Do you remember when you were in kindergarten? You probably played, painted, cut and pasted. Many parents who have small children entering kindergarten are surprised and confused by the different expectations on their kids nowadays.
However, the expected skill set can vary greatly depending on what type of school you are sending your child to, which school district you are in and where in the country you are located.
Many schools focus either on fine-motor skills development or on academic achievements – but here at Cedar Hill Prep we believe that children need both.
Here are 10 essential skills all our 5 and 6-year-olds should know before they start kindergarten.
10 Skills Your Child Should Have Before Kindergarten| Recognizing The Alphabet
While knowing the whole alphabet backward and forward isn’t necessary, a good understanding of it is. Your preschooler should know how to sing the ABC song, recognize all uppercase letters and most lowercase letters.
One great way to do this is to buy colorful letter fridge magnets in uppercase and let your child play with them. You can show him how to spell his name and beginner words like “CAT” and “DOG”.
10 Skills Your Child Should Have Before Kindergarten | Knowing All The Consonant Sounds
Singing the ABC’s is one thing, but knowing that “B” makes a “beh” sound is critical for budding readers. Without that distinction, the word “bat” could easily be pronounced “beat” or “beet”, leading to confusion and frustration on your kindergartner.
10 Skills Your Child Should Have Before Kindergarten | Writing The Alphabet
While your preschooler is mastering recognizing and sounding out the letters, he should be taught how to write them. This helps to enforce the association between the written letter and the sound it makes. He should be able to write all uppercase letters and most lowercase letters.
Proper penmanship is critical at this early stage, as this learned behavior can follow a child through adulthood. If your child is struggling with penmanship, try buying pencil grips and ergonomic pencils to help him learn.
10 Skills Your Child Should Have Before Kindergarten | Counting Out Loud From 1-31
Being able to count from 1-31 builds the foundation for future math skills. There are many fun ways to teach your kids how to count, from toys and stuffed animals to houses in your neighborhood.
Children’s programming like Sesame Street and Barney teach numbers in a fun way and a lot of times with songs. There is even a learn to count app for your smartphone. Or a set of foam numbers that can be played with in the bathtub can help your child master his counting skills.
10 Skills Your Child Should Have Before Kindergarten | Write Down Numbers From 1-31
Just like with the alphabet, your child needs to be able to write as well as say the numbers out loud. Preschool workbooks and large traceable numbers are a great way to give your child the practice he needs.
One To One Correspondence
Much more difficult than singing the ABC song or reciting numbers, is understanding that the number 8 and 8 apples mean the same thing or that 28 is greater than 18. But this is an essential developmental step.
When teaching counting, start with counting the number of people in your family, number of friends in a playgroup or at a birthday party. When someone leaves, tell your child, “We counted 8 people when we got here. One left. Now there are 7.”
But there are also tons of practical activities out there – here is just one article of many that has more on teaching one to one correspondence.
Simple Addition Using Manipulative Materials
Giving your child a physical object to count with helps to train his brain to learn addition with the sensation of touch. Your child will learn in multiple ways that counting can be addition, and this will set them up for math success in school.
Some fun ways to do this are with blocks, colored popsicle sticks or even an abacus.
Simple Patterns
Learning patterns helps your child develop critical thinking and mental reasoning skills, which are vital in the STEM fields. This can be a simple sequence such as blue, red, green, blue, red … (what is next?).
You can simply make your own pattern game with lego blocks, foam shapes or beads.
(Image Credit: The Imagination Tree)
Again, you can download an app to help your child learn, and a bonus advantage to the app is that it will also help teach numbers, letters, and shapes while teaching patterns.
10 Skills Your Child Should Have Before Kindergarten | Recognizing Shapes
Learning shapes can be an extremely fun activity for a kid. It also increases cognitive development in everything from math and science to reading and writing.
The shapes that your preschooler should know are: circle, oval, square, rectangle, triangle, heart, star, octagon, and diamond.
There are so many shape sorting toys, like this shape puzzle from Melissa & Doug, that can be fun and educational at the same time.
10 Skills Your Child Should Have Before Kindergarten | Fine Motor Control
There will be a lot of craft activities in kindergarten to develop fine motor skills. Cutting, pasting and coloring in the lines are essential to the development of the small muscles in your child’s hands.
A budding kindergartner is expected to cut along dotted lines for a circle and square, color inside the lines and hold a pencil/crayon correctly.
