Have you come to that season where your little boy or girl coming near Kinder age and you wondering and fussing if they have all the Kindergarten readiness skills? If so, we have got your ultimate kindergarten readiness skills checklist covered.
Your child doesn’t need to have ALL the skills needed at this point. So if they don’t have these kindergarten readiness skills, time to get started with more and more fun play! and more fun activities!
The good news is all these are pretty fun activities and you can have a great time getting ready for kinder together with your kiddo.
And let’s be honest, your child entering kinder can be one of the most memorable yet bitter sweet moments of your life. Your little bundle is old enough to enter a new world which will eventually make their total personalities or make them totally independent someday.
Kinder is the very first step to achieving all that. But you often must have wondered? Will he be ok at kinder? Will he find friends? How is he gonna do XYZ all by himself? Well, rest assured our kids are going to figure it out all they need is little bit of help from our side.
To start with let’s see what we really mean by kinder ready? Is every child at the age of 3-4 ready for kinder? No they are not that’s the simple answer.
But the good news is here you can check if your child is ready to face their new chapter Or we are here to help you.
How? Well. kindergarten readiness may not be something that naturally comes to children. There are so many ways we can teach them essential skills that help them flourish at kinder.
Let’s see what they are.
Kindergarten Readiness Skills : Language Skills
Teaching your child language skills from an early age is a great way to make sure they are prepared for kindergarten and beyond.
Not only will it help them become more familiar with the sounds of the language, it can also aid in their comprehension and expression of thoughts and emotions. Plus, it’s lots of fun!
There are many activities you can do that will help your little one learn about letters and phonics, practice reading and speaking, increase their vocabulary and spelling abilities, as well as improve communication with others.
As your child practices these various speech readiness skills, you may even be pleasantly surprised at how quickly they learn to understand new concepts and express themselves effectively.
Check if your child knows following things. If there are areas they need help with, well, simple fun activities will do the trick.
- Can name and recognize atleast 5 colours
- Can recognize own name in print
- Can name and recognize 10+ letters
- Speaks clearly most of the time
- Recognizes common words and signs
- Understand descriptive words like big, little etc
- Can draw pictures to tell a story or articulate feelings.
- Follows two step directions
- Can answer who, what, when, where questions
- Asks questions about how things work
- Starts and joins in conversations
- Recites common nursery rhymes
- Shows interest in reading and being able to read
- Holds and looks at a book correctly
- Ability to sit quietly and listen
Developing communication abilities can be a foundation your child needs which can set the stage for future success in education.
Focus on improving their ability to ask questions, listen effectively, use polite words and phrases, converse with adults and peers, use the right tone of voice, differentiate between formal and informal usage of said language, write stories following certain conventions or instructions.
All of these skills should be taught over time in order to ensure confident communication from an early age that’ll help them as they enter school.
Kindergarten Readiness : Math Skills
- Can order 3 things in a sequence
- Can repeat a simple pattern
- Matches 2 similar things
- Sorts objects by shape, colour and size
- Counts from 1-10
- Can draw a line, circles, rectangle, triangle and plus sign
- Identifies numbers from 1-10
All these skills can be learnt through play based learning.
Read my article about play based learning here.
Simple activities like counting steps, observing colours and patterns in nature, playing with lego, building box etc will help them improve their basic understanding of numeracy, shapes, patterns and sequence.
At this age, children grasp basic concept found in everyday so fast and you will be surprised how well your child learns all these with little help from your side. Get started now!
Kindergarten Readiness : Social Skills
- Starts positive interactions with others and find a sense of belonging within a group of children
- Can say good bye to you or the person bringing them to kinder and separate without great deal of distress
- Take turns, shares and plays with others
- Expresses feelings appropriately
- Identifies different emotions of others
- Can express feelings in words
- Says ‘please’, ‘thank you’ and ‘sorry’
- Tries to complete tasks
- Knows how old he/she is
- Ability to enjoy a song or a story with other friends together
- Ask for help in any challenging situation
- Stand in line
- Is able to adapt to new situations
Related article : Social and Emotional Activities
Kindergarten Readiness : Fine Motor Skills
- Can run, jump, hop, throw, catch and bounce a ball
- Hold writing and colouring instruments with control
- Can draw a circle
- Scribble to express ideas
- Use scissors to cut with control
- Put on their backpack
- Hang the backpack on a hook
- Put on shoes
- Open any food container in their lunch.
