Preparing Your Child for Kindergarten
The following list is intended to help prepare your child in
a variety of
Develop mental areas to make the transition into
kindergarten as smooth as possible.
Believe it or not, just 15-20 minutes of playing and
learning with your child can make a
World of
difference!
Social/Emotional
Development
Encourage your child to persist in tasks when encountering a
problem by giving
him tasks slightly above his current ability level. When your child cannot find a
solution on his own, encourage him to calmly ask for help.
Play board games to
practice taking turns.
Set up several play dates with friends of various ages.
Allow your child to
stay with other trusted adults for a few hours at a time prior to
kindergarten (especially if she has rarely been in the care
of someone other than
mom and dad).
Tell your child you
expect her to clean up after play. You
could implement a
box for toys left out
Language
Development
Verbally give your child specific one-step and two-step
directions and encourage
him to follow through.
Read to your child
for a combined total of at least 20 minutes each day.
While reading, point
out how to hold a book (right-side up with the spine on the
left) and the orientation in which we read the words and
look at the pictures (left
to right).
After reading, ask
your child what happened in the beginning, middle, and end of
the story.
Give your child
plenty of opportunities to draw (without coloring books). Ask her
to draw the things she sees around her.
Teach your child the
uppercase and lowercase letters and, most importantly, the
sounds each letter makes through play and games.
Cognitive
Development
Have your child help
you sort items according to color, size, and shape (laundry,
blocks, silverware, toys, and other household items work
well).
Teach your child to
make various patterns (red, blue, red, blue).
Garage sale dot
stickers or craft pom-poms are great for this purpose.
Practice counting
aloud to 20 while driving in the car.
Count objects in your home.
Have your child point to each object as she counts.
Go on a shape
hunt. Point out circles, triangles,
squares, and rectangles to your
child while you are taking or walk or grocery shopping.
Talk about positional and directional concepts like up/down,
over/under, in/out,
behind/in front of, top/bottom, beside/between, off/on,
stop/go.
Talk about opposite words (big/little, empty/full,
slow/fast).
Physical
Development (Gross & Fine Motor)
Give your child plenty of opportunities for outdoor play:
running, jumping, and
climbing.
Play catch on a regular basis.
Practice skipping.
Stack blocks together.
Let your child use
child-safe scissors to cut out a variety of shapes.
I think if you practice all this thing with your child he will
success at the school
