Advice for Families Preparing for Kindergarten
A child’s home life and preschool learning environment plays a pivotal role in their holistic social-emotional development, a hallmark in assessing kindergarten readiness.
We’ve listed some tips to help you prepare for your preschool for the kindergarten classroom:
Help your child process feelings and emotions in a healthy way. Allow time for your child to express feelings and name them (How are you feeling? What made you feel that way?). We recommend our “Feeling Checklist” to daily assess your child’s emotions and help your preschooler articulate his or her feelings about a given situation or at various points of the day. Taking the time to stop and process will help your child label their emotion and the reason behind it. This problem-solving exercise will also help your child express different healthy ways to share their emotions.
Model the natural consequences of behaviors. Model problem-solving and allow for natural consequences rather than prizes or punishments. Don’t negotiate with your child. By talking through possible future scenarios with your child, he/she can develop competence and confidence in ethical decision-making.
Develop a structure. Model a routine and stick with it. Helping a child work within a clear-cut schedule and consistent rules will help him/her build that self-regulation muscle. By encouraging instances throughout the day for independent play/exploration, your child can build cognitive stamina and internal motivation needed to pay attention and stay on task.
Expect developmentally appropriate behavior. Underestminating the emotional capacity of a child can hold them back, but being too demanding can be equally problematic. Getting to know your child’s emotional maturity reserve can help pinpoint where he/she needs additional redirection or support in various areas. Encourage age-appropriate independent tasks and chores (putting toys away, setting the table, hanging up coat, etc.) while encouraging them to ask for questions when needed.
Read every day! Fostering a love of reading begins at home and begins at a young age. Every day, carve out time for family reading. Allow your child to see you reading and spend time talking as a family about what each member is reading that week.