You might be asking yourself if you child is ready for kindergarten, especially after this last school year, whatever yours might have looked like. Some have chosen to keep their kiddos home with minimum contact and exposure with others. While others have chosen to send their children to Preschool or a Pre-K program.
This year I was given the opportunity to approach a situation that still had so much uncertainty. I have taught Pre-K and Preschool for many years, but this year as a private institution here at The Learning Experience, we decided to approach our existing families and the families of our community to see if there was interest in their soon to be kindergartener attending in person instruction here at TLE! With our local school district starting the year virtual, parents were genuinely concerned about their child’s first real school experience and how that would look. The interest blew us away! We not only ended up with one class full of kindergarteners, but two!! This year has been amazing, and we have been able to keep both of our classes in person so far this school year! The children have been diligent in wearing masks and washing their hands and doing their best to keep each other safe but also have as normal of a Kindergarten experience as possible.
In my experience this year teaching Kindergarten, I wanted to share some things to look at when considering if your child is ready for kindergarten and a few things you can be working on to prepare them for the upcoming school year.
Writing their name (first and starting to write last)
Holding pencil with the appropriate tripod grip
Beginning to recognize upper and lowercase letters
Beginning to match upper and lowercase letters
Counting to 20+
Write numbers 1-10 without tracing
Identify basic colors
Identify basic 2D shapes
Scissors/cutting skills
Recognize simple rhyming words (cat-bat)
Sit and listen to a story and be able to recall what happened or sequence 2 to 3 pictures from story
Social skills such as wait their turn, sharing, respecting personal space, raising hand
Follow 2-3 step directions such as go to the bathroom, put your coat on and line up.
Keep in mind that at this age learning social skills and how to interact with others is also vital in transition to Kindergarten as well.
I hope this helps in making your decision to send to your children to Kindergarten this fall a bit easier. Above everything else I honestly believe we need to cut our children a little break! The world this last year has looked extremely different to our kids and what they used to.
At the end of the day, in a world of so much unknown, there is not one right answer. There is only what we want that is best for our families and to keep some sense of normal for our kids. We all long so much for “normal.” Each day I have hopeful and positive we will get there!
Melissa Boitos-Kindergarten Teacher, The Learning Experience South Lyon
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