FREE SHIPPING ON ORDERS $100+, because we love you.

LIKE IT? GET IT. With our Payment Plans

Hassle Free Returns

Your cart

Your cart is empty

Preparing Your Preschooler for Kindergarten

Preparing Your Preschooler for Kindergarten

As schools across the country begin to take up session, it has us thinking about how we can help our toddlers (and even infants) begin to prepare for the day they get to go off to school! 

From learning to fun, there are so many things we can do as parents and caregivers to give our children the edge they need to be prepared for school all while enjoying that time with them while they are little.

We’ve gathered some of the top tips we hear parents of littles who have successfully transitioned into kindergarten have said work the best for them. Feel free to drop some of your own suggestions in the comments! We would love to hear them and share them with our readers. There is no right or wrong way to prepare our children for school so let’s hear all of the suggestions (and fun too)!

 

Start creating routines

That “R” word can be a tough one. But it can also be one of the most important ones we focus on as we begin to prepare our preschool age children for what’s to come in kindergarten!

It’s no secret that kindergarten can be rigorous. However, we can help ease our child into some of the tasks they will be asked to complete in kindergarten beginning in preschool. Start by building into your daily activities a schedule your child can look forward to! Maybe something such as after breakfast we always grab a book and practice sounding out our letters. Or right before lunch, we get to pick our favorite stuffed animal take him around the house to show him 5 of our favorite colors.

Simple and fun activities such as this can make getting into a routine exciting! Once we master the fun parts of routines, we can work on the less fun parts such as setting a consistent bedtime and morning wake routine. Just remember to take it one step at a time and slowly implement parts of your routine over time. Implementing several routines at once can be overwhelming. One new thing at a time will give your toddler the chance to build on top of the routine they learned the week before.

 

Begin Independence

As hard as it might be to begin to let our littles ones grow, it’s important that we allow them the opportunity to begin to build their independence. We don’t have to let them do everything on their own but instilling that confidence that they can start to accomplish tasks on their own is so important and fun!!

You can start small with giving them choices about what task or skill they want to work on that afternoon. Do they want to do shape and letter recognition or color matching and drawing? Or giving them the opportunity to start to learn how to sort by size or shape. Need to match those clean socks in the laundry basket? Perfect job for little learners!

Whatever the skill is, letting them try things on their own will begin to subconsciously develop the skills they will need when they enter kindergarten. They will be so proud of themselves when they become a “master” at one of those skills they have been working on!

 

Reading, Writing and Recognition

One of the most basic but widely used skills your little one will need to have as they enter kindergarten will be recognizing and naming both letters and numbers. Seems simple enough, however, it takes time for them to develop the skillset of memorization and recognition so the earlier you can get them started the better!

Begin with simple books and lots and lots of repetition. You might grow tired of that “A is for Apple” book but know that the repetition is doing wonders for your child’s development as they learn to recognize what the letters look like and the sounds they make.

Start working towards having your children match letter and number sounds to pictures of the letters and numbers. Matching games are the best and kids love them!!

 

Helpful books and games

There are so many options for beginner books, games and hands on activities out there and all of them are wonderful. Here are a few of our absolute favorites that your child might enjoy!

Scholastic Early Learners – Books, flashcards and workbooks! From wipe-clean dry erase books to write and learn books practicing the major skills your pre-school needs to learn, Scholastic has all the best learning tools.



scholastic learning tools by Simply Blessed Kids




Melissa and Doug® – Practicing those eye-hand coordination skills hasn’t been this much fun ever! If you know the Melissa and Doug® brand then you know the high quality educational toys and games they produce. They do not disappoint. A few of our favorites for readying your pre kindergartner for the big year are their Lace and Trace cards, Wooden Basic Skills Board, Poke-A-Dot Learning Cards and their shape and letter puzzles!



melissa and doug toys for practicing hand-eye coordination


Banana Panda – This brand has mastered the fun of puzzles! Winning several awards for their pre-school approved puzzles, they make their puzzles big and bright and perfect for little eyes and hands. We love their long floor puzzle and their matching puzzles. They are easy for little ones to complete while building self-confidence!



pre-school approved puzzles at Simply Blessed Kids


This list gives you a great place to start and some fun ways to begin to prepare your little one for kindergarten. We want to encourage you to make it fun and engaging! They will get plenty of time to continue to work on the skills as they grow so remember to have fun and let a little learning in too.


We hope you have a wonderful start to the school year!

Team Simply Blessed Kids

Previous post
Next post

Leave a comment

Please note, comments must be approved before they are published

{"statementLink":"","footerHtml":"","hideMobile":false,"hideTrigger":false,"disableBgProcess":false,"language":"en","position":"right","leadColor":"#4a4a4a","triggerColor":"#4a4a4a","triggerRadius":"50%","triggerPositionX":"right","triggerPositionY":"bottom","triggerIcon":"people","triggerSize":"medium","triggerOffsetX":20,"triggerOffsetY":80,"mobile":{"triggerSize":"small","triggerPositionX":"right","triggerPositionY":"bottom","triggerOffsetX":80,"triggerOffsetY":10,"triggerRadius":"50%"}}
false