Is My Child Ready For Kindergarten?

If you are the parent of a 5 year old, you are probably starting to think about your child going off to kindergarten. You might be wondering if they are really ready, especially if they have a summer birthday. As a kindergarten teacher, I can tell you that parents tend to have a wide range of views on what their child needs to know to start kindergarten. Some parents think their child needs to be reading already and others are shocked to find out that their child needs to be able to use the bathroom independently. Every child is going to be different, but I am here to tell you what your child’s teacher truly wants them to know when they start school.

On Instagram, I posted a series of reels discussing this topic. You can watch them here:

Should My Child Be Reading?

Although any academic skills that your child has to start are great, they are not the most important thing. Part of the kindergarten standards is to learn the alphabet, letter sounds, and start blending sounds together to read simple words. They do not need to be reading to start kindergarten, because it is our job to teach them that. As long as your child has been exposed to letters and numbers, is read to at home, and wants to learn, then they will do great!

But what is more important and is going to lead to a more successful school year for your child are the social, emotional, and independence/self-help skills.

Social and Emotional Skills

Social and emotional skills are going to be the most important thing for your incoming kindergartener to have. Your child is going to be in a room full of many other children all day long. They need to be able to play and interact with others appropriately. This means being able to take turns and share. If your child gets upset about something, they should be able to communicate their feelings in an appropriate manner. This includes using problem solving skills, rather than hitting or throwing a tantrum.

Another part of social skills at school involve listening and attention skills. This includes following simple directions and listening when someone else is talking. Kindergarten is much more rigorous than it used to be. Your child will need to have the ability to focus on a task and maintain their attention on something. A big one is being able to sit and wait for something and deal with being bored at times. This is especially true if a child is used to having significant amounts of screen time. As much as teachers try to make school fun and engaging, there is still going to be parts of the day that are just not as exciting as others.

Self-Help and Independence Skills

Whether your child is coming from preschool, daycare, or has been at home up until now, kindergarten is going to be very different in terms of their need to do things themselves. Kindergarten classes often have 20+ children with 1 adult. This means it is nearly impossible for the teacher to be able to help every student with little things throughout the day, and still teach them academics. There are also some things they simply aren’t allowed to help with.

Some of these skills include basic hygiene skills. They need to take care of all bathroom needs independently. They should be able to wash their hands and wipe their own nose with a tissue.

Other things that will simply make their day at school easier include being able to take off and put on their own coat. They should be able to put things in and take things out of their backpack. And if they do need help with something, they need to be able to ask an adult for help and communicate their needs.

How Do I Prepare My Child for Kindergarten?

All children are different and even if your child doesn’t have all of the skills I mentioned, that doesn’t mean they aren’t ready and won’t be successful at school. And you can practice many skills at home. I created a checklist of kindergarten readiness skills that you can use to see what your child still needs to work on.