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Some Things To Do Before Kindergarten
As a parent, you are your child’s most important teacher. Talking with your child, listening to him, and having a good time with him are the best kinds of teaching. Here are some things to do with your child. Spend two or three minutes several times a day doing these or similar activities.
Everything in our world has a name, and you are key in laying the foundation for your child's rapidly expanding vocabulary. Identify objects for your child and explain how they are used.
Describe how things are similar or different so that your child can begin to see categories and similarities. When talking about pets for example, discuss the idea that pets are alike in that they are animals while describing distinct differences between the various kinds of pets.
Reinforce reasoning as you explain to your child why you are doing. "We peel an orange because the skin doesn’t taste good." Answer your child’s multitude of questions because your vocabulary is building a foundation for the growth of his language and reasoning skills.
Body Parts
Assist your child in becoming familiar with parts of the body as well as their functions. Point to a body part while you provide your child with its name as well as its function. Have your child join in looking in a mirror as you both point to major body parts, identify their name, and tell the importance of the part to the body. For example, "Let’s touch our ears. Touch your ears. Touch my ears. I hear with my ears. What do you do with your ears?" Various body parts can be simply names because their uses are too advanced for your child at this age. The shoulder, heel, elbow, ankle can be pointed to while the eyes, nose, mouth, legs, arms, for example, can be pointed to as well as given body uses.
At this stage, begin to identify left and right. "Here is your right hand. Show me your right foot."
Colors
Colors are all around your child. As you continue to reinforce the names of the colors in your child's environment, he begins to associate colors with their names. Excursions away from your home provide opportunities to name and identify colors from traffic signals to grocery store aisles.
Incorporate color identification games into your child's experience daily. Introduce the colors and their names to your child initially. Next, have your child point to colors you name. Finally, proceed to asking your child to name colors verbally on his own. If your child experiences difficulty with a particular color, make a concentrated effort to point out that color in his environment as you help help associate the color with its name.
Numbers to Ten
As you count orally, point to each object to assist your child in seeing a one-to-one correlation. Count to 10 or 20 frequently. Visually expose your child to written numbers from zero to 10. Make a grid with 11 squares and write one number in each square beginning with 0 and ending with 10. Fill each square with cereal pieces to match the number written in the square. Have the child say the number and then enjoy snaking on the cereal pieces in that square. Begin in sequence from zero to 10. As your child progresses, point to squares out of sequence. Use counting and numbers frequently as you and your child interact with your environment. Include pointing out use of money in your shopping outings, as well as noting the importance of using a clock or watch and telling time.
Following Directions
In the school setting, your child will need to be able to listen to and follow a series of directions. For example, the teacher will ask your child to hang up a coat, put supplies on a table, and go to sit in a circle.
If your child experiences difficulty following a chain of directions, you can assist by practicing good listening skills using only one set of directions. Slowly, you can build up to two and three sets of directions. Give the directions slowly, and encourage your child to look at you while you are giving the direction.
Visual Perception
The eye and the brain work as a team. This teamwork is called visual perception. Help your child observe the shape, size, color, and relationships of objects. Talk about square-shaped things in the kitchen, round things on the shelves, long and short sleeves, and big and little pans. Do easy dot-to-dot books (up to 20 numbers), simple jigsaw puzzles (10-16 pieces), and matching games (Bingo, Shape Games, Concentration, Go Fish).
My Name!
One of the first printed words children learn to recognize is their own name. Once your child has learned to recognize his or her name, teach your child letter names, beginning with the first letter. The first letter being a capital letter, the rest of the letters in lower case print. Point out other words in the environment that start with the same first letter. Find ways for your child to see his or her name in print. Write your child’s name on his or her drawings. Make a name tag for objects that belong to him or her (articles of clothing, books).
Prepositions of Place and Position
Your child should learn the meaning of on, in, under, next to, in front of, and behind. Ask him to stand on a chair, get in a box, sit next to the TV, and stand in front of you. After your child is familiar with moving his own body to match these place and position prepositions, have him move objects in the same manner.
For example, put the ball in a box, on a table, next to the refrigerator, behind a chair, and in front of the TV. Include the following prepositions as your child engages in these position activities: through, around, above, between, below, over, and beside.
Gross Motor Development
Remember, physical activity is important for your child’s development. Your child needs opportunities to develop his large muscles. Teach him to hop, gallop and skip. Encourage dancing, somersaults, jumping rope, as well jumping over objects, and skating.
Activities to develop balance such as walking heel-to-toe on sidewalk cracks is valuable. Throwing and catching games are beneficial to the development of eye-hand coordination. Playing catch outside as well as inside (with balloons or nerf balls) is an excellent physical activity.
Categories
Your child needs to become familiar with the basic skills of classifying. When your child notices a dump truck you can say, "A dump truck is a vehicle. Do you see any more vehicles? Let’s see how many vehicles we can find." At an early age, boys and girls enjoy sorting things. Children learn to sort the socks and put away the silverware.
