Time Kindergarten
2013
How can I best prepare my son for kindergarden?
He has gone to 2 years of preschool, but that was just a 1/2 day program. This is 8:30 to 3. He also has been very unscheduled this summer. I’m worried the change will be difficult for him.
I read to him *every* night and he loves books. We’ve been reading the Magic Tree House series and he is crazy for those books!
What a lot of wonderful suggestions. Thanks very much.
He can also count up to over 200, probably to 1000 . He adds and subtracts number and often says math facts for fun. He’s sorta quirky about math, he’ll probably be good at that. He can play chess, knows everyones ages and plays around with making math facts out of the differences in them and is definitely on his way to reading, so I’m confident he’ll do fine academically. (his fine motor; writing/cutting/art needs some development – but I’m sure that’ll come with age)
I was more concerned about the drastic change in schedule. Thanks again for all the truly wonderful and helpful answers.
The fact that he spent time in a pre school program–regardless of how long it was–prepares him to listen and sit and interact with other children. Since he can do that already, he is ready to learn the curriculum.
That being said, the best things you can do for him are to read to him everynight. That instills the love of books and reading and shows your son that reading is important and is something that everyone does.
Take him outside and explore the world around him. Look for caterpillars and bugs. Explore leaves, the dirt and rocks. Ask questions–What do you see? Why do you think it does that? Get him talking about things–that gets him interested in learing new things. Make it fun.
Let him play–let him build with blocks or pretend he is a pirate or doctor. Let his imagination go. That builds up his brain and playing helps him learn about the world as well. Invite another child over for playtime. He may not necessarily interact with the other child, he may do what we call “parallel play” which means the 2 children play side by side but do not interact. That is normal and it helps him learn how to share and possibly work together if they indeed do interact.
You can practice the ABCs and counting objects up to 30–go up to 10 first. Don’t make it rigorous or demand a lot out of him otherwise he will resist and not want to try at school. Make it fun—and he will be inclined to try. If you are in the car–ask what he sees. What color is the tree? The stop sign? What signs can he read? Yes, identifying things by sight–like knowing the McDonalds arches means that is McDonalds–is a pre-reading skill. He will know a stop sign by the shape and color, not becuase he can read the word STOP. That’s all part of learning.
Enjoy the time. Kindergarten is an exciting year. Don’t get worried because it can rub off on him and you don’t want to send an uptight child off to school. Be involved in his learning, but don’t stress out about it. Learning new things at this age is fun and exciting. It should be handled that way.
Good luck!!
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