4C for Children / September 21, 2015

More than 200 kindergarten children and their parents in 10 Cincinnati Public Schools were better equipped when school started this year thanks to school readiness events facilitated by 4C for Children throughout August.

For the third straight year Lisa Garofalo, 4C for Children’s school and community manager, has worked with each school’s Community Learning Center (CLC) to facilitate kindergarten orientation as part of the overall effort to support school readiness for parents and children. Her work is made possible by support from the Robert and Adele Schiff Family Foundation.

“These events give the incoming kindergarten students the opportunity to spend time with their teachers and become oriented to things like the school-day routines, classroom etiquette, school bus riding and lunch procedures,” Garofalo says. “And parents have the opportunity to meet with school staff or a 4C parent specialist to ask questions and learn more about school expectations and curriculum.” …

“Transition to school is a big life event for young children and their families,” Garofalo says. “The school, children and parents need to be ready for this change. We try to help address as many of the issues and questions as possible before school starts to make the transition easier. This allows the children to go into that first day of school with more confidence.”

Diana, a teacher at The Academy of World Languages agrees. The event “really eases the parent-child separation because the children are ‘playing school’ and the parents are getting information. This makes day one less stressful and fearful for both the parent and the child.”

In addition to the kindergarten readiness orientations, 4C staff was also present at school/neighborhood back-to-school events to offer information to parents on choosing quality child care and after-school care.

And it wasn’t just information about kindergarten that participating students received. 4C was also able to provide students at various CLC schools with 300 My First Homework Boxes and 300 backpacks—each filled with supplies to help parents help kindergartners at home.

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