Attending kindergarten is an exciting time in a child’s life, for it’s the stepping stone for formal schooling. But when would be the right time for this? It’s important to keep an eye on your child and decipher their readiness if they’re able to attend kindergarten or not.
Essentially, they should have a certain set of skills, whereby some kids tend to develop these skills a little later, depending on what they’ve been exposed to and how fast they can grasp these things depending on their surroundings.
A child should, firstly, be at least 5 years old when being geared up to enter kindergarten. Next, check the following and see if your child can, more or less, do what’s featured below.
Kindergarten Readiness Checklist
- Listens to bedtime stories without interrupting you midway.
- Is he/she able to button/slip on his/her tee-shirt and put on their pants unattended?
- Can differentiate between colors, shapes, and sizes.
- Can construct sentences of at least 5 – 6 words.
- Manages using the bathroom on his/her own.
- Can be away from parents without throwing a tantrum.
- Can trace basic shapes.
- Can identify some letters from the alphabet.
- Asks for help when needed instead of turning physically violent.
- Respects property and the feelings of others.
- Can identify his/her name in writing.
- Can scribble or draw objects.
- Communicates with adults well.
- Can express ideas for others to understand.
- Can bounce a ball.
Build your child’s kindy readiness skills
If you feel that your child does not show any of the above signs, it will be a good idea to start building them now. A child needs to be exposed to a lot of factors that will aid him/her to move forward in their developmental phase. Here’s what you can do to make the most of your child’s fast-grasping abilities. Remember though, the sooner, the better in child development.
- Make sure your child has plenty of learning toys like an abacus, coloring books, handwriting books, math problem books, counting books, picture books, and so on. Books are a building block to get a child interested in reading, as well as build on their vocabulary.
- Building blocks, alphabets, puzzles, and likes are a great way to get a child to exercise his sense of logic.
- Cartoons – don’t make it a habit to place your child in front of the television for hours on end; stick to a schedule of cartoons based on classics, word games, quizzes, and interactive ones, to let your child learn as well as enjoy him/herself.
- Spend time teaching them about alphabets and numbers, so that they are used to repeating them everyday. In this way, kindergarten will be easier for them to handle if exposed to it firsthand by the parent.
- Read to them at night or during the day, as a way of helping them build on thoughts and imagination; entertain questions, and other child-like queries.
A child’s initial years are the best times to take advantage of, because their minds are like big sponges, ready to saturate in information at a rapid rate. By taking some initiative, you can ensure that he or she will be ready to take on kindergarten and have loads of fun while learning new things!
