When you are reading about the various learning areas on the following pages, you should keep in mind that learning in the school continually moves across the boundaries of different subject areas.

When children focus on a particular topic, they may well discuss, interview, read, write, study graphs, measure or make models; they may

Helping your children
Along with each of the outlines of the broad learning areas are some ideas for you to consider taking up at home. They are intended to build on the school curriculum and help provide a climate of informal inquiry and discussion. If you feel more comfortable using a language other than English in talking with your children about them, you should do so; your support and interest will be just as valuable. Remember you were and always will be your child's first and foremost teacher.

This learning area has a unique position simply because every other learning area depends on constant use of the English language.

Teachers have many different ways of describing the aims of Language Arts teaching. However, they can be reduced to three strands:

1. Teachers want children to be able to speak, listen, read and write confidently, effectively and appropriately.
2. They want them to have useful knowledge of the English language and how it works. And they want them to be able to apply this acknowledge, especially in speaking and writing.
3. They want them to enjoy using language, to enjoy reading and hearing stories, poems and nonfiction texts, to think clearly, to express opinions, and, in general, to possess language as a tool for becoming more competent and fulfilled human beings.

How Language Arts Are Taught

Children do not come to school ignorant of language, even if English is not their first language. They arrive already able to express their wishes and feelings. Many consider themselves able to write, and although adults may not be able to read their messages, this belief in their ability to write is important and should not be discouraged. These days, too, quite a number have already laid some firm foundations of reading.

Teachers build on these competencies. They know that children learn language by using it. They, therefore, teach Language Arts:

• by encouraging children to express themselves orally - in pairs, in groups in front of the class, to adults.
• by providing activities and surroundings that will stimulate children to talk, listen, read, write, and view with enjoyment, and at the same time challenge them to develop their understanding of language and effective communication.
• by demonstrating appropriate ways of talking and writing, and by teaching the conventions of using language; acceptable pronunciation, punctuation, grammatical usage, spelling and handwriting.
• by explicitly teaching the skills children need to become competent speakers, listener, readers, writers and spellers.
• by providing children with good models of writing, including a wide range of fiction and nonfiction text.
• by creating a climate in which the English language in all its forms is enjoyed and valued.

How Reading Is Taught

Today's reading teacher sees learning to read as learning to make sense of print. The stress is on meaning.

The teacher's task is to help the young reader to search for meaning using a variety of clues, to keep the flow of meaning going and to know what to do when meaning breaks down. Children are able to make sense of written text when they can:

• draw on their experience of the topic and the flow of language to predict the meaning of new words.
• call on their memory of the shapes of words or parts of words.
• apply their knowledge of the 'sounds' of letters or combinations of letters.

Teachers also know that the more children read for sheer enjoyment, the more competent readers they will become. So the encouragement of reading for its own sake is one of the most important strategies of any teacher of reading.

How Writing Is Taught

There are two major strands in the teaching of writing today.

1. The Writing Process: From the beginning of school, children are helped to think about their ideas before drafting them. They may then discuss their drafts in "conferences" with their classmates and/or teacher and revise them. They are also encouraged to "publish" some of their writing for others to read. The skills of spelling and grammar are taught in the context of the writing process, rather than being drilled separately.
2. The Forms of Writing (often called "genres"): Children are led to understand that the form of writing depends very much on the author's purpose and situation. They still write imaginatively (e.g. stories and poetry), but also learn how to use writing for a variety of other purpose (e.g. to provide instructions, report facts, recount past events, explain a process or argue a position).

How Parents Can Help With Language Arts

Here are some of the things you can do to support your children's experience of Language Arts at school.

• Encourage family conversations; tell stories; invite your children to express ideas and feelings; play games together.
• Read to your children from the earliest age. Later encourage them to read to you, but continue bedtime reading to them for as long as they wish you to.
• Take your children to libraries; give books as presents; buy bed-lamps and encourage reading before lights-out. Be seen as a reader yourself. After all, why should your children value reading if you don't?
• Talk about what your children have written and praise their achievement. Ask about anything that puzzles you and perhaps suggest they rethink a word or a sentence.
• Display everyone's writing at home; get a kitchen notice board for list of things to do, invitations and so on. Avoid negative comments about children's spelling. Instead encourage younger children to attempt unknown words by writing the sounds they hear. Older children should be encouraged to read over their written work looking for possible errors and, when in doubt, to use a dictionary or ask someone else.
• Remember that spelling belongs to writing and so spellings are best written down. You might try the look-say-cover-write-check method of learning new words:
  • LOOK at the word and SAY it to yourself
  • COVER it; close your eyes and "see it"
  • WRITE the word down
  • CHECK to see if you are correct-if not, repeat the steps.
• Viewing is also seen as part of the English curriculum. Encourage your children to become critical and discriminating viewers of TV and videos. Talk about likes and dislikes, stereotyping and the assumptions that programs and advertisements make about their audiences.

Today mathematics is perhaps even more important than ever. It has been influenced by new technologies, and the mathematical demands of everyday living are increasing. As a result, school mathematics has changed over recent years and this has left a lot of parents anxious and confused.

Many parents remember that their own math lessons emphasized "doing sums" - basic calculations using addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.

