Helping Your Child Succeed in Kindergarten

Your child’s first year of school should be fun and exciting.

hour. Children who are comfortable and prepared for this

The first school experience is more likely to be rewarding and

productive years, and therefore associate positive feelings with

education. Since parents are children’s first and foremost

important teachers, you can play a key role in preparing your

children for a successful school experience by exposing them previously

to the key concepts they will experience in school. This could be

done in a fun and enjoyable way by making daily play

experience learning experiences too.

New learning builds on prior knowledge, therefore the more

exposure or background a child has with a concept, the easier it is to

it is for new learning and deeper understanding to occur.

Provide your child with prior exposure to concepts such as

alphabet, numbers, follow directions, listen, read,

cutting, tracing, etc. help them feel more comfortable and

confident when they experience these similar concepts in school,

thus allowing better learning to occur. Schools are becoming

more academic, dependent on standardized and fast-paced tests.

Give your children some familiarity with the concepts they will learn

encounter can help decrease anxiety and stress that often

accompany these experiences. Children who are overly stressed

or uncomfortable are less likely to be able to concentrate and

learn.

Children have a natural motivation to learn and a curiosity

About the world. You can improve and nourish this natural

Motivation by making gaming experiences enjoyable.

experiences too.

For example, children’s games are excellent resources to combine

learn with physical activity. Duck, duck, goose can be one way

to reinforce concepts such as the alphabet when having children

say the name of a letter instead of the word, duck and a word

which begins with that letter instead of the word goose.

Hide and Seek can become a learning experience by hiding numbers,

letters, colors, your child’s name, phone number, address, etc.

around the house and ask your child to find them.

Simon Says is a great game to practice by following

directions and position words like in, up, down, etc.

Bingo can be used to reinforce the recognition of numbers, letters

recognition, the difference between upper and lower case

letters, letter sounds, colors, etc.

You can have a scavenger hunt while shopping, driving, or at home

by seeing how many letters, numbers, colors or shapes you

child can find.

You can also play I see, I see, where you say: “I see with my little one

eye something that is … “and describes a letter, a number,

shape, color, etc. that you can see clearly. Your son then

try to guess what it is describing. Your child can also

take turns describing something (this helps develop

skills).

Children’s individual interests can also be incorporated

learning experiences.

Blocks or Lego can be used to teach patterns.

(ask them to build towers with alternating colors), counting,

sort (separate blocks by colors, shapes, size), etc.

If your child likes to color, ask him to create rainbow strokes.

of letters or numbers tracing them with as many colors as

possible.

Play dough can be made into shapes, letters, and numbers.

An interest in cars and trucks can be used to learn how to

Trace telling your child to keep his car (crayon or pencil)

on the road (whatever is being tracked).

Interest in animals or dinosaurs can be used when learning

how to cut with scissors relating the opening and closing of

the scissors to open and close the mouth of an animal.

You can pretend that the animal is “eating” the lines of the paper.

Your child’s environment can also influence his readiness.

for the school. Provide a number and variety of books for your

child and taking the time to read to them is one of the

important things you can do for your education. Reading to a

the child teaches them vocal skills, vocabulary, listening skills,

Orientation from left to right, cause and effect, knowledge about the

world around them and pre-reading skills. The most important is

instill a love of reading and books that will benefit them

throughout their entire education. After all, every topic

(even math) requires reading.

Our brain absorbs information from our environment in a

conscious and unconscious level, and between 80-90% of all

the information absorbed by the brain is visual. Therefore,

provide visual displays in your child’s room or anywhere else you can

it really helps in learning. Things like the alphabet, colors,

numbers, etc. can be hung or displayed in places where your

the child will see them. Even magnetic letters on the fridge

it can aid in retention and learning. That is why many schools

have lots of visuals in hallways and classrooms.

Young children can also learn many concepts through music.

For example, they generally learn their abcs through the alphabet.

song. There are many children’s tapes available that teach

concepts through music. Play them in the car or while

your children’s play can help them learn. Despite

they may not be singing or look like they are even paying

Attention, subconscious learning may be occurring.

You can also practice separating from your child during

short periods of time, such as signing up for a program or playing games

group or have them spend time with a babysitter. Separation

Anxiety can be traumatic for some children if they are not used.

being away from their parents, and this anxiety can inhibit

their ability to learn and relax at school.

Lastly, no matter what methods you try with your child, most

The important thing to remember is to make them enjoyable. Your

you want your child to associate positive feelings with learning.

Take turns choosing activities; give your son a choice

sometimes. This makes them feel less dictated and more

willing to learn. Also, offer them some variety in activities,

don’t always use the same learning methods all the time

This can lead to boredom and disinterest. Choose the methods

that work best with your child (every child is different) and

have fun!

Children are like flowers, they all bloom at different times.

But parents can help nurture them by providing experiences that

allows them to become children who love to learn and

college.