JOHNSTON COUNTY – This spring, Read to Grow Johnston County will be hosting Kindergarten Readiness Nights at four select elementary schools: South Smithfield, Selma, West Smithfield, and Four Oaks. These events aim to prepare rising kindergarteners by offering information, skills practice, and support to parents and children.
Attendees will get to practice the lunch line, take a tour of a school bus, and rotate through six hands-on learning stations. Each station provides a chance to practice important skills a successful kindergartener needs, including math, language, play, brain development, emotional & social development, and health and physical development. Additionally, each child will receive a Skill Builder Kit to help improve these skills over the summer in preparation for the upcoming school year.
Parents can also register their child for Kindergarten during the event, and dinner will be provided. These events are in collaboration with the Partnership for Children, Johnston County Public Schools, and Gunter Family McDonald’s. Registration is required, and attendance is limited.
Please visit the Read to Grow Facebook Page to register your family for free.
Kindergarten Readiness Nights:
April 18th – South Smithfield Elementary 5:30 – 7:00 pm
May 2nd – Selma Elementary 5:30 – 7:00 pm
May 9th – West Smithfield Elementary 4:30 – 6:00 pm
May 16th – Four Oaks Elementary 5:00 – 6:30 pm
Read to Grow consists of a wide variety of community members, including business leaders, faith community members, families, Partnership for Children of Johnston County, My Kids Club, and Johnston County Public Schools. As a collaborative group, Read to Grow is working to connect resources, develop initiatives, and achieve the targets and milestones set to impact the 3 pillars of the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading (CGLR), kindergarten readiness, chronic absenteeism, and summer learning loss. For more information or to get involved, contact Heather Machia at 919-397-7822.
Unpopular opinion: Start fining parents whose children fail a grade. Watch proficiency scores go through the roof. I’m all ears on how to get parents reading to their kids again. We used to take our child’s education seriously.
If they did that, your parents would have been broke.
I usually agree with you but I don’t think fining parents when a child fails is a good idea. Yes, the parents need to be involved with their child’s education but it’s just as much on the teachers to teach the child if they are in public school. As well the public education system is not set up to have developmentally appropriate learning. We expect kids to sit still in a chair and listen for more hours than most adults sit still at a desk. This is not conducive to good learning.
Better still, remove the minuimum grade a child can receive as most middle and high schools ( I suspect elementary as well) do. If they do not pass the eog on the second try, if they have missed more than 20 days… do not promote them to the next grade level. Also, as far as “ sitting in a chair”, it worked for countless decades in public school. It instills self control, concentration, self direction. Unfortunately, public schools have changed into believing you have to entertain children with a song and dance to get them to learn. Try that at work. No wonder the work ethic of most teens and young adults is so low.