Ready for kindergarten?

Dear Parents,

Spring has sprung and many of you are wondering, “Is my child ready for kindergarten?” I found this article you may find helpful as you are asking yourself that question.

Should I send my child to kindergarten?

By Peggy Gisler, Ed.S. and Marge Eberts, Ed.S.

While there's no perfect formula that determines when children are truly ready for kindergarten, you can use this checklist below to see how well your child is doing in acquiring the skills found on most kindergarten checklists.

Check the skills your child has mastered. Then recheck every month to see what additional skills your child can accomplish easily.

Young children change so fast — if they can't do something this week, they may be able to do it a few weeks later.

• Listen to stories without interrupting
• Recognize rhyming sounds
• Pay attention for short periods of time to adult-directed tasks
• Understand actions have both causes and effects
• Show understanding of general times of day
• Cut with scissors
• Trace basic shapes
• Begin to share with others
• Start to follow rules
• Be able to recognize authority
• Manage bathroom needs
• Button shirts, pants, coats, and zip up zippers
• Begin to control oneself
• Separate from parents without being upset
• Speak understandably
• Talk in complete sentences of five to six words
• Look at pictures and then tell stories
• Identify rhyming words
• Identify the beginning sound of some words
• Identify some alphabet letters
• Recognize some common sight words like "stop"
• Sort similar objects by color, size, and shape
• Recognize groups of one, two, three, four, and five objects
• Count to ten
• Bounce a ball

If your child has acquired most of the skills on this checklist and will be at least four years old at the start of the summer before he or she starts kindergarten, he or she is probably ready for kindergarten. What teachers want to see on the first day of school are children who are healthy, mature, capable, and eager to learn.

Sharing

Dear Parent(s),

We have been talking about being a good friend in our room and practicing the concept of sharing.  Here is something you could practice at home as well to reinforce the skill at school.  Thanks.

Sharing

Sharing can be a difficult concept for your preschooler, especially if she has had negative experiences from a lack of adequate supervision at preschool or daycare, or also if your preschooler just hasn't really had to share anything up until now. Give your preschooler enough opportunities to practice and plenty of examples to learn from and soon he will be sharing successfully.

Begin by asking and requiring that your preschooler share with YOU. This is where you teach him how to take turns and you can explain how great it feels when he offers you one of his toys. Next, move on to scheduling playdates. Determine which toys should be available for your child's friend to play with, and explain to your child that he will have to share those toys. Put away or hide from sight any special or favorite toys. Be sure to take an active role in the sharing process by explaining to both your child and the other child the rules about taking turns and not grabbing.

It won't happen overnight, but hopefully after a few playdates your preschooler will begin to get the idea. Soon he will be happy to give up a toy to make a new friend.