Ready For Kindergarten

If your child is turning five soon, your thoughts are probably turning toward kindergarten. Is your child ready to move on to the "big" school? What skills do kindergarten teachers expect their new students to have? As a former Pre-Kindergarten Teacher, I want to share the insights I have gained in the last twenty years to help your child gain the right mix of kindergarten-readiness skills.

I have found over the years that the following skills allow students to come into Kindergarten happy and confident:

Basic Letter and Number Recognition

Enthusiasm Toward Learning Solid Oral-Language Skills The Ability to Listen The Desire to Be Independent The Ability to Play Well with Others Strong Fine-Motor Skills

Basic Letter and Number Recognition

Kindergarten teachers believe that it is their responsibility to teach kids letter sounds and how to write, but they do hope incoming students can recognize most letters by sight. They also hope children can count to 12, identify numbers 1 to 12, and know shapes and colors .

Enthusiasm Toward Learning Does your child approach learning enthusiastically? Are they eager to explore and discover? Do they ask questions, take initiative, and persist when tasks are difficult?

Solid Oral-Language Skills You can help build language skills by taking your child to many new places and giving them words and descriptions for what they are seeing.

Research shows that one of the best predictors of later reading success is a well-developed oral vocabulary in kindergarten.

The Ability to Listen Children's literature is a rich resource for expanding language. Besides fostering vocabulary and comprehension, reading develops the attention skills necessary in a kindergarten classroom. Students must be able to concentrate on what the teacher is saying, listen carefully for directions, and tune in to the sounds in letters and words.

The Desire to Be Independent Encouraging self-help skills is an important step to preparing your child for kindergarten. It might be quicker for you to do it, but independence is critical for helping your child adjust to school. Teachers expect children to:

• Get coats on and off and hang them up

• Follow simple two-step instructions such as "take off your boots and put on your sneakers"

• Go to the bathroom and wash their hands

• Blow their nose and cover their mouth when they cough

• Fasten and unfasten simple buttons and snaps

• Eat neatly and pour into a cup

• Open up a juice box and get the straw in.

The Ability to Play Well with Others Your child will need your assistance refining essential social skills such as sharing, compromising, turn-taking, and problem-solving.

Strong Fine-Motor Skills Your child's hands must be strong enough to master coloring, cutting, pasting, and holding a pencil — fine-motor tasks that kids use every day in kindergarten.

To hold the pencil the right way, kids need to develop the small muscles in their palms and fingers.