There’s nothing wrong with helping a preschooler learn her ABC’s and her 123’s, but is it enough to ready her for kindergarten? A childhood education specialist sheds some light on the current standards.

 

by Linda Crisalli

Everybody is talking about school readiness these days. We know now that by the time a child is 5 years old, her brain is 90 percent developed. Politicians and researchers talk about preparing children for kindergarten so that they will be successful in school and in life.

Does that mean that if children don’t ace kindergarten, they’ll probably drop out of high school and end up flipping burgers for a living? What is it that children should know or be able to do before they start school? Do they need to be reading, writing and counting, and if so, how well and how much?

Should parenting children involve purchasing educational toys that are advertised to make their children into geniuses and enrolling them in academic preschools? Do we really need to be putting that kind of pressure on four and five year olds? Yikes!

Check the list

The short, simple answer to the question is that most schools have check lists that describe the knowledge and skills that they would like children to have when they enter kindergarten. Parents can contact their neighborhood school and get a copy.

Make development a priority

Here’s the scoop. There’s nothing wrong with helping a preschooler learn her ABC’s and her 123’s, but it’s not going to do her much good if she isn’t comfortable inside her own skin. Supporting the healthy growth and development of her social-emotional skills is a much higher priority.

If a young child has confidence in herself, if she sees herself as a competent learner, if she loves to learn new things, if she feels good about herself in the context of being part of a group, and if she knows how to get along with others, then academic success will take care of itself.

Conversely, even if she is reading chapter books and doing arithmetic in preschool but she can’t function socially, she is likely to have a rough time in school. It’s more about attitude than aptitude, and more about understanding concepts than memorizing facts.

Be the teacher

You are your child’s first and most important teacher. She’s depending on you to confirm her intrinsic value in the world. Happily, it’s actually pretty easy to do.

• Be warm, loving and responsive to your child.
• Talk with her. Talk with her often.
• Use eye contact and smile a lot.
• Have open ended conversations and listen attentively to what she has to say.
• Sing with her.
• Validate her feelings.
• Do things together. Read together every day.
• Foster curiosity. Encourage her to try new things; praise her when she is successful, and reassure her when she is not.
• Model your own love of learning, and let her know that you make mistakes sometimes, too.
• Choose high quality childcare and stay involved.
• Gift your child with a sense of awe and wonder about everything around her.
• Tell her she’s wonderful, smart, and capable, and that you love spending time with her. 

The good news is that preparing your child for success in school is a great deal less complicated (and more fun!) than you might think.

Kindergarten readiness checklist

Parents can use this checklist to assess a child’s readiness for jumping into the classroom.

Social-Emotional Skills:

• Feels excited and comfortable about starting school
• Feels good about self
• Can calm self when frustrated, resolve conflicts with words
• Can sit still, pay attention, and follow directions
• Can stay with a task to completion
• Can get along with others
• Can wait for a turn
• Can share with others
• Can speak clearly and listen attentively
• Can follow simple directions
• Can understand, remember and comply with simple rules
• Feels excited to learn and motivated to try new things

Cognitive/Intellectual Skills:

• Knows how to handle books
• Understands that written words are symbols with meanings
• Understands that reading is how we find out about things
• Can recognize several letters of the alphabet in both upper case and lower case
• Can recognize own name in upper and lower case letters
• Understands that numbers are symbols with meanings
• Can count several objects
• Can sort objects by color, size and shape
• Can identify simple shapes and primary and secondary colors
• Can recite full name, age, address and phone number
• Knows parent’s, caretaker’s and teacher’s names

Self Help Skills:

• Can use the restroom independently
• Can wash own hands
• Can tie shoes
• Can dress and undress
• Can hang coat

Small Muscle Skills:

• Can pick up, hold and use pencils, paint brushes, scissors
• Can pick up, hold and use eating utensils
• Can zip, tie, button and snap
• Can turn the pages of a book
• Can make a tower of small blocks

Large Motor Skills:

• Can run, jump, skip and climb
• Walks up and down stairs
• Can bounce and catch a ball

Language Skills:

• Can recite a rhymes, songs and finger plays by heart
• Pretends to “read” books
• Can recognize some words by sight and sound
• Can speak in complete sentences
• Can communicate wants and needs
• Understands concepts like same/different, top/bottom, up/down, under/over
• Can recite a rhymes, songs and finger plays by heart

Resources:

• Foundation for Early Learning
• National Association for the Education of Young Children
• Talaris Institute
• iParenting.com

 

Linda Crisalli has extensive education, training, and over 40 years experience working with and in behalf of young children and their families. Linda lives in the Seattle area, near her two grown children and four precious grandchildren.

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