Categories to Explore
Talk about what you are doing as you go about your daily tasks. Discuss body parts during bath and dressing time. Talk about colors, numbers, shapes, and other categories while riding in the car or shopping. Discuss the world around you — bridges, streets, corners, mountains, familiar stores! Read to your child often. Stop in the middle of a story and ask him what he thinks might happen next.
Books
The first important thing that children need to experience about literacy is the pleasure involved in reading stories together with an adult.
You can begin sharing picture storybooks with your child from a very early age. In English, we begin to read books at the front, not at the back, and words go from top to bottom and from left to right.
Teach your child how to hold a book correctly and to turn pages in the correct direction. You can encourage exploration of the books and print by talking with your child about the pictures, pointing to words as you read, and asking your child to tell or read the story to you.
When your child begins to show interest in the print and not only the story, run your fingers under the words that your read. As your child begins to know some letters, ask him or her to point to a word that starts with the same letter as his or her name.
Remember, as a parent, you are your child’s most important teacher. Children imitate what they see others do and what they hear others say. When parents treat others with respect, their children probably will, too.
Books To Read With Your Child
NewBorns
Brown, M. Hand Rhymes. Dutton Hoban, T. What is it? Greenwillow Oxenbury, H. Tickle, Tickle. Macmillan Rojankovsky, F. Animals on the Farm. Knopf Wright, B. The Real Mother Goose. MacMillan
Older Babies
Ahlberg. A. Peek-A-Boo! Viking Ahlberg, A. Baby’s Catalog. Little Brown, M. Goodnight Moon, Harper & Row Lindgren, B. Sam’s Bath. Morrow Williams, V. More, More, More Said the Baby. Greenwillow
Toddlers
Aliki. Cock-A-Doddle-Doo. Greenwillow Bang, M. Ten, Nine, Eight. Greenwillow Martin, B. Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? Holt Rockwell, A. Tool Box. MacMillan Tafuri, N. Follow Me. Greenwillow Older Toddlers
Carle, E. The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Putnam Crews, D. Freight Train. Greenwillow Keats, E. The Snowy Day. Viking Hoban, T. Of Colors and Things. Greenwillow Oxenbury, H. Tom and Pippo Read A Story. MacMillan
Nursery Rhyme Books
Schuster. A Treasury of Mother Goose. Schwartz, A. I Saw You in the Bathtub and Other Folk Rhymes. Harper Collins Wilkes, A. Animal Nursery Rhymes. Dorling Kindersley
Rhyming
Cauley, L.B. Clap Your Hands. Putnam Fleming, D. In The Tall, Tall Grass. Rinehart & Winston Guarino, D. Is Your Mama a Llama? Scholastic Kalish, M Bears on The Stairs. Scholastic Martin, B. Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear? Holt Milos, R. Bears, Bears, Everywhere. Children’s Press Pelham, D. Sam’s Sandwich. Dutton Children’s Books Suess, Dr. The Cat in the Hat. Random House Shaw, N. Sheep on a Jeep. Houghton Mifflin Williams, S. We Went Walking. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich
Alphabet Books
Hague, K. Alphabears. Holt Hague, K. Numbers. Holt McPhail, D. Animals A to Z. Scholastic
Picture Books
Ahlberg. J. Each Peach Pear Plum. Random House Base, G. Animalia. Abrams Bernard-Westcott, N. I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly. Little, Brown and Co. Eastman, P. The Alphabet Book. Random House Schenk De Reginiers, B. It Does Not Say Meow and Other Animal Riddles Rhymes. Clarion Books Suess, Dr. Hop on Pop. Random House Taylor, J. Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star. Books of Wonder This Old Man. Grosset & Dunlap
Poetry Books
Carrol, L. Jabberwocky. Abrams Publishers Johnston, T. I’m Gonna Tell Mama I Want an Iguana. Putnam Prelutsky, J. Read Aloud Rhymes for the Very Young. Knopf Silverstein, D. A Light in the Attic. Golden Press
Other Favorites
Brett, J. Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Putnam Brown, M. The Three Billy Goats Gruff. Harcourt Brace Carle, E. The very Hungry Caterpillar. Philomel Books Galdone, P. The Three Little Pigs. Houghton Mifflin Galdone P. The Little Red Hen. Scholastic McCloskey, R. Make Way for Ducklings Viking Piper, W. The Little Engine That Could. Platt & Munk Sendak, M. Where the Wild Things Are. Harper & Row Shaw, C. It Looked Like Split Milk. Harper & Row
Prepared by; Carroll Lambert, Ed.D. Professor Early Childhood Education
Additional Articles/Resources
Getting Ready for Kindergarten — Practical advice for parents to make the transition to kindergarten an exciting time (instead of scary) for a child.