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