Dear Parents,
From now until the end of the year, we will be practicing following 3 step directions. You can practice this with your child at home by telling them to do 3 things and then see if they can do what you told them to do in the order in which you told them to do it. For example say:
"Put your shoes in your room, pick up the toy that is on the floor, put it on the shelf. " or "Give me your folder out of your booksack, put your library books on the table, then come back here so you can put your folder back in your booksack after I take the papers out of it."
Do not break it down and only tell them only one thing at a time. The purpose of this exercise is to see if they can remember all 3 directions and in the correct order. If you find your child is having trouble with this, try starting with one direction and building up to 2 and then 3.
This sounds like a simple thing but you will be surprised that in this day and age of video overload, listening skills are sometimes lacking. Start off by only telling your child the three directions one time and then make them repeat them to you. You will find out very quickly if your child needs practice with this skill. This is a skill vital to success in school. If a child does not follow directions, they will not do well on assignments and tests. In 1st and 2nd grades, a large portion of the IOWA test is read aloud to the students. They need to have good listening skills in order to do well on the test.
