The earlier posts in this series outlined an overview of the current state of Kindergarten and shared skills and tasks beginning of the year Kindergartners should have under their belt. In this post, I’ll be sharing some ways to help your child get those said skills under those proverbial belts!

Here’s the overarching idea to remember: young children are like sponges. They just soak everything up! So while this means that yes, young children can learn their letters and numbers from flashcards, it also means that they don’t have to! As I mentioned in my last post, I truly believe that most of the skills that we desire to see in beginning Kindergartners can be learned from your child interacting with you and with the world around him, starting from infancy and leading all the way up to that first day of Kindergarten. Here’s what that might look like:


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  • READ: Surprise, surprise! That’s the first thing on the list! Read to your child every. single. day. Read a variety of genres and for a variety of purposes. Read books that are of interest to your child and help him also expand his tastes and horizons as a reader by introducing him to new titles and to some of your favorites.
  • Along the lines of reading, introduce new concepts through books. Lil’ CB first started learning his letters by reading Chicka Chicka Boom Boom (again and again and again) so we began reading lots of other alphabet books, too. Pretty soon, Lil’ CB could recognize all the letters of the alphabet  from reading lots of ABC books and pointing out letters in different places. We are now working on this with numbers and counting books, too. The great thing is that there are ABC and Number and Color books focusing on just about any theme — from pirate ABC books to counting turkey books to books about different colored trucks — you can find just about anything!
  • Sing songs! There are so many fun children songs that feature rhyming and  alliteration in a silly way. Song’s like Raffi’s Down by the Bay or Willoughby Wallaby Woo introduce children to rhymes and alliteration without them even realizing it at first. After they get the hang of the song, you can talk to them about the ideas of rhyming and alliteration, using the songs as frames of reference. Then play a game, thinking of as many rhyming words or words that start with a particular sound.
  • Have various child-friendly writing tools available for your child to use — crayons, washable markers, colored pencils, etc. All children essentially progress through the same developmental stages of drawing and the more exposure a child has to drawing, the more likely he is to meet these milestone stages at the typical age.
  • Read and write with your child for real-world purposes — make lists together, read signs, write letters and cards, look up answers, etc — the possibilities are endless!
  • Practice fine motor skills in fun ways — paint in the bathtub, write with sidewalk chalk, play with playdoh or silly putty, work on lacing and buttoning.
  • If your child is able to write letters, help him start at the top and pull down to make straight letters, and start at the top and go counterclockwise for curved letters. Give him a verbal path to follow for the letters he writes. A word of caution, though…developmentally speaking, most children will not have the fine motor development needed to write letters properly until about 4.5 -5. So, until then, practicing straight lines and curves and circles is also great!
  • In short, do what you can to cultivate your little reader and writer! Check out our previous series all about this here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4.
  • COUNT. A lot! Count stairs, count steps, count pieces of food, count toys, count seconds, count family members… just count, count, count! And when possible, demonstrate 1:1 correspondence when counting — if you are counting toys, for example, touch each toy or move it to the side as you say the corresponding number.
  • SORT. Sort with your child — sort laundry by type: dark and light, mine and yours; sort silverware as you put it away; sort toys — trains in this bin, tracks in that bin. Have your child explore sorting on her own, too — give her a box of buttons (if she is old enough to keep them out of her mouth!) and watch what she does; do the same with coins or blocks. Ask her to put the ones that are similar together and have her explain what’s the same (they’re all red; they’re all round).
  • Play “I Spy” using shapes and colors to describe the mystery objects.
  • If your child is not yet talking, describe things your child brings you or shows you using descriptive and comparative words. Or, if your child is talking, ask for clarification using descriptive and comparative words.
  • Just as with literacy skills, make Math skills practice as genuine and authentic as possible. Talk about and point out numbers at the store as you compare prices. Point out numbers you are looking for as you drive. Cook with your child and have him help you count out the number of cups, etc. Set the table together and count out the number of dishes, napkins, and cutlery you need. Show her that Math is all around us!
  • Build routines and as your child becomes more verbal; have her tell you what comes next in the routine.
  • Encourage following two-step directions within a logical sequence — “Put your clothes in the hamper and then get into the bathtub.” or “Put your napkin in the trash and then put your dish in the sink.”
  • As much as possible, try to have your child regularly interact with similar aged peers. As you see fit, step back and let your child negotiate interactions with peers on his own. Teach him stock phrases to help him engage with other children — “Hi, my name is ____. Do you want to play?”
  • Help your child talk about her feelings — give her words to name what it is she might be feeling. As she grows older, help her use those feelings words with her peers, too: “I want to play and it makes me sad when you won’t let me.”
  • Prepare your child for transitions by giving him forewarning — “In 2 minutes we’re going to get ready to go. You’re going to start cleaning up then.” Give another reminder at 1 minute. Count down the last 10 seconds together.
  • Play games together to practice taking turns (also a great way to help your child become a graceful loser — we are working hard on this! )
  • In short, and this really applies to building skills overall, talk with your child about anything and everything. Narrate your time together; talk about things you notice and wonder about; answer those gazillion WHY? questions as best as you can; retell shared events; tell stories from your childhood or from earlier in your child’s life… just talk! It is amazing how much just talking with your child can do to build your child’s skills! Talking with your child builds oral language skills and vocabulary, helps them practice conversational turn-taking, validates feelings and questions, and puts into practice many, many basic concepts.
See? No flashcards, no workbooks, no phonics readers, no crazy reading programs for babies. Just interactive parenting in developmentally appropriate, fairly easy and fun ways! And in no way is this list exhaustive…I am sure you are interacting with your little one in lots of other ways that is helping him grow and learn everyday! I know that the New Kindergarten might still seem slightly daunting, but I hope this series was able to demystify the subject a bit. Please feel free to ask any questions that you are still wondering about!