Top Seven Tips to Preparing Your Child for Kindergarten

{Disclosure: We’re excited to be partnering with Minnehaha Academy to bring you these tips on how to prepare your little one for Kindergarten!}

“How can I help my child be ready for kindergarten?” is a question that we hear frequently from parents. We all want our children to be successful in school, and we’ve compiled our top seven tips for getting your child off to a great start when those first days in the kindergarten classroom roll around.

Getting ready for kindergarten is as easy as inviting children to play and explore. Readiness for kindergarten involves developing children’s natural curiosity and encouraging discovery as they interact with others, materials and their world. Providing invitations to play is a strategy we use with our youngest learners at Minnehaha Academy, and it can work great at home!

1. Encourage curiosity. Children are naturally curious and want to learn more about their world. This inborn curiosity provides a wonderful opportunity to help nurture your child’s inner scientist and hone skills such as predicting, reasoning and analyzing. Even simple activities or experiences can provide opportunities for your child to work on these intellectual skills.
   Invitation to play: Fill the sink or bathtub with water and set out funnels, balls and other toys. Ask your child to guess which toys will float and which will sink. Experiment to see if their hypothesis was correct. Talk about why some of the toys sunk while other toys kept afloat.
2. Participate in fun activities that develop gross motor skills. Remember the games and songs you used to play as a child? These are fabulous ways to help develop gross motor skills such as hopping, running and crawling. “Gross motor activities help children develop skills that they use in gym time, playing sports and playing on the playground,” explained Kathlene McGraw, Minnehaha Academy Counselor. “It also helps children manage their bodies while walking in a line with their class and going up and down the stairs at school. Our teachers incorporate specific movement breaks that contribute to gross motor develop that ready students for attending to academics and becoming more engaged in the learning process.”
   Invitation to play: Play a game of Simon Says, do the Hokey Pokey or sing the Wheels on the Bus. These fun activities will get you both moving and have the benefit of incorporating rhythm, making music and listening to direction. Best of all, your child will practice these gross motor skills that will help them as they grow.
3. Create art projects together. Knowing how to hold a pencil or crayon, cut with scissors and draw simple scenes are critical skills that your child can learn through fun arts and crafts projects. “When children are allowed to explore ideas and feelings through art-making, they learn problem-solving, risk-taking and creative self-expression,” explained Sheryl Cullen, Minnehaha Academy Art Teacher. “The arts help children ‘say’ things visually that they cannot yet express in words.”
   Invitation to play: Set out child-friendly scissors, paper, glue and crayons for you and your child. Sit down together and create a picture of your house and draw a family member. Have your child cut out shapes for the house (triangle and square) out of colorful construction paper and glue it in place. Then, using the crayons, have them draw a family member in front of the house. Talk about the different body parts to include (head, arms, legs, etc.).
4. Provide opportunities for your child to play with others. Learning how to interact with other children and adults is key to success in kindergarten and beyond. “At Minnehaha Academy, we encourage students to develop conflict resolution skills and coach them through disagreements,” said McGraw. “Students learn to identify their feelings and use their words when they are upset. It’s important for young children to have opportunities to learn responsibility, self control, respect, and how to give their best effort. These social-emotional skills are invaluable as they learn how to have positive interactions with each other and adults and also manage their emotions in a healthy way.” Skills such as playing with other children, following direction, participating in a group setting, asking for help, sharing and taking turns are skills that can be learned as your child goes about daily activities.
   Invitation to play: Participate in playdates, attend story time at the local library, visit the Children’s Museum, attend Sunday School or Vacation Bible School, go to open children’s gym time, or attend an art, music, or swimming class. These activities will provide your child with opportunities to learn more about self control, group dynamics, listening, and playing with other children.
5. Begin introducing pre-math concepts as you go through your day. Math can be fun, and, if you look, opportunities to learn basic math skills are all around us! “Practice and success with math at the early stages of a child’s elementary experience helps build a strong foundation for future learning,” said Caitlin Schlachter, Minnehaha Academy Academic Intervention Specialist. “Math absolutely can be fun, and it is vital for our young learners to have a strong foundation of simple mathematical concepts which will help them tackle the new math they will encounter in kindergarten and beyond.”
   Invitation to play: When you go to the grocery store, ask your child to count the fruit as you place it in your cart. If there are apples, oranges and bananas ask them how many of each fruit you have. Talk with your child about the shapes in your grocery cart. What shape is the cereal box? An orange? How about the wheels on the cart? Bringing math into your every day can make learning about math easy, fun and low stress.
6. Teach self care skills. Empower your child to be responsible for dressing themselves, washing their hands, cleaning up, brushing their teeth and using the bathroom. These life skills are important to encourage independence and self-reliance. “So much of kindergarten is guiding our students in becoming more independent,” said Schlachter. “This of course takes time, but we can work together to help our students be exactly what God intends for them to be.”
   Invitation to play: When it’s time to wash hands, ask your child to tell you the steps involved (get hands wet, soap, scrub, rinse and dry). Sing Happy Birthday with your child as they scrub so they know how long to wash their hands. For fun, challenge them to see how big they can make the soap bubbles as they scrub.
7. Read to each other. Cozy up with your child and let him or her pick out favorite books. “Reading with children from a very early age is one of the most powerful ways to get them ready for kindergarten,” said Schlachter. “It helps foster a love for reading and storytelling which will translate to strong readers and writers in the future. Most of all, just enjoy the time spent together and the bond that reading creates!”
   Invitation to play: As you read to your child, point to the words so he or she can begin to associate the words they hear with the words on the page. Ask open-ended questions about the characters in the story, their emotions and the pictures. Be sure to explain words or concepts that they might not know. Then, reverse roles and have your child “read” to you. Have your child retell the story based on the pictures. It’s fun to hear what he or she will imagine!

As you can see, getting your child ready for kindergarten doesn’t have to be a chore. Playing, incorporating learning as your child goes about his or her day, and following natural curiosities will encourage your child’s inquisitiveness- a model that is supported by the latest research on early childhood learning.

Kindergarten Readiness at Minnehaha Academy

At Minnehaha Academy, we offer a Kindergarten Readiness morning for families who are considering sending their child to MA. “The event is designed to be fun for children and allows us to see where each student is at academically, emotionally and developmentally,” said Rachel Moen, Minnehaha Academy Admission Counselor. “We take that time to see how each child interacts with others, his or her ability to follow directions, his or her fine and gross motor skills and his or her knowledge of basic counting, colors and letters.” Attend our next Kindergarten Readiness program on February 26th or March 18th, by calling 612-728-7722 or visiting www.MinnesotaPrivateSchool.com.

Your Child Has A Place at Minnehaha Academy

Learn more about Minnehaha Academy’s exceptional offerings for PreK-12 and discover how our award-winning curriculum and teachers can encourage your child to discover and grow his or her gifts and talents, preparing for success in college and beyond. Your child has a place at Minnehaha Academy. Come and visit our teachers and students today, call 612-728-7722.