When it comes to starting school, I think every parent fears that their child won’t be ready emotionally, socially or academically. Any of these three can make you lose sleep and none are any better than the other. They are all imperative for a good start to an education.

I’ve had the sincere honor to talk to some great kindergarten teachers over the past several weeks. I made a point to get opinions and best practices from three separate parts of the country. It was amazing to me that even though all the states are dramatically different in what they expect kids to know – when it comes right down to it, the teachers all basically feel the same.

Today, I want to share with you the top things that these teachers felt a child should know:

1. Don’t send you child to school in lace-up shoes if they can’t tie them. I can’t even imagine being solely responsible for keeping 42 individual shoes tied during the day. At what point is the teacher supposed to teach? She’ll be double-knotting for hours! (I’ll be writing more about this when I post about “Dressing Your Child for School” during the summer.)

2. Children need to be able to use the bathroom independently. Button, unbutton, pull up & down, zip and most importantly, WIPE … all by themselves. I’m also going to throw in that they need to know/act upon closing the stall door. My daughter is in Kindergarten and whenever we go to a public restroom with stalls, she tells me a complete list of all the girls who don’t close the stall door. Their lack-of-privacy really troubles her!

3. They need to be able to write (at least) their name with correct pencil positioning and a capital for the first letter with lower case for the rest.

I remember when I was working with the Head Start program in Kentucky, I attended an early childhood conference. I went to a session focused on motor skills and they were discussing writing-readiness for small children. The speaker shared that the best way to prepare a child for writing is to allow them to handle child-sized scissors. The same muscles that you use to operate scissors are also the same muscles that are used for writing. I’ve always remembered that and made sure that my kids were using scissors from a very early age. Now, I know it sounds odd, but they were both “early writers”. Both children could write their names by the time they were two years old. I’m not sure if the scissors had anything to do with it … but they were scissoring little fools and it worked for us!

4. Finally, talk with your child about following and respecting adult authority. Mom and Dad’s rules at home, may not be the same rules that are in the classroom. And, in fact, the teacher may not even be as sweet as your Mom or Dad! This is a great opportunity to begin cultivating respect for all adults regardless of the situation or circumstance. Most Kinder classroom rules are very simple in nature: stay seated, raise your hand to speak, be kind to your friends, listen without interrupting, etc. These things will come easily to some children and be a struggle for others. Begin work on them now in your household.

A friend that I have locally, sent me a list that she uses at registration for kinder students. I wanted to share it, because I think it’s a great resource that I can vouch for in my experiences as a Kinder mom.

Personal and Social Readiness
* Uses the bathroom independently
* Dresses self and buttons/snaps shirts and pants and zips zippers
* Knows own age and birthday
* Separates from parents easily
* Responds appropriately to adult authority
* Demonstrates self-control
* Takes turns when playing with friends

Fine and Gross Motor Readiness
* Traces basic shapes
* Uses crayons, scissors and glue correctly
* Throws or catches a large ball
* Bounces a large ball

Communication Readiness
* Speaks clearly and communicates needs
* Can say his or her full name, address and phone number – including area code
* Knows parents/guardians first and last names
* Follows spoken directions and rules
* Listens to a story without interrupting

Basic Cognitive Readiness
* Identifies basic colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, brown, black
* Recognizes the difference between letters and numbers
* Recognizes letter sounds
* Understands positional words such as up, down, over, under, beside
* Recognizes first and last name in print
* Colors and writes (tries to write letters and numbers)
* Counts to 10

I hope that this helps you prep your child for kindergarten. As a parent or a teacher, please feel free to add your thoughts in the comment section!

Stay tuned over the coming weeks as I post more in the “Getting Ready for School” series. It’s a passion of mine and I love sharing it with you!