Heading To School.... Are WE Ready

It's that time of year. What time you may ask. Well, back to school time of course. Some children have all ready headed back to school and others like mine will start school. For some children it will be their first day they have ever attended school and for others it may just seem that way. One notable change that takes place happens with the milestone after attending at least 11 years of school as being a senior is always a great year to experience. Yet, another extravagant year is that of kindergarten.

Being ready for kindergarten is important step to being for a lifetime of learning. Skills involved and require for kindergarten and who decides who is ready. Often the state policy, teachers and parents have different opinions of what Kindergarten readiness is.

Teachers often consider children ready for kindergarten base on years of experience and a district wide curriculum. Children should be able to communicate their needs, wants and thoughts verbally, they should also be curious about tasks and skills related to language an literacy skills, math skills, social skills and motor skills. They may not be able to do these subjects by self but be able to show interest. The skills included in kindergarten readiness are:

• Kids should know their colors. Help them learn their colors using food coloring and milk. Stir the different food colors into the milk one at a time. Stir and the milk colors the child should know what color Playing the color game where you and your child take turns sharing what color objects in your environment are. Closely related to colors are shapes. 
• Cutting can be hard for some children. Children that do not yet have skills to cut may start off tearing little pieces and strips of paper. Practice, practice, practice using child safe scissors will help build the skill of cutting. Building skill of cutting using old magazine pictures to cut out will help them build the skill
• While most children are not able to write fluently at the start of kindergarten they can build the skill by practicing the alphabet. Learning the letters that spell their name will help as well. Later writing their own name should be a well practiced skill. Use play dough to create letters and numbers helps their cognitive learning as well as their motor skills. 

Parents definition of being ready for kindergarten may agree more or less with the teachers. Parents thing students should be ready to learn, communicate verbally, share and take turns equally. Parents also believe students who are ready for kindergarten will be able to count to 20 or higher, write with pencils as well as paint with a paintbrush