutting.
 

These are all activities that parents can use as educational tools for getting their preschoolers ready for kindergarten.
 

But according to studies by the United Way of Lake County, some parents are not using these tools or the time they have with their young children. And academically, this could mean a life of playing catch-up.
 

“Parents are the first and most important teachers,” said Nettie Mojarro, marketing and enrollment director of Academy of Our Lady Catholic School in Waukegan.
 

For this reason, Mojarro uses her free time to give training classes of the Early Learning Club in English and Spanish in the school cafeteria.
 

The Early Learning Club is a free, two-session class that instructs parents how to teach their preschoolers the skills they’ll need by the start of their kindergarten year.
 

The program came out of the United Way of Lake County’s Success by 6 initiative after surveys were conducted to find out how prepared preschoolers were for kindergarten.
 

The results were not pretty.
 

“Unfortunately, what we found was that [the children] were not meeting the teacher’s expectations for what they should know at the start of school,” said Ashley Long, manager of Success by 6.
 

The surveys were done in 2005-06, and Waukegan was the pilot city. Round Lake later was included.
 

The survey revealed that kindergarteners in both communities did poorest in language and communication.
 

How the program helps
 

The program is a training class of two one-and-a-half hour sessions where Mojarro explains the importance of children knowing how to spell their names, and of recognize colors and shapes by the time they enter school.
 

“When kids are not ready, the teachers can’t always go back and teach them. We’re trying to make them academically successful,” Mojarro said. “This is a way to do it.”
 

In the program, Mojarro also hands out a goody bag filled with material such as coloring books, reading books, workbooks and the children’s favorite – foamie shapes of many colors. And then she teaches the parents how to use these tools with their children.
 

“These things are just some ideas that parents can use at home with their kids,” Mojarro said. “And you don’t have to know how to speak English to do this with your kid. Sometimes, parents think that because they only speak Spanish, they shouldn’t teach them because they’ll learn at school.”
 

Long says she’s heard that from parents many times and her answer to that is that the kids will pick up the language later. The important thing is to get them learning young.
 

“Primary language and interaction are of great importance to the developing child,” Long said.
 

“We know that in the years 0 to 6, the parents have the most interaction with the children.”
 

Which is why, according to the Success by 6 initiative, it’s parents and not teachers who should be teaching their kids the basics.
 

“We teach him to recognize colors, his letters and to stay focused,” said Marisela Sotelo, of Waukegan.
 

Sotelo and her husband attended their first session of the Early Learning Club on Monday, March 1.

Their son, Alexis, is 3, and they feel he will be ready when he starts kindergarten.
 

“We don’t let him watch too much TV, and we have a lot of reading material at home. We know how important education is for his success in life,” Sotelo said.
 

Mojarro agrees. “No more flunked kids, no more teens not graduating high school,” she said.
 

“Come to the sessions and see how easy and fun it is to teach your kids.”