How To Know If Your Child Is Ready For Kindergarten

By TheNanny612 On July 3, 2007 · 1 Comment

Your preschooler is getting
older and it’s time to start thinking about kindergarten but you aren’t
quite sure whether or not he’s ready. Maybe he’s just a little bit
shy of kindergarten age and you aren’t sure whether to go ahead and enroll
him, making him the youngest kid in the class, or to hold off a year, putting
him perhaps a year behind everyone else. Or perhaps you know that your child
is technically age appropriate for kindergarten but don’t know if he’s
really got the social skills necessary to do well in school yet.

Here are some things
that can help you to figure out if your child is ready for kindergarten:

Communication
skills are age-appropriate. If your child is able to clearly state his
needs and engage in age-appropriate communication with peers and adults,
he is likely to be socially ready for kindergarten.
He knows
the basic academic material that a kindergarten would be expected to
know (such as first and last name, address and telephone number, colors
and shapes, etc.)
He’s
been in preschool for several years. Chances are that if you’ve
given your child a preschool education for the past several years and
he’s doing fine in that situation, he’s probably got the
skills that he needs to move on to kindergarten.
Listening
skills are developed enough to follow simple directions. This is part
of what school readiness is all about; being able to listen to what
the teacher says and follow the rules.
Motor skills
are developed enough to accomplish basic kindergarten tasks (such as
cutting paper with child scissors).
Other adults
say so. Yes, you know your child best but sometimes you’re too
close to the picture to be able to see it all. Ask your child’s
doctor, preschool teachers and babysitter for their opinions about your
child’s kindergarten readiness and consider those opinions as
you make your decision.
You can
leave your child for significant periods of time without problems. He
attends preschool or spends time with babysitters or other family members
on a regular basis and doesn’t have long crying fits or other
problems. This is a sign of kindergarten readiness.
Your child
no longer naps. If your child is up all day and able to engage in activities
or naps only briefly in the afternoons, he’s probably ready for
the full-on daily activity of kindergarten.

Like
it or not, you’re going to have to let your child go at some point.
Kindergarten is often one step in that ongoing process. But you don’t
want to do it too early. If you know that your child doesn’t have
the basic motor and listening skills, social abilities or academic foundation
to start kindergarten, go ahead and wait a year. But if your hesitations
are more about your need to hang on than your child’s ability to grow,
then you might have to admit that kindergarten readiness isn’t the
problem.

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