If your child will be starting school this fall make sure they are working on these skills needed before entering Kindergarten
We have now made it through our third child starting kindergarten and having a successful year! With only one child left to go – and she has a few years – it got me thinking about what skills are truly needed before a child starts Kindergarten.
If you are preparing your child to start school in the Fall then you might already be searching for activities to help them with Alphabet Recognition and Number sense – but did you know there are SO many more skills that your child needs before starting Kindergarten?
Sure the ABC’s and 123’s tend to be the foundation for many subjects but at the Kindergarten level there are many other skills needed to learn so that they can focus on learning all they can.
At a young age, it is so important to foster a love of learning and an eagerness to explore and develop new skills. Working on these basic skill foundations will make learning fun and easier as the child starts school.
So what ARE the skills that a child needs before Kindergarten?
First and foremost, they need to be exposed to learning in a fun and playful manner – drilling young children with flashcards is not the answer, they will learn so much more if they are properly engaged and excited about the subject matter.
Related: Printable Letter Crafts
Many of the skills your child needs before they start kindergarten aren’t really academic at all, and many may surprise you!
9 Kindergarten Readiness Skills
Fine Motor Skills
Fine motor skills are needed for basic daily tasks – from cutting and writing to opening their thermos at lunch time. These skills can easily be developed with fun activities, many that you can put together with materials found around the house.
Gross Motor Skills
Gross motor skills range from jumping and skilling, to climbing on playground equipment. These play a large role in a child’s overall physical development and core strength.
Visual/Spacial Awareness
Being able to recognize patterns, put together puzzles, and sort common items is a general theme to problem solving. Having good visual-spacial awareness will help your child as they learn to manipulate numbers and read. The best part of this skill is that kids LOVE to sort objects and put together puzzles at this age!
Listening Skills
Your Kindergartener will need to be able to listen to directions and lessons. Having good listening skills in place before they go to school will serve them well. You can work on listening skills at home with games like Simon Says and reading aloud.
Social Skills
Working on social skills early will create a great foundation for learning alongside and playing with their peers. In the school setting they will need to be able to play with and work together with other children. Joining a playgroup or preschool co-op is a great opportunity for your child to work on these social skills. Role play with stuffed animals is another great way to work on these skills – teddy bear picnic anyone?!
Self Control
Your child will need to have the self control to follow directions and routines in the kindergarten classroom. Each day will work like clock-work; circle time, learning centers, recess, etc. all at the same time every day. A child with good self control will be able to follow along with these routines with ease. Good Self control will also allow them to be able to wait in line, share items, and work together. You can work on Self Control at home by implementing rules and routines for your child to follow on a daily basis.
Alphabet Recognition
Alphabet recognition will be their foundation for reading and writing at the Kindergarten letter. They will learn how to recognize both upper and lower case letters as well as identify the sounds that each letter makes. Working on this with them ahead of time is a good idea as they start diving into reading and writing rather quickly.
Number Sense
This will be the foundation for Math at the Kindergarten level. By the end of the year they will need to be able to count to and identify numbers 1-20 as well as add numbers to ten. Working on recognizing these numbers in a written form as well as counting with 1 to 1 correspondence will help with their kindergarten math readiness.
This is just an overview of some skill sets that your child will need before entering kindergarten – each skill could be broken down into many different sub-sets but starting on these skills now will greatly increase their chance at a successful and confident Kindergarten year.
If you’re not sure where to start on your Kindergarten Readiness journey I have an amazing resource for you: the Summer Break Bundle.
This Bundle of fun and exciting educational resources works on each of the skills that I mentioned above. In fact, there are so many resources in this bundle to get your preschooler ready for kindergarten it is $325 worth of materials for only $19.95!!!
But here’s the catch: it’s only available from June 1-10th and then it will be gone!
Purchase your Summer Break Bundle NOW!
You can check out the Summer Break Bundle information page to see the full list of products and resources included.
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