Jessica Bermudez: Hello, my name is Jessica. I work with the Farmington Municipal Schools, and I'm here to tell you all about the READY! for Kindergarten program. Thank you for joining today and giving me the opportunity to share. I'll start by giving a broad overview of what the program is, and then I'll go into a little bit more detail.

READY! for Kindergarten is a free school readiness program for the parents or caregivers of children birth to age five who live in the Farmington School District. Families participate in online self-paced workshops where they'll learn new skills and activities to make learning at home fun.

A little bit of the why before I dive into program details. The name of the program says it all, READY! for Kindergarten. READY!'s aim is to help ensure that more children are starting kindergarten on grade level with the skills they need to succeed. Learning does not begin in kindergarten. Children are born learning. They naturally love to explore and understand the world around them. Between birth and age five, a child learns at a speed unmatched for the rest of their life. During these years, more than 85% of a child's brain is formed, and their learning starts at home. Their learning in those first five years determines their kindergarten starting point.

Every year, 40% of children enter kindergarten with skills one to three years behind other students. Children who start kindergarten with the skills of a typical five-year-old or higher are ready for a successful education. Children who start ahead stay ahead. That means that later in life, there's a higher graduation rate and a lower dropout rate. Our program really empowers families to succeed in their role as their child's first and most important teacher.

Okay. Now, we'll dive into program details. READY! offers five age-level workshops, one for each year between birth and kindergarten. Each of those age levels includes three workshops throughout the school year that are each about an hour long. These three seasonal workshops take place in the fall, winter, and spring. Families will learn new skills and get different tools at each one, so we do encourage families to participate in all three workshops during that school year. These virtual workshops are not live meetings that families attend. They are a series of modules called e-learning that include videos and interactive activities. It's self-paced, so families can complete the workshops on their own time and at their own pace. If started at birth, families can participate in a total of 15 workshops per child.

READY! is also available in English and Spanish, and we want to help as many families as possible with the program, so all workshops and materials are offered in English and Spanish. READY! focuses on three main areas: language and literacy, math and reasoning, and social-emotional development.

Each workshop provides age-appropriate targets and activities that fit naturally into everyday settings and routines. With each workshop, families receive these amazing READY! tools, as we call them, that include puzzles, lots of books, magnetic letters, matching games, and all sorts of different discovery toys. I'm going to tell you about a couple of the tools and activities and how families will learn to use them.

The first one is a board book that is an Eric Carle I See You book that has mirrors on each page. It is full of different animals and colorful things for kids to look at. We want to encourage a love of reading in young children. So, reading time should always be a positive experience, not a chore or homework. With young children, you don't necessarily have to read the book word for word. You can simply talk about what you're seeing as you turn the pages and point things out as you go. Like, you might say, "Look at the yellow lion. Do you see the lion? Can you point to it? What does the lion say? Yes, it roars. Can you roar for me? Great job." You can also talk about the parts of a book, like the pages, pictures, and words. You can ask your child to point to objects, colors, shapes, even their initials. Like on the front cover of this book, it has capital letters that say, "I see you." So you might point to the E and say, "Look, there's an E. E is the first letter in your name." And then, you can trace it with your finger, and your child can trace it with their finger.

Reading aloud for 20 minutes per day is one of our biggest recommendations for all children. Keep in mind that that 20 minutes can be spread out into smaller chunks of five or 10 minutes throughout the day, depending on your child's attention span. With younger children, a five or 10-minute timeframe can be just right, and adding up to 20 minutes throughout the day. You can try and catch them when they're in their high chair or during bath time, and then lots of snuggles reading to them right before bed. Our program in Farmington specifically does our best to add a book to every single kit so that all children can have their own little libraries at home.

the next tool that I am going to explain to you are these farm animal bath stickers. They are foam toys that you would use in the bathtub with your child. You can pull them out and tell a story, make up a story together and add details about the animal's characteristics, what color they are, what sounds they make.

READY! encourages families to play with a purpose for 10 minutes every day, and playing with a purpose simply means that you are changing ordinary play into learning experiences with your child. And you're also talking multiple times every hour with your child to help build their vocabulary. READY! recommends about 30 times per hour that you're speaking with your child.

And learning can happen anywhere, anytime. Just like bath time can be an opportunity for learning, so can driving in the car, waiting in a waiting room, grocery shopping, or a quick trip to the park. READY! teaches families to add learning opportunities into everyday life.

Okay. The next tool that I am going to explain to you are the counting bears and cups. So, we have five different colors of cups, yellow, red, blue, orange, and green, and they each have 10 matching bears. These are a great math tool that families can work on matching, sorting, counting, comparing. They also come with a set of foam dice. These are about three inches square, and families can use them with the dice or in other ways to practice different math concepts. And you can even use them as they get older to practice addition and subtraction. These tools, all of them will grow with your child and even into elementary school. You can also use everyday objects to practice math concepts. You can practice sorting socks or silverware or coins. You can count the stairs as you're going up them. Count how many steps it takes to get from the kitchen to the bedroom in your house. The magic is not in the READY! tools. The magic is in the interactions that families have that encourage learning in everyday tasks and having fun learning together. That's the last of the tools that I'm going to share with you today. There are several different tools in every single workshop, and like I said, you will do 15 workshops if started at birth.

Okay. So, the next thing I wanted to share with you was our READY! Play Dates. Another program detail that I'd like to mention is that READY! for Kindergarten in Farmington used to be an in-person program for families. We have switched to online learning to provide families more flexibility. But we still love meeting and connecting with our families and also wanted to allow them to meet other families and give their children an opportunity to interact with other children. So, we created READY! Playdates.

Between every online workshop in the fall, winter, and spring, families are invited to attend a play date at FMS central office. There's a play area for kids. They receive a free board book and snack, and we always do some sort of craft or activity. Families look forward to this time together in between workshops

As I wrap up, I'd like to ask for your assistance. You can support the READY! for Kindergarten program by sharing our flyers and registration information with families that you come in contact with. We distribute flyers all over town and online on our Facebook page. I'll share a little bit more about that in a minute.

And you can also share the importance of reading together for 20 minutes a day. If there is one takeaway from our program, we always want families to know the importance of reading together with their child for 20 minutes a day.

Families can register with the flyer or by visiting the Farmington Municipal Schools website and searching READY! For Kindergarten. They can also visit us on Facebook at READY! For Kindergarten at FMS. Once again, thank you for joining today and allowing me time to share. Have a great school year.