Kindergarten - What Should You Expect Your Child to Learn

When children enter kindergarten, parents are usually amazed at the progress their children make in the very first year of school. It is very natural that they worry about how they can help them to succeed right from the very first day of school. Parents can help in their child’s growth the most by building her self-confidence and instilling into her a love of learning that will endure throughout her life and assist her to meet specific goals that she may have on a year to year basis.

The focus in the kindergarten year will be on mastering letters, words, and sounds. During the course of this year, she will delight you with her very first attempts of correctly read and write both at school and at home. As a concerned parent, you can help her to have fun with her exploding vocabulary as well as basic math. Since all children are unique, their rates of growth and accomplishment also differ widely, so parents must not panic if their little ones seem to develop more slowly than many others. Some tips on how to help your child:

 

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Letters and Sounds

By the time a child completes her kindergarten year, she will be in a position to recognize, name and write all the letters of the alphabet in both the cases. She will know the right sound that each letter stands for and also read about 30 common words. You can help the child to make progress by reading to them; not only does it help them in school but they also learn to love and enjoy reading. When you read aloud, you help to nurture companionship and also vocabulary and concentration. Get started with very easy books and read the same stuff to them again and again because kids learn a lot through constant repetition. Encourage the child to say words aloud.

Nursery education includes your child also learning to write simple consonants and vowels as well as simple short sentences. At home, ensure your child has lots of writing materials to practice on and encourage her to read aloud what she has written. Offer rewards for jobs particularly well-done.

Numbers and Counting

At school, your child will be taught to recognize number and objects, as well as to count, order, and write up to 30. She will also learn subtraction of small numbers. At home, you can encourage the learning process by getting your child to go through newspapers and magazines for numbers she can recognize. She can then cut them out, and paste them on paper in order. You can also play simple games orally by reciting number and asking for the next number. Fun games involving counting can make her more interested in the learning process.

Shapes and Objects

In the kindergarten class, you child will learn the naming and description of common shapes such as circles, triangles, squares, rectangles, etc. She would also practice identification, sorting and classification of objects by their shape, size, and color. At home, you can talk to your child regarding the characteristic properties of common shapes, and explain the differences between them so that she learns the basics of the formation of each shape. Play drawing games with your child, and then have her color circles, rectangles, and squares. From among her toys, ask her to sort building blocks by color and shape or even ask her to rummage in a box of buttons and pick out the ones of the same size or color.

Time and Seasons

In their very first year of school, kids will also learn how to tell the time to the nearest hour when it is related to certain everyday events like leaving for school or having dinner. You should not, however, expect them to appreciate the abstract concept of time. At home, you can help your child to better understand time by telling and asking them to tell the time of everyday activities. You can try and explain concepts like morning, night, today, yesterday, tomorrow, etc. With the help of pictures, you can explain the concept of seasons, and explore together what she sees in the changing seasons.