I watched as he crawled under my table. His mom tried everything she knew to do to get him out. He refused. Next, he sat in my chair, spun around, and started going through my drawers. This was a child who was not ready for the year ahead.
The longer this went on, the deeper my heart sank. This could prove to be an exhausting year.
Kindergarten Open House was tonight, and I was taking inventory of my new littles. That day, I met 7 who wouldn’t talk to me, 8 who couldn’t recognize their name, 6 who didn’t know what letter their name started with…and 1 who wouldn’t come out from under my teacher’s table.
Hoping this just meant the kids were nervous to see their new classroom, I packed up and went home to get a good night’s sleep and prepare myself for the next day. I knew I had my work cut out for me.
Studies show 6 out of 10 students are unprepared for kindergarten.
Throughout my years as a kindergarten teacher, I have had many students enter kindergarten who are completely unprepared for what lies ahead. Parents are unaware the standards have changed dramatically in the past few years, and weren’t sure exactly what they should’ve been working on at home…before kindergarten started.
Kindergarten now is what used to be first grade. By May, my students are writing 5-page research books and reading at a C/D level. We are doing subtraction and addition, patterns, and comparing more and less. Drastically different than the kindergarten class I attended.
As a kid in kindergarten, I made a color book, learned my letters, and maybe counted to 10. That happens in August these days.
No academics are required to be mastered before they enter kindergarten. But if your child has had no exposure to anything academic they will start off behind, which is a huge problem.
The Foundation of Their Entire Academic Career
For those who enter Kindergarten behind, 75% never catch up with their peers. If a student is behind in kindergarten, first grade isn’t going to get any easier. They will then have to try to learn the kindergarten and first-grade material. This often proves to be too much, even with extra help at school and support at home.
Starting kindergarten with a solid foundation, and building on that foundation throughout their kindergarten year is critical to your child’s academic success.
Luckily, there are many simple things you can do at home during your daily routine to prepare them for a successful experience in kindergarten and to love learning.
Activities to Prepare Your Child for Kindergarten
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- Read: The most important thing you can do with your child is read. The child who is read to regularly will be exposed to more words, word patterns, rhythm, rhyme, academic concepts, vocabulary just to name a few. Children who are read to consistently are also more kind and empathetic.
- Here’s a few of our favorite books:
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- Sing the ABC Song: Many kids come to kindergarten without knowing the ABC song. The song is an important thing for them to know. In my classroom, we use the song with our letter chart to help us identify letters. Kids are left without any strategies if they can’t sing the ABC song.
- Letter Recognition: Background knowledge of letters is so simple to integrate into your daily life and will give your child an incredible advantage when they begin kindergarten, even though no academics are required for entering kindergarten.
- I started with foam letters for the bathtub. First, I just put the letters for my son’s name in. Every time, we would spell his name and stick them to the wall. After a while, I would tell him the letter and have him find the letters and put them on the wall until he could do it on his own. Next, I added the beginning letters of the names of people we love. G for Grammie, Grandma and Grandpa, N for Uncle Nick, H for Aunt Holly, M for Mommy (yes all of those people rank above me in his mind!) and D for Daddy. After that, we added vowels, and finally, common letters that aren’t already in the tub (D, F, L, M, R, S, T…) Last we added whatever was left. You will be surprised how quickly your child learns their letters. We also like to prop up letters on the side of the tub, and either say the letter or have our son say it and then flick it at him while he’s in the tub.
- Make it a game: In the bath, have your child find the letter you call out. Get a cup and have your child pour water on the letter you call out.
- Scavenger hunt: Hide letters around the house and have your child find them and tell you what they are.
- Search for letters while you are in a restaurant or store. This also gives them a task while you are busy and makes waiting a little easier.
- Magentic Letters: We love playing with these magnetic letters. Put them on your fridge, or use the board that comes with them to learn letters, sounds, and begin to spell words.
- Stamp it up: Stamping is a popular choice, and with these letter stamps you can practice letters identification, your name, and even sight words later on.
- Name Recognition: Your child should be able to recognize their name and by the summer before kindergarten be writing their name the correct way (capital first letter and lowercase for the rest of the letters.) When they first begin to write their name, they will write in all capitals which is developmentally appropriate. The summer before kindergarten, we should begin to break that habit.
- Write their name and have them watercolor it.
- Have them trace their name in different sensory textures: sand, shaving cream, paint…
- Have them spell their name with play-doh.
- Spell their name with fridge magnets, Bathtub foam letters, etc.
- Sing their name! My 2 year old knows how to spell his name because of a song we made up. His name has 5 letters in it, so we used the tune of BINGO.
- Count: Count, count, count! Our brains are wired to want to count. Your child is not required to be able to count at the beginning of kindergarten. Again, this is extremely simple to expose them to and will give them an enormous advantage when they begin.
- Count as you walk. Count steps from where you put your shoes on to the car, the pieces as you cut up their pancake, the forks as you put them on the table. Count the stairs as you go up/down, the toys as you put them away, the seconds it takes them to take off their shirt. Count as many things as you can, and you will be surprised how quickly they pick up counting.
- Count during play: Count while you play with this counting bear set. They teach counting, sorting, color recognition, shapes, and even practice your fine motor skills.
- Shapes:
- Place posters of the “main” 4 shapes around your house. (circle, square, triangle, rectangle). One is on the fridge, the bathroom mirror, your child’s door and the door to the garage. As you pass each space, have your child identify the shape. If the circle is on the fridge, when he wants a drink of milk or a snack he has to identify the shape. Rotate the shapes so your child doesn’t learn that circle is the fridge.
- Make it a scavenger hunt: In a restaurant, can they find a triangle? Square? In the grocery store can you find shapes? When you’re driving, what shapes are road signs?
- Shape of the Week Curriculum: Check out our Shape of the Week Curriculum that teaches 9 shapes through hands on exploration and play!
- Colors:
- Color baths: Ask your child what color they would like and send them on a scavenger hunt around the house to find (bath appropriate) toys of that color. If you do a blue bath, find all blue toys to put in the bath.
- Clean up time: Clean up all the toys of certain color first. For example, clean up all the purple toys first, blue toys next.
- Go on a scavenger hunt while grocery shopping or at a restaurant. Ask your child if they can find colors while looking around.This also makes waiting easier.
That year was difficult, but we made it. Luckily, the child who wouldn’t get out from under my teacher table turned out to be sweet as can be, but extremely behind. He struggled all year, even with extra help, and continued to struggle in first grade.
I hope you found some good ways to sneak in some learning through play that will help set your child up to thrive.
Grab Your Kindergarten Readiness Checklist
Preparing your child for kindergarten is like running a race, without knowing where the finish line is. Want to know exactly what you need to do to prepare your child for kindergarten? Grab our free Kindergarten Readiness Checklist.
Want More?
If you liked this, you’ll love:
- Preparing Your Child for Kindergarten: Socially
- The Most Important Way to Prepare Your Child for Kindergarten
- Simple Ways to Strengthen Your Child’s Fine Motor Skills
Your Turn
How do you introduce your child to pre-academic skills?
