Encouraging These Behaviors Will Help Your Child Get Ready for Kindergarten

The first day of kindergarten often brings mixed emotions for parents and kids alike. Excitement, anxiety, and even sorrow mix together as parents begin releasing their precious children into the world. At the same time, new kindergarteners must adjust to unfamiliar routines, more responsibilities and a new online social environment, all of which make this one of the most significant transitions they’ll face during their educational journey. 

As a parent, you probably already understand the magnitude of this transition and want to make it as easy as possible for your child. Fortunately, August is National Get Ready for Kindergarten Month, which is a great time to begin helping your child prepare for this new phase of their lives. 

Different Kids Have Different Needs

At Oregon Charter Academy (ORCA), we believe education begins at the primary level, where we focus on a high-quality and dynamic curriculum to support future growth, customized based on the needs of each child in our care. Our K-5 curriculum takes a broad approach, helping children develop basic skills in a variety of subjects to support more specialized learning later in life. 

It’s important to note that every student comes to kindergarten with different abilities and needs, and pre-kindergartners will have vastly different experiences coming into school. Some will have spent time in a daycare setting around other children and caregivers, and others will have attended more formal preschool programs and may have a head start on learning. A third group will have spent most of their time at home being cared for by their parents or close family members. Keep your child’s individual circumstances in mind as you assess their kindergarten readiness and avoid the urge to compare their progress with peers. 

Sometimes, a traditional classroom setting won’t be the best fit for your child. ORCA offers parents a flexible online schooling option that may be less overwhelming for young learners than in-person instruction. Our school days include plenty of facilitated learning with time for wiggle breaks and even naps for kids who need them. So as you begin preparing your child for kindergarten, take time to consider if they might benefit from learning at home. 

Regardless of whether your child will be attending school online or in a physical classroom, as you move ahead, focus on promoting a few critical skills to help them successfully take on this new challenge.

Early Learning Before Kindergarten

While children begin their formal learning in earnest during kindergarten, it’s helpful if they understand some basic concepts beforehand, like naming and identifying some colors, counting from one to 10, recognizing their name in print and matching rhyming words. Pre-kindergartners should also know how to hold a pencil, interact with a book and follow multi-step instructions. Beyond teaching these hard skills, you should also begin encouraging specific behaviors that will give your child the confidence to enter a new online environment.

Promoting Essential Classroom Skills

A child’s success in kindergarten depends on their ability to focus and absorb many new ideas. But if a child is tired, doesn’t feel physically or emotionally safe, can’t express their needs or can’t follow a routine, they won’t be in a position to learn. One of the most helpful actions you can take as a parent is to reinforce the soft skills your child will need to thrive in the classroom. Here are a few ways to get started.    

Develop and Follow Routines

Your child’s life at school will likely be more regimented than they’re used to. With that in mind, it will be helpful to start building a routine now so they can more easily adapt to the routine of school. This process could begin by getting up at the same time every day, setting meal times and creating bedtime routines.

Teach Them Responsibility

Along with developing routines, you should also begin giving your child tasks they can accomplish on their own. As part of a kindergarten class, your child will likely have their own responsibilities like cleaning up after themselves or completing a classroom chore. If they’ve had similar responsibilities at home, like feeding their pets or putting their belongings away, they’ll naturally take to these new duties.

Encourage Independence

Starting school in earnest and letting a child go is always tough for parents. However, their kindergarten teacher will undoubtedly ask them to perform tasks on their own, so any time you can encourage your child to take on additional independence will help them manage the transition into kindergarten. 

Build Advocacy and Self-Help Skills

Don’t forget that when your child enters their new school environment, every face they see will be an unfamiliar adult who doesn’t know them very well. That’s why it’s critical to teach your kids how to respectfully ask for help if they need it or express the way they’re feeling with words. Without these skills, they may develop needs that go unnoticed or unmet by the people at their school. 

Prioritize Reading 

There’s no expectation that a child should be able to read before kindergarten. However, they’ll have an advantage if they’re familiar with letters and sounds. So read to your kids whenever you can and help them discover language fundamentals.  

Look for Social Opportunities

Many kids who are now entering kindergarten experienced their earliest development years during the pandemic. As a result, they may have missed out on many social opportunities older children took for granted. Parents can help their kids prepare to interact with other children by seeking out social opportunities whenever possible. Whether at camp or on the neighborhood playground, these experiences will help your child make new friends, navigate disagreements and develop conflict resolution skills, which will come in handy as they interact with their classmates, both online and off.

Remind Them of Their Strengths

As your child continues through kindergarten, they’ll encounter many things they don’t know how to do. This process can be discouraging for some children, so it’s crucial to provide your child with reinforcement when they do something well. The goal is to develop a child who is so confident that they won’t give up when they fail. This skill will serve them in kindergarten and for the rest of their life.

It’s an Incredible Journey

While the transition to kindergarten can sometimes be challenging for kids and heart-wrenching for parents, it’s truly the beginning of an incredible journey. You’ll be amazed at how they grow through this first year of school and the discoveries they’ll make along the way. Understanding how you can best support your child to prepare them for the new experiences they’ll face is the best way to set them up for a lifetime of learning success. All it takes is a little time and attention. Your child will do the rest.

If you’d like to learn more about ORCA’s kindergarten curriculum or the benefits of attending a virtual school, plan on joining us for one of our monthly virtual info sessions. You’ll have the opportunity to preview our platform and curriculum plus hear from ORCA staff. We hope to see you there!