Parenting In Focus: Be ready for the ‘new’ kindergarten

Published 1:30 am Wednesday, November 29, 2023

Kindergarten is not like it used to be.

In the past, many of us sent our children to kindergarten assuming that is where learning began. Now we know that is not the case.

Today, most children enter school knowing their letters and the sounds of many of the letters. Some even know how to read. Most children have been in preschool for one or two years, or sometimes even more. Some children just have very involved parents.

Others come to school having read few books, not knowing letters or sounds of letters. They are significantly behind before they begin kindergarten. Many will catch up and some will not.

If you want your child ready for school, there are things you need to be doing now.

Read to your child regularly. This will help him more than any single thing you can do. Just a few minutes every day makes a huge difference.

Talk to your child a lot. Talking together increases his language skills and makes him more comfortable with words he hears and words he uses.

Listen to your child even more. This encourages him to use his language skills and helps him learn more and more words.

Pay attention to his development. Read about what he should be doing at this stage of his development. If he isn’t doing what it seems like he should be doing, sign him up for a developmental screening at the school he will be attending. Talk to one of the school counselors about your child’s development.

Give him opportunities to learn many skills. He needs to learn skills such as how to use scissors, how to answer questions about the book you are reading, and how to interact with other children.

These skills are especially important to do if your child is not in preschool. Help him be ready for school by preparing him for kindergarten today and tomorrow. Your involvement is really important to his success.

Be an involved parent. It really makes a difference for your child’s school success.

“Their work is to be children. And that means exploring, trying things out, making all kinds of mistakes. I always tell parents, life is a spiral. It goes forward and then it falls back. And when children fall back, it seems as if everything falls back to ground zero, but things never do. It spirals. It is just the back side of the spiral. You just stay with kids through that and they will keep advancing.” — Dr. Dale Olen, “Self-Esteem for Children”

Cynthia Martin is the founder of the First Teacher program and former executive director of Parenting Matters Foundation, which published newsletters for parents, caregivers and grandparents.