While accurate calculation is still an important part of mathematics, it includes knowing (or being able to work out) what calculations need to be done to solve particular problems. This is one aspect of leading children to think mathematically about the real world - to look for patterns and relationships expressed in terms of number.

In doing so, they must learn to:

• estimate
• order
• measure
• manipulate objects
• classify
• make sense of results

These are some of the mathematical skills learned in school.

The Importance Of Confidence

Both research and everyday observation show how important it is for children to feel confident in themselves as mathematicians if they are to learn as they should. Of course, confidence is vital in any learning, but there's a long-standing tendency to regard math as a special case where you may have a "blind spot." Hence the necessity of developing positive attitudes towards math, of stressing understanding as a basis for correct procedures, and of giving children plenty of experience of success, along with encouragement to take risks, as they work towards greater competence.

How Parents Can Help With Mathematics

Here are some of the things you can do to support your children's experience with mathematics at school.

• Build confidence. Express positive attitudes towards mathematics and praise your children's efforts.
• If helping with math, make it fun - and always remember the importance of understanding. You'll probably find that demonstrating with solid objects (matches, buttons, lengths of string, etc.) will help younger children to grasp a point.
• Try to cultivate a sense of number, size, volume, area, weight, time and distance in everyday life. Join them in estimating, counting and calculating.
• Let your children see you using mathematics. Show how you decide on the different quantities you buy at the shops or how you check your bills, measure a piece of material or wood in preparation for a household job, work out your car's gas consumption, etc.
• Encourage the use of a calculator as a useful tool of mathematical problem solving, not as a substitute for thinking. Bear in mind that understanding what needs to be done and why is more important than the mechanics of calculation.
• Before helping with calculations, check on what methods are being taught at school to avoid confusing your children.

In this learning area children study the way people relate and have related to each other in various places and at various times; they also study their natural and built surroundings. The inquiries they make and the experiences they have will help them to develop as informed citizens, actively participating in their society and in the world as a whole.

The following strands are among those studied during the primary years.

• Investigation, communication and participation. Children working in small groups may decide on a range of questions they will ask to pursue a particular line of inquiry. They may then negotiate roles and responsibilities within the group, and finally report their findings using charts, written statements, models or maps.
• Time, continuity and change. The telling and hearing of stories could be highlighted here, perhaps by a focus on the recent past (through personal or family stories) and on more distant past and places (through stories taken from the heritage of other peoples).
• Place and space. Children may begin by studying the local area and later consider communities and societies far from home.
• Culture. Among the many learning strategies children may use in this strand, will be interviewing or surveying a variety of people from different cultural groups.

How Parents Can Help With Social Studies

Here are some of the things you can do to support your children's social studies at school.

• Encourage an interest in people from all over the world, a respect for their dignity as human beings and an understanding of their different ways of doing things.
• Give your children a real interest in your home country-its geography, its past, its various people and their ways of life, its contribution to and place in the world.
• On special occasions (such as multicultural festivals) give presents of books on how different groups of people live.
• Encourage your children to value and cultivate such qualities as tolerance, cooperation, generosity, compassion, open-mindedness and respect for legitimate authority. Point out such qualities when you see them demonstrated at home or in society at large.
• Watch and discuss with your children suitable TV programs that explore current social issues or historical events.
• Ask grandparents and other older family members to share their stories with the children. What are their most vivid memories? Where have they lived and worked? How were things different in the past?

The study of science leads children to inquire into the natural and constructed world and search for explanations of natural phenomena. As they observe and reason, as they build and test theories, they are taught scientific ways of thinking and problem solving and develop their ability to distinguish between evidence and personal opinion.

Primary school teachers stress the importance of developing scientific ways of investigating as an essential element of every child's education. Science programs cultivate certain key attitudes and values:

• an openness to new ideas
• a respect for evidence and objectivity
• a commitment to reasoning and clear thinking

Children are helped to think and work scientifically in such general areas as:

• Earth and beyond
• Life and living
• Energy and change
• Natural and procesed materials

These content areas are treated at the children's level of maturity and presented in such a way as to capture their interest and imagination. Natural curiosity is fostered as the class is led to discuss and experience scientific issues. Appropriate questions lead to the sharing of hunches and the testing of ideas, for example: Do all living things need food? Do magnets work on everything? Through paper? Through metal? What are the life stages of frogs? Of flowering plants? How have certain animals adapted to their habitats?

How Parents Can Help With Science

Here are some of the things you can do to support your children's experience of science at school.

• Encourage curiosity about why things happen. Draw attention to changes in the weather, different types of soil and vegetation, different landforms, the rise and fall of the tide, the weathering of building.
• Pay family visits to places that will stimulate scientific interest: museums, zoos, national parks, observatories, rock pools on the seashore, natural bush land, science equipment.
• With your children, watch some of the better nature and science programs on TV. Ask them to share their thoughts and observations with you.
• Buy books on nature and science (the ocean, the insect world, animals, space, etc.) and encourage your children to borrow them from the library.
• Share an interest in pets or gardens with your children. Talk about what pets need to enjoy healthy lives. Show how plants can be helped to grow in the garden; explain the importance of watering, drainage, sunlight, fertilizers, and a compost bin.
• Display or draw attention to news items about environmental changes, scientific, breakthroughs, cyclones, floods and droughts, and the human adaptation of nature.