Your child is growing up. He or she can walk on their own, they can feed themselves, and they are learning how to read. It must be time for kindergarten! Kindergarten, in comparison to when you were younger, is a lot different than taking naps, eating snacks, and learning to read. Now kindergarten is a preparation for the rest of school where homework is assigned and many schools have eliminated nap time. If your child is gearing up to go to kindergarten, then you need to help them get ready for their first official year at school. It might be heartbreaking and hard for you to think of your child going to kindergarten, but it’s time to ensure your child is ready for the upcoming school years.
What Is Kinder-Prep?
Kindergarten preps for first grade and so on and so forth. If you didn’t enroll your child in preschool, then kindergarten may be the first time your child is in an official learning environment. Even if your child was in preschool, kinder-prep is a great way to help your child focus and get ready for kindergarten. Kinder-prep is when you help your child start to gain some skills such as helping to process information, attention, memory, and academic skills. When your child has some extra prep before they head into kindergarten, their brain will be much more tuned in with what’s going on in the classroom. Kinder-prep isn’t only about learning some academic skills, it’s also about ensuring your child can interact with other students and can be engaged during kindergarten. Kinder-prep can be a great opportunity to get your child started on creating a solid foundation of learning.
Tips For Prepping Your Child For Kindergarten
Even if you enroll your child into our kinder-prep program, you’ll want to ensure you do your part to help them further. When you’re at home after work or during the weekends, make sure to take the time to do these activities with your child. By engaging your child with these suggestions, you’ll find that they respond a lot more positively to kindergarten. Pair these tips with our kinder-prep program to give your child a great kindergarten experience.
Read To Your Child
No matter what, this tip of reading with your child will help them sustain a lifelong love of the written word. Reading to your child will help you and your child calm down before bed. It’s a great bonding opportunity, and you can pick fun books to read together. Reading before bed also shows your child that reading is fun because you do it. Many children learn by example, and when you take the time to read before bed, your child will begin to pick up on your habits. To further help your child prep for kindergarten, you can even ask them questions to see if they understood the story.
Set Up Playdates
Playdates between children of all ages can help with social and emotional development. When your child who is four or five plays with a child who is six or seven, they’ll learn emotional development. Playing with older kids or even younger kids will encourage your child to develop more. Consider how siblings are, especially when a new baby is born. Generally, the older child steps up to be more adult and responds to responsibility. When you expose your child to a wider age range of kids, they’ll be much more able to respond to different situations.
Pretend Play
Encourage pretend play! Pretend play will help your child be much more creative and help to develop the cognitive side of the brain. Invisible friends, talking toys, and building a fantasy world will encourage your child in the arts department. You can even join in with your child to enjoy some pretend play and invoke your own imagination. Kids are extremely creative and imaginative, which is why it’s good to harbor that need for pretend play.
At the Brain Zone, we’re a learning center that helps with reading comprehension, learning math, and addressing any learning disorders a child may have. If your child is gearing up to go to school, then they’re going to get homework and you might even learn they have trouble building on some skills. The Brain Zone can help your child build on reading, listening, and math skills to ensure they have a positive school experience. To learn more about our learning center, read about some of our learning programs in Our Learning Programs – Part One, Part Two, Part Three, and Part Four. Help prepare your child for kinder-prep with our kinder-prep program. Contact us for our learning center.