- Pack their bag
Self-help Skills
- Toilet trained
- Open their bag, lunch box, bottle
- Eat and drink without help (with or withour cutlery)
- Put on shoes and socks
- Put on sunscreen and hat
- Ability to understand if its too hot or too cold and ability to ask for help changing cloths
Creative Expression – Encouraging Activities that Allow Your Child to Express Themselves Freely
- Encouraging creative expression in your child is one of the most important skills they can learn that will prepare them for kindergarten readiness.
- Creative activities like painting and crafting offer a healthy way to expand your child’s imagination and build their sense of independence.
- Not only will these activities help hone educational basics, but also make it easier for kids to express themselves through artistic outlets. From building blocks to finger painting, there’s something fun and rewarding for everyone in creative play!
- Creativity is a super power every child has inside them and activities that allow your child to express themselves freely helps boost their confidence as well as foster their development in terms of kindergarten readiness skills.
- With encouraging exercises like drawing, painting, clay-sculpting, doing puzzles and various forms of artistic activities, you are helping your little one discover an exciting world full of colours and possibilities! And the best part?
- It is just plain fun for your kids to bring out these creative energies. Let’s give our young ones the freedom to explore worlds full of ideas and shed those inhibitions – it’s time for them to think outside the box.
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Every child is different. Every child has an amazing set of talents and skills that’s unique to them. Exposing them to ample and varied opportunities will set a great foundation for them to identify their strengths and weaknesses and work on them.
- Kindergarten can be the first step towards that new world. But let’s remember that every child has a different pace. And child blooms in their own unique colour.
Important Points to Remember
Teach kindness and respect (for rules, property and feelings of others)- Teaching kindness from very young age can be a life long character building experience for kids.
Using kind words, respect, empathy and sympathy will help mould their characters to be as humane as possible creating happy individuals who spread joy.
Expose kids to new situations like playing at a different park or eating in a different setting.
Do activities at home where kids have to listen, follow directions, take turns and focus. Listening and following instructions is an essential skill they need at kinder. Start doing small games like Simon says, Freeze dance etc which train them to pay close attention to words and follow instructions.
Even when they are home in an ordinary day, work according to a basic routine. Breakfast time, play time, lunch, bath time etc will all that will help them adapt into more structured routine at kinder,
Read with them. It’s one of the most important things to do with kids starting from their baby days. Reading together, looking at pictures, talking about emotions and social situations will help children understand the world they live in more while expanding their literacy skills.
Give them opportunities to play with other children and learn necessary social skills like sharing, turn taking, asking for consent – Arrange play dates, take the kids to playgrounds and give them plenty of opportunity to build up meaningful relationships other than family. Encourage them to share, take turns and work as a team which will eventually help your child transition into kinder smoothly.
Give them some responsibilities and teach them to follow through- Assigning age-appropriate tasks to young kids will help them be more responsible and also will relieve your work load too.
They can clean up their rooms, toy areas, put the dirty laundry in the bin, fold cloths and help you with many more. These small tasks will boost their confidence, teach them to be more responsible and will help them heaps when they enter kinder.
Sing nursery rhymes with them- Singing nursery rhymes expand their vocabulary, trains them enjoy songs as a group.
Give them chances to be away from home, bond with close family members and trusted friends. Basically help them expand their social circle so that they will feel comfortable and confident when they come to Kinder.
Work on their gross motor skills by helping them ride a tricycle, bouncing a ball back and forth, taking them to different outdoor and indoor playgrounds.
Work on their fine motor skills by encouraging art and craft activities for them, mud play, building blocks.
Establish a Good Bye schedule. A lot of cuddles, good bye kiss and a promise to be back can be great for children to get used to. It affirms your love and reassures the trust and gives them feeling of security while you are away.
Answer questions and practise open communication – Start talking about kindergarten with them from younger days. You can take them there for a visit, show other kinder kids, read story books about kinder to help them understand how and what happens in kinder.
Conclusion
Kindergarten readiness skills are essential set of skills that help children to transition into Kindergarten. There are NO hard and fast rules that children MUST know all these skills before going kinder.
However, these skills will be really helpful for a smooth transition into Kindergarten. Most of these skills are developmental while some can be trained with minimum effort from parents part.
Hope you all learnt something valuable for your child’s next kinder year from this article. Trust me, Our kiddos are gonna do it, all they need is a bit of support from our end.
Share with us your own Kindergarten readiness strategies with our community.
More info : https://raisingchildren.net.au/preschoolers/play-learning/preschool/preschool-in-your-state
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