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Thursday, April 15, 2010

Is Your Child Ready for Kindergarten?

Skills and Behaviors you can expect from most children at the beginning of kindergarten:
  1. Emotional Development: follow simple rules and routines, express feelings/wants/needs and concern for other's feelings
  2. Social Development: get along with others, share, participate in group activities, and follow simple instructions
  3. Physical Development: run/jump/hop/climb, use pencils/crayons/scissors in some fashion, dress and meet toileting needs independently
  4. Language/Vocab: try to write first name and recognize own name (see our Family Fun tab and read "Learning on the Go" for a fun way to teach them their name), hold a book correctly, recognize letters of the alphabet, listen to stories read to them, use 5-6 word sentences, recognize and say simple rhymes, and sing simple songs
  5. Math: count to 10, sort objects by colors/shapes/size, understand simple concepts of time such as day/night/today/tomorrow/yesterday

What can you do to help them prepare? Begin instilling these habits and routines in your child early to help them succeed!
  • Read books aloud every day
  • Talk to your child about topics they are interested in
  • Point out and read signs in their environment, such as stop signs, menus and grocery items
  • Read books about feelings, help them label and talk about their feelings (see our Family Fun tab & follow the link to "Simple Songs" where you can print off free Emotion Picture Cards)
  • Answer your child's questions
  • Point at and discuss shapes and colors at home
  • Cook together, have them measure the ingredients
  • Identify and eat healthy foods
  • Count throughout the day 
  • Get a library card
What things have you done with your kids to help prepare them for school?

*Courtesy of: The NKU Readiness Committee   
For more info about kindergarten readiness contact your local school district. 

2 comments:

  1. You are right...there is so much you can do. We go to the library every 1-2 weeks and pick out books together. We also have great placemats for the kitchen table that I got from Walmart for $1/piece. They are Sesame Street and each one focuses on either shapes, colors, letters or numbers. I highly recommend them. Having the Learning Tower has also helped with the cooking in the kitchen. The kids love being "in the tower" and always ask to help with meals. The Leap Frog letters for the fridge and the actual Letter Factory video has also helped us reinforce the alphabet with Stella.

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  2. Sounds awesome! I will have to pick up those placemats!! What is the Learning Tower? Sounds cool!

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