How To Prepare Your Child For Kindergarten
Is this the last year that your child will be home? If you are realizing that by this time next year your child will be in kindergarten, you are probably thinking of ways that you can get him or her ready for that experience. If that is the case, from having an informal learning time at home to enrolling your child in a preschool program, here are some ideas on how to prepare your child for kindergarten.
Create A Routine In Your Home - Think about the things that are in an actual kindergarten setting and copy them at home.
- Think about establishing a regular wake-up time. After all, when your child is going to real school, he or she won't be able to sleep in as long as he or she wants to.
- Establish a routine of getting ready for the day, too. For example, instead of staying in his or her pajamas until later in the morning, think of encouraging your child to get dressed for the day and to come to breakfast at a certain time.
- Of course, you don't want to make your child nervous by rushing him or her. However, help him to realize that he or she can't lolly gag as there are special activities ahead and he or she needs to be ready for them.
- Have set things that you do, at least for the morning. For example, establish a reading time, a craft time, and a time for playing with educational toys.
Establish Learning Experiences - Besides the routine play time and reading time, think of other ways that you can encourage learning for your child.
- Think of going on field trips where he or she learns about things like different countries of the world. For example, you could go to a store that sells products from all over the world and then you could go to the library to check out children's books about those countries.
- Have you thought of enrolling your child in a preschool program? That experience alone would take care of preparing your child for kindergarten.
- At preschool your child will be introduced to numbers and reading through things like music and dance. In addition, he or she will learn to interact with other children.
- There will also be structured playtime outdoors. Your child will learn that there are rules that need to be followed and that there are consequences for his or her actions.
Think of using words like Just imagine, next year you'll be in real kindergarten! Doing this will help to build the anticipation of what is ahead for your child. Click here for more info on preschool programs.
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