Preparing for kindergarten:
A journey of growth
Welcome to our blog at Ask Dr. Paula Connolly! These posts are designed to guide parents and teachers through the exciting and sometimes challenging journey of preparing preschoolers for kindergarten. We'll explore key skills, offer practical advice, and address common worries, all with a focus on making this transition a positive experience for everyone.
Is my child ready for kindergarten?
Sometimes I hear parents talk about the fact that too much is expected of children entering Kindergarten. “Let kids be kids,” they say. “Just let them play.” One parent commented, “I don’t feel it’s fair how the school is expecting a child to come in knowing everything.”
The good news is that schools generally accept all children into kindergarten - just as they are. As a former teacher, I have seen how teachers work with students of all abilities and skill levels. However, some children come to school “ready to learn” while others do not.
Developing readiness skills is the best way to be “ready to learn.” What does “readiness” mean? The dictionary definition of readiness is “the state of being fully prepared for something,” but how does that translate into school readiness?
Let’s think about a sport or activity that your child is going to learn or do – say swimming. I think you’d agree that no child is ready to swim the first day they get in the water. However, if they are comfortable in the water, can pay attention, can listen well to instructions, wait their turn, and follow directions, they are going to be “ready to learn” and the instructor will be able to teach them how to swim.
Similarly, no one expects a Kindergartner to go to school knowing how to read, write, and do math on the first day. Just like the child going to swim lessons, if your preschooler is comfortable separating from you, is able to pay attention, can listen well to instructions, wait their turn, and follow directions, it makes sense that the teacher will have an easier time teaching them the kindergarten curriculum than a child who has not yet developed those pre-skills.
As a parent, there are so many things you can do to help your child get ready. Here are a few:
- Read to your child for 15-20 minutes a day (5 or 10 minutes at a time is fine)
- Encourage your child to do things for himself – put on shoes and jacket, brush teeth.
- Go to a playground and let your child run, jump, swing, and climb.
- Sing kid songs and say rhymes with your child around the house or in the car.
- Let your child play with other children of the same age when possible.
Before you know it, your child will be heading to school – and you’ll confident that s/he has the skills to be successful!
Stop worrying, start playing!
Why do some parents say, “I’m working with my child to get ready for Kindergarten?” What they usually mean is, “I’m teaching my child the alphabet, his numbers, working in workbooks or with flash cards.”
Here’s a question. Why would a child want to be working instead of playing? Playing is fun. It’s when a child chooses to do something that he actually wants to do. He is engaged and active. He may be using his imagination while engaged in activities such as building with blocks, playing with toy cars and trucks, running and jumping at a playground, or dancing to music at home.
You’ll be glad to know that a child’s work is play. According to Maria Montessori, best known for her philosophy of education and creator of Montessori schools, “Play is the work of the child.” The Zaentz Early Education Initiative at the Harvard Graduate School of Education agrees. ”Children learn, form relationships, and explore their world through play. Research shows that when children engage in play, they have opportunities to solve problems, apply new skills, and persevere through challenging moments."
There are many different types of play including parallel play (playing beside another child, but not with them), interactive play (playing with other children or with adults), free play (playing freely with no input from adults), physical play (playing by moving the body, climbing, running, jumping, etc.), social play (playing with other children while learning to take turns, cooperate, and share), constructive play [playing with toys (such as blocks) or materials (such as chalk or paint) to create things], and fantasy play (playing using imagination and materials including dress-up to “act out” roles or situations and experiment with language and emotions).
What can you do to make sure your child spends as much time as possible doing the important work of play? Here are six simple guidelines to help:
- Eliminate screen time.
- Play outdoors – at a park, playground, or in your own back yard.
- Provide a variety of toys – blocks, musical instruments, craft activities, etc.
- Be sure your child has time for independent/self-directed play.
- Provide opportunities for your child to engage in fantasy play (alone and with peers).
- Spend time each day playing with your child – card games, board games, making a craft, cooking or baking, building a jigsaw puzzle – and have fun playing together.
And, of course, keep reading to your child every day!
Conversations are critical
I have been talking recently about how important it is to have conversations – back and forth discussions – with preschoolers. It’s easy to say, “talk more with your child,” but what does that mean? It comes down to taking a little conversation and turn it into a bigger one.
