How To Tell If Your Child Is Ready For Kindergarten

I’m so grateful to have my mother-in-law “guest-posting” today on the blog. My mother-in-law has 25+ years of experience teaching little ones, nineteen years alone in kindergarten! She has retired this year to be a stay-at-home grandparent. 🙂 Carole has been a huge asset to me as I make my homeschooling plans, and planned for our preschool curriculum at home. I asked Carole this question:

How Do You Prepare Your Child For Kindergarten?

Some of her answers might surprise you…They surprised me!

So….How can moms successfully prepare their kids for kindergarten? What are good skills for little ones to learn?

Here are her answers:

Reading Readiness

• They should be able to focus. It’s more important for them to be able to sit still and listen to a story, than to come in knowing the alphabet and their numbers. If you read to them a lot, that helps them to stay focused on a book. If they can’t do that, and they are flitting from this or that, it’s very difficult to get them to learn.

• They should be able to follow two directions in a row. For example, say, sit down and open your book. You should practice that at home, by getting them to practice two things.

Personal Skills

• They should be able to perform all bathroom duties. They should be able to go in, take their clothes off, wipe their bottoms, pull their pants back on, and wash their hands. You’d be surprised how many times I’m asked to wipe someone’s bottom. I tell them I don’t do that at school!
• They should be able to put on their coat or sweater (including zipping).  Tying shoes isn’t necessary, but being able to put their shoes on is important. Let them practice zipping, buttoning, and putting on, over and over.
• They should know what the healthy, hearty things are in the lunchbox (the “good food,” I call it), and know to eat them first. At first, if they’ve never had a lunch box, they immediately grab their cookies. At school, we have to keep working on finding the thing “your mommy wants you to eat first.” Also, they should know “restaurant manners” for eating. We stay in our seat, we don’t run around, we don’t yell, etc..

Academic:

• They should be able to say or sing the alphabet and say their numbers up to 10. Recognizing numbers is a bonus.
• They should be able to write their names. Also, you should teach them how to write the first letter only with uppercase, the rest with lowercase.
• They should have experience with multiple mediums. To develop small motor skills, have them color with crayons, pencils, markers, as well as practice holding and using scissors. I feel that the fatter crayons and pencils are easier for them to learn with, both before and during kindergarten.

Verbal/ Social

• They should be able to verbally communicate a need of theirs. Bathroom, an illness, etc. To practice this, you should speak to them in sentences, with good vocabulary.
• They should have some degree of patience. They’ll need to wait a lot in kindergarten – taking turns, waiting in a line, waiting while materials are passed out, before they can eat, and on and on. They need to develop patience.

Two final notes:

1. As you get ready for kindergarten, you need to let your children do what they are capable of doing! When they come to school, they’ll be expected to put away their bag, hang their coats, empty their back pack…Don’t do everything for them! Let them do jobs at home that they can do.
2. And really – just enjoy your children! Spend time with them. Read to them, take them places, help them to notice the world around them. And don’t be anxious about letting your children go to school. They’ll pick up on your anxiety. Encourage them, and act excited! Kindergarten is a fun and wonderful experience. I always tried to make it so fun for them, and they loved it!

Bio: Carole Smartt has raised three children, and taught over 325 students. Now she is a wonderful “Nanna” to three of the cutest little ones around.

Thanks for sharing, Carole!

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