Your Child’s Progress - Years 4 and 5
Your Preschooler and School Readiness
School Readiness Activities
- Be sure to attend scheduled check-ups and appointments with your medical provider. If you have any concerns about your child's development, share these at the visit.
- Read aloud each day and encourage children to look at books on their own.
- Say nursery rhymes and fingerplays together. Encourage your child to tell stories to younger children or siblings.
- Encourage interest in writing and words. Provide children with paper and notebooks for writing. Print letters and numerals on art work. Label toy shelves with pictures and words that describe objects.
- Provide a variety of art experiences such as making play dough and creating collages from a variety of materials, such as cloth, paper, string, yarn and others.
- Teach your child important number and space concepts. Sort and count everything in sight, like silverware, rocks, leaves, and others. Talk about the way objects are on, under, behind or larger than others.
- Make sure to praise the accomplishments of your child. They have a strong urge to feel important and worthwhile.
- Encourage multicultural awareness through representative dolls, puppets, pictures, and books.
- Expand dramatic play by providing a variety of props for themes surrounding a grocery store, pizza parlor and a birthday party.
- Teach your child how to use landmarks to find their way around your neighborhood.
- Promote respect for life and living things by letting them help you build a bird feeder and hang it up. Record the kinds of birds observed and teach the child to identify birds by significant characteristics like the red male cardinal.
- Teach children the correct use of the phone.
- The appropriate age to enter kindergarten depends on your child. It should be at the discretion of the parent with input from the child's potential teacher.
- Deciding on a full-day or half-day program is also dependent on the child, their needs, the parent(s) and what is offered by the appropriate school district.
Questions to Ask Yourself About Your Child's Readiness for School
- How mature is your child?
- Can they follow simple directions?
- Do they know when not to hit?
- Can they focus on an activity for longer than 15 minutes?
- Does your school district administer a kindergarten-readiness screening (to test fine and gross motor skills, to check and see if kids know their letters and numbers, etc.)?
- Does your child like to learn (this is most relevant if your child is going to be young for their grade)?
- Is he or she physically big for his or her age?
This page last updated on 3/10/08.