Let’s breakdown two conversations to show how this works:
Preschooler: Look, mom, I’m making a house.
Parent: I can see that.
Preschooler: It’s lello.
Parent: Ok. Good job.
If you were listening in to this conversation, you would agree that it is positive and affirming. The child initiated a conversation, and the parent responded each time. However, this shows a completely missed opportunity.
Here’s the conversation again. This time the parent understands how to extend and expand the conversation, and models empathy too.
Preschooler: Look, mom, I’m making a house.
Parent: Yes, you are building a house. It’s really tall with lots of windows.
Notice: Parent substituted the word “building” for “making” and added more complex information “tall” and “lots of windows.”
Preschooler: It’s lello.
Parent: I can see it’s yellow, and it has a red roof and a black chimney. Who lives in the house?
Notice: Parent corrects the color name saying “yellow” instead of “lello” and again, adds more information “red roof” and “black chimney.” The parent also adds a question to help continue the conversation while looking expectantly at the child for an answer.
Preschooler: The old man and the old woman.
Parent: The house belongs to the old man and woman. What are they going to do today?
Notice: The parent adds the words “belongs to” and changes the syntax of the sentence saying, “the old man and woman” instead of “the old man and the old woman.” The parent again adds an open-ended question.
Preschooler: They visit Aunt Nina at the hos-ti-pal cause she fell down and broke her leg.
Parent: Oh, dear. Poor Aunt Nina. I hope they check her leg at the hospital and that she’s feeling better soon.
Notice: The parent again corrects the mispronounced word “hospital” and models empathy for Aunt Nina. This shows the child how to care for others.
Having prolonged conversations that have been initiated by your child is an important way to help your child develop language, cognitive**, social, and emotional skills.
Soon they will be on their way to success in kindergarten!
Special thanks to Stephanie Jones and Nonie Lesaux, Faculty Directors of the Zaentz Early Learning Initiative of the Harvard School of Education who created and lead the The Certificate in Early Education Leadership (CEEL) program.
- Talk for learning or high-quality talk is “a key feature of any early learning environment, and the quality of that talk matters greatly for children's short and long-term success. Researchers have found, for example, that children who are exposed to complex and responsive talk are quickly able to incorporate that type of high-quality talk into their own patterns of verbal communication. Studies have also found that high-quality talk is associated with better long-term outcomes, including measures of children's reading comprehension, word recognition, and vocabulary in fourth grade.”
Nonie Lesaux
What do I teach next? Rhyming!
A good friend who is a doctor in Boston asked me about her oldest child before sending her to kindergarten. She explained she had read to her daughter every night. “She knows her ABC’s but I have no idea what comes next,” she said.
This is such a common experience among the moms I know. Even the most well-intentioned, motivated parents don’t know much about kindergarten readiness—they don’t teach you this stuff in parent school!
Kindergarten readiness consists of a broad range of skills, and many of them have nothing to do with reading or writing—at least not at first glance. All of them are things that you can teach and develop with your child.
Rhyming is the first kindergarten readiness skill I discussed with my friend. Although there is no specific order or sequence for readiness skills, rhyming is an easy starting point. Have some fun and help your child learn to rhyme, because this is a steppingstone to reading words that all end the same way such as mat, cat, sat, and top, mop, drop.
How to tell if your child can rhyme…
Simply say to your preschooler, “Can you tell me a word that rhymes with bee?” If your child can rhyme, she or he will say, “me” or “see” or “tree” or another word that rhymes. If not, you may get an answer such as “honey” or “sting,” things associated with bees. You may also get a word that is completely random that does not rhyme at all.
Developing the skill…
The best way to teach rhyming is to read lots of books with rhyming words such as Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes to your child. You can also say and sing nursery rhymes together or listen to songs with rhymes. Dr. Seuss is a great starting point if you’re looking for books with a lot of fun and interesting rhymes—you can’t go wrong with The Cat in the Hat and One Fish, Two Fish.
Remember, keep it short to begin, and always make it fun.
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We hope these blog posts have provided valuable insights into preparing for kindergarten. For more expert advice, resources, and blog posts, visit our homepage or learn more about Dr. Paula Connolly. Your child's success is our passion!