Preparing Your Child for Kindergarten!!
The following list is intended to help prepare your child in a variety of developmental 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 a day can make a world of difference!
Social/Emotional Development
Language Development
Cognitive Development
Physical Development a.k.a. Gross and Fine Motor
Social/Emotional Development
- Encourage your child to persist in tasks when encountering a problem by giving him tasks slightly about his current ability level. When he / she can not find a solution, encourage him /her calmly to ask for help.
- Play board games to practice taking turns.
- Set up play dates with friends.
- Practice having child be with another trusted adult, especially if she/he has rarely been in the care of someone other than mom or dad.
- Practice cleaning up after play
- Always encourage pretend play..and occasionally join your child in his/her fantasy world!
Language Development
- Verbally give your child specific 1-step and 2-step directions and encourage him/her to follow through
- Read to your child at least 20 minutes a day
- While reading point out how to hold a book and the orientation of to read words.
- After reading ask the child what happened in the beginning, middle and end of the story.
- Draw (without coloring books). Ask her/him to draw what she/he sees around them.
- Teach your child the uppercase and lowercase letters and, most importantly, the sounds each letter makes through play and games. Here are some ideas:
Cognitive Development
- Have child sort times according to color, size, and shape. Household items work well, no need to buy anything special!
- Teacher your child patterns (red, blue, red, blue)
- Practice counting aloud (while driving or walking)
- Teach numbers 1-10
- Go on a shape hunt
- Talk about opposite words (big /little, slow/fast)
- Teach your child to recognize the following colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, black, white, brown, and pink.
Physical Development a.k.a. Gross and Fine Motor
- Give your child plenty of opportunities for outdoor play: running, jumping, and climbing.
- Play catch
- Practice skipping
- Stack blocks together
- Let your child use child-safe scissors
- Teacher your child to write his name. Start with marker and have him/her trace over it.
- Play with play dough
- String beads, play with puzzles, paint
- Examine different textures in nature or the kitchen, have fun!