 Welcome to Gearing Up for Kindergarten, a family education program that supports child development, school readiness, and healthy parenting. We would like to share five specific ways that Gearing Up for Kindergarten helps educators. Gearing Up for Kindergarten helps educators connect and build relationships with families. I'm Raiko Barnett. I'm a kindergarten teacher at Madison Elementary. I've been teaching at Madison for nine years and I taught another 13 years in Texas and I've also been a parent educator with the Parents as Teachers program. Because I am a kindergarten teacher, I can tell them with certainty what they can expect when the child goes to kindergarten. If it's their first child, they're quite surprised at what the kindergarten standards are. As a teacher, it gives me an opportunity to get to know the family and so when the child comes to school, I already know the family. I know the dynamics of the family and it's it's such a at ease feeling when that child comes to school in the fall. They already know me, they know the classroom, they know the building and it's it's a wonderful feeling for everyone. Gearing Up for Kindergarten helps educators and parents assess the child's school readiness. And the reason why I'm saying yes is because you know when when I first brought my child here, I mean this is my first son that is going to school, so I had no idea of what I should expect. So you know being through the readiness for kindergarten, it taught me a lot of things, you know how I should you know prepare them for school, the things that they need to know before they get to kindergarten. And so also kind of guided me in the kind of things I need to teach them back at home before they get to school. So I think it's like burdened my knowledge about school, about school for my child. Gearing Up for Kindergarten helps educators increase familiarity with kindergarten routines and expectations for children and families. I'm Bobby Olson, principal here at Madison Elementary. We just finished our third year of implementation. You know I was approached three years ago and was asked if we would be interested in a program like this. We took a look and said yeah any way that we can start kids off sooner coming to school, boy we would absolutely love it to counter that. So they get a chance to see things that are just you know simple that you wouldn't originally think of such as where are the bathrooms at, what is this big thing they call a gym, what happens here, how do we walk in the hallways and those type of things. So just all of those little procedures that they're going to counter, you know they get to see for the first time for parents to get to see what happens as well. Especially for those parents who this might be their first time, they get a chance to kind of get in meet some of our staff, they're again see the inside of our school, become comfortable with it. So they get a chance to just know what kindergarten life is going to be all about. Know that we can tell the difference between kids who haven't had this opportunity and those who have. Cuing Net for Kindergarten provides parent education and support. I think it's a great program because not only does it teach the children what they need to learn for kindergarten but it also teaches the parents what we need to do to get them ready for kindergarten. Finally, Cuing Net for Kindergarten helps to promote positive parent-child engagement. Well as a kindergarten teacher we get a wide range of experiences that children bring into the classroom and that that range of abilities and experiences that children bring present quite a challenge at the beginning of the year in kindergarten. And what gearing up has offered is for those parents who could not afford a private preschool program and that they could they did not qualify for Head Start. So it closes that gap and it gives them an opportunity to be in school and then their parents get to come with them and so it's a wonderful transition for children and families to kindergarten.