5 Easy Ways to Prep your Child for Kindergarten

You can prepare your child for Kindergarten at home using these handy tips. All of the tips here have nothing to do with academics. They are all life skills that will help your child feel independent and be successful when they are at school.

How to prepare your child for kindergarten

There are a few things that your child’s Kindergarten teacher wants your kid to know

Hint: None of it has anything to do with academics! Yes, learning the letters and numbers is important but the non-academic things matter a lot more.

This list has to do with helping your child become more independent when it comes to personal care. Once your child can do these things you will benefit at home as a parent too. Yay! A win for all!

Get your FREE Kindergarten Readiness Checklist here

life skills to teach your child

Teach them to blow their own nose

Teach your child how to grab a tissue (aka not use their shirt), wipe and blow their cute button nose and throw the tissue away in a garbage can. I know this sounds so incredibly basic but it needs to be taught!

Daycares often wipe kids’ noses and as a parent, I know how much easier and quicker it is to do this for my kids than to take the time to teach them, but it’s so important! Plus it slightly lowers the chances that I will find mucus on the kids’ tables, and that’s a win in my books.

Use the bathroom independently

The kids need to be able to pull their pants up and down. Either send them with elastic waist pants or teach them how to undo the button on their jeans. I have sweet little kiddos in my class who have had accidents in the bathroom because they were struggling to undo the buttons. They are usually embarrassed or sad when this happens :( and we want to avoid that!

They also need to be able to wipe and wash their own hands, dry them on a paper towel and put it in the recycling/green waste/garbage. They will be asked to wash their hands before snack, before lunch, after messy play or crafts… there is a lot of hand-washing going on up in here.

Open and close their lunch kits and containers

Have your child practice this a few times at home by packing their lunch in their school containers. Let them practice unzipping the container and opening everything. Then have them close it all up and pack it away in a backpack when they are done.

Out of all of the lunch kits I have seen the Planet Boxes are my fave! I plan to get one for my daughter soon because she starts Kindie in Sept as well (and, like you, I have all the feels about it).

Practicing using containers will help your child eat their lunch at school.

Put their shoes or boots on

Velcro is magic. Embrace the velcro.

I totally get the importance of teaching a kid to tie their shoes but Kindergarten is not the best place to start. The kids change their shoes a minimum of 6 times a day and that doesn’t include any extra outdoor ed that happens during class time! In my class we’ll often head outside midday for a nature hunt or do make a craft like this nature crown activity.

Make sure your child has comfy velcro or slip on shoes that they can wear all day in the class and in the gym. No laces = more time for FUN.

If your child already has shoes with laces try these no tie laces.

Put their jacket on

They need to be able to put it on and zip it up. ‘Nuff said. Same goes for rain suits. In Kindergarten we like to get outside and get messy basically all day every day. I use Muddy Buddies with my kids at home and they are great at school too. I recommend sizing up so a warm coat or sweater can fit underneath.

If you’re like any good parent out there you want to set your child up for success when they start school. You want them to feel good and confident at and be responsible for their own personal care.

As a teacher, I am always happy to help with any of these things but that’s not what the kids want to be focusing their time and energy on. They’re excited to get to all of the fun stuff! Think building with blocks, jumping in playground puddles, playing pretend, painting… Why not give your kids a head start?

If you really want to prep your child academically you can try some play-based games to teach them their letters, numbers or shapes like a rock shapes activity with chalk or a sidewalk chalk obstacle course.

Plus I know that sometimes flashcards are the easiest way to get your kids learning simple vocab so you’ll want to check out these fun flashcard games too.

-Breyen

PS If you would like a more comprehensive list of ways to get your child ready for Kindergarten you can grab this FREE Kindergarten Readiness Checklist :)