Kindergarten

You want your child to have the best academical start in life, but is your child ready for kindergarten? Find out how kindergarten can help in your child’s development and how you can prepare them for it.

Kindergarten is a great way for your child to learn how to get along with other children and will help them learn the vital social skills that are important for life. You might be successful in improving your little one’s language and numerical abilities at home through maths and reading activities, but kindergarten will teach social and communication skills that will enable them to become more proficient in cooperating with, talking to and playing with others. Starting kindergarten is a major milestone for your child and you can prepare them for it in many ways. Here are the best ways to get your child ready for their enrollment in their first year of school.

Undertake some pre-school visits

You can help your child come to terms with what to expect by making some pre-school visits. This will allow them to become familiarised with the building and the nature of the school day. You can liaise with the staff about suitable times to call in. Many schools hold official orientation programmes for pre-kindergartners, but you can also supplement this with more informal ones. Consider taking them at different times during the school day, so that they can see children arriving at and leaving the school with their parents or with the school bus. Taking them to the school’s playground during the playtime recess will allow them to see the children playing with each other. Taking them to the playground at the weekend will enable them to try out the play equipment there. The idea of these informal visits is to help them with their expectations and to enable them to feel more comfortable with the day-to-day routine of going to school.

Expand their cognitive abilities

You can increase your child’s mental abilities informally at home. For example, when laying the table for a meal, you can ask them to count out the total number of knives, forks and spoons being used. When travelling to the shops, play a game with them to see who can count the most cars of a specific colour. Once in the grocery store, you can ask in them what letters the various items in your trolley begin with. When you arrive home and are unpacking your bags, see if they can place the items in alphabetical order, or find all the items that begin with a specific letter. You can assist with their development of spatial awareness by asking them to arrange the same items in order of their size. When it comes to teaching concepts, you can encourage your child to express themselves more clearly by using prepositions, such as ‘behind,’ ‘above,’ ‘after’ and ‘before.’  You can show examples of these concepts; such as by playing a ‘hide and seek’ game using toys that are hidden behind, underneath and on top of furnishings in your home. In these simple ways, you can hHow to Win and Lose Graciouslyelp your child develop the skills they need to begin kindergarten.

Encourage their fine motor skills

The development of fine motor skills is vital before your child enters kindergarten, as this paves the way for your child to master the ability of writing. You can help them with these skills by encouraging them to draw using a pad and fine-nib colouring pencils, as opposed to thicker crayons. Ask them to create small patterns and shapes – this will help to develop their fine motor coordination and will help them to develop the muscles in their fingers. Playing games that involve smaller counters, such as board games that involve rolling dice and moving tokens, will also help promote dexterity and hand-eye coordination.