Kindergarten readiness is mostly not academic. A child who can sit for fifteen minutes, follow a two-step instruction, manage a zip and a lunchbox, and separate from you without a scene will have an easier September than a child who can already read.
Every year in about February, parents start asking me whether their four-year-old is behind. Almost always the answer is no, and almost always they are asking about the wrong thing. They are asking about letters. The first month of kindergarten is not decided by letters.
The five that matter
- Sitting through fifteen minutes of something they did not choose. Practise with a book at bedtime, not with a screen.
- Following a two-step instruction: "put your shoes in the basket and bring me your cup." Two steps, one go, no reminder.
- Hands: scissors, glue sticks, buttons, zips, a lunchbox lid, a juice pouch. A five-year-old who cannot open their own lunch eats less and asks for help twenty times a day.
- Saying what they need out loud, to an adult who is not you. "I need the bathroom." "I do not have a pencil." This is the one that stops a bad day from becoming a bad week.
- Separating at the door. Short goodbye, same words every time, then go. Lingering makes it worse, not better, and every kindergarten teacher will tell you the same thing.
What about the letters
They matter, but less than you think and in a narrower way. Writing their own first name, recognising it in print, knowing most letter sounds and counting a set of objects to twenty is plenty. A child who arrives with those and with the five skills above will be fine. A child who arrives reading but who cannot ask for the bathroom will not.
If your home language is Spanish
Keep speaking it. The single worst piece of advice given to Spanish-speaking families in this city is to switch to English at home to "help" with school. It does not help. A strong first language is what a second language is built on, and a child who loses Spanish at five usually does not get it back. Tell your kindergarten which languages your child hears at home, and ask whether the campus has a bilingual or dual-language track.