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Being Ready For Kindergarten

Being Ready For Kindergarten

 

There are no hard fast rules about when a child is ready for Kindergarten, but there are some common expectations. As a parent you can help prepare your child in a variety of developmental areas to make the transition into kindergarten as smooth as possible.

 

Socially and emotionally

  • Encourage your child to work through tasks when encountering a problem.
  • Practice taking turns by playing board games with your child.
  • Play dates offer opportunities for your child to interact with others.
  • Give your child responsibilities that are age appropriate such as cleaning up toys, helping to put away his or her clothes.
  • Encourage your child to dress him/herself.
  • Model how to solve problems without aggression.


Language Development

 
  • Practice listening skills with your child by giving 2-3 simple directions that he/she follows through to complete.
  • Read daily to your child.
  • While reading, point our how to hold a book and the orientation that we read the words and look at the pictures (left to right progression).
  • Talk about the book when you are done reading. Build on sequence of the story.
  • Recite letters and the sound of the letters.
  • Read nursery rhymes  to your child. Knowing how to rhyme is huge when it comes to learning how to read.


Cognitive Development

  • Have your child help you sort objects according to color, size and shape by using laundry, toys and other household items.
  • Teach your child to make various patterns with items at home.
  • Practice counting aloud up to 20.
  • Teach your child numerals 1-10.
  • Do shape hunts around your house to look for shapes that are circular, triangular, square, and rectangular.
  • Use positional and directional words such as up/down, over/under, in/out, behind/in front, top/bottom beside/between.
  • Talk about opposite words such as big/little, empty/full, slow/fast.
 

Physical Development

 
  • Give your child plenty of opportunities for outdoor play.
  • Play catch regularly.
  • Practice skipping.
  • Stack blocks together.
  • Let your child use child safe scissors.
  • Teach your child to print his/her first name.
  • Play with playdough.
  • Put together large floor puzzles.
 

Creative Arts

 
  • Teach your child the following colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, black, white, brown, and pink. Using a pack of crayons is a fun way to learn.
  • Use a variety of materials to let your child paint, draw and explore.
 

L.Neary, First grade teacher