How to Prepare My Child for Kindergarten

List of 10 items.

• 1. Read Aloud to your Child

  Pause during your reading and ask your child to identify characters and make predictions. Similarly, do this when you are watching a TV show or movie together. Don’t let the information wash over your child. Have them make meaning about what they are hearing or watching. When making predictions, ask them what their reasons are, and if their predictions are correct, celebrate!

• 2. Develop and Follow Routines

  These routines don’t need to be complicated. Start at home with simple chores. At mealtime allow your child to set up and clear the dishes. For school-related tasks, work on emptying and filling their backpack.

• 3. Teach Independence and Responsibility

  Practice separating from your child so a day at school is a comfortable experience. Also, help your child learn to follow multi-step directions. Encourage them to ask for help when needed. Self-advocacy skills are tremendously important at all ages! 

• 4. Teach Basic Self-Help Skills

  From PreSchool on, children are expected to have mastery over certain basic skills such as using the bathroom independently and using a tissue to blow their nose. Putting on and removing clothing will also help with fine motor skills like using zippers, buttons, and snaps. Continue to practice these basics at home.
  

• 5. Teach Social Skills

  With your child is in a classroom of many, they need to be able to navigate social situations. Teach your child how to identify and share their feelings. Host play dates so your child can learn to share and take turns as well as play with others, not simply engage in parallel play.

• 6. Engage in Meaningful Literacy Activities

  Such activities encompass the valuable skills of reading, writing, speaking, and listening. Following are some guidelines as you prepare your child for Kindergarten:

  
  

  Reading: Help your child recognize most letters and some letter sounds, learn some common sight words, identify rhyming words, find the first page of a book, and know how to flip the pages.

  
  

  Writing: Help your child hold a writing utensil correctly, identify and spell their name using upper and lower case letters, and draw a picture to express an idea.

  
  

  Speaking: Encourage your child to talk in complete sentences, use descriptive words, tell/retell a story or share an experience , express their own ideas, ask questions, and be curious.

  
  

  Listening: Encourage your child to listen without interrupting.

• 7. Engage in Meaningful Mathematical Activities

  Make math fun! Play games that require children to classify objects by size, color, or shape or that ask them to identify or create simple patterns. Teach them how to make comparisons and describe relationships between objects like big/little, under/over, and first/last. A game like this is also good for strengthening literacy skills. Practice counting to and identifying numbers to 20. 

• 8. Cover the Basics

  Teach your child colors, parts of the body, days of the week and months.

• 9. Teach Fine Motor Skills

  Working on arts and crafts projects with your child will give them practice using scissors, glue, paint and other materials easily and will help them learn to grip a writing utensil properly.

• 10. Practice Gross Motor Skills. Head outside for this one!

  Go on a family walk while encouraging your child to run, jump, hop, and skip. Got a ball? Enjoy a game of kicking and catching. Stuck inside? Build with blocks or make forts together.