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Working with Your Preschooler Before Kindergarten

Kindergarten in this day and age certainly isn’t what it was two or three decades ago. During the kindergarten school year, your child will learn everything from motor skills to social skills, and everything in-between. Before your preschooler starts their first day of kindergarten, there are some things you can do to prepare them. Here are some tips working with your preschooler before kindergarten.

Social & Emotional Development

• Play age-appropriate board games, teaching them to take turns.
• Have a few play dates at home with kids of different ages.
• Ensure that your child knows that when playtime is over, they need to clean up.

Language Development

• Ask them to draw pictures of things they see around them.
• Teach them how to recognize and write uppercase letters and lowercase letters.
• Give your child a task that involves one or two steps, ensure they follow through with the task.
• If you don’t already do so, read to your child for 30 minutes each day.

Cognitive Development

• Teach them how to sort items by shape, color and size. You can use laundry, toys,          blocks, etc.
• Two or three times a week, practice counting to 10 with your child.
• Have them count items in the home, such as counting the windows in the home.
• Engage in a shape treasure hunt with your kid. You can do this at home, at the grocery       store or out on a walk. Point out to them shapes such as circles, squares, triangles and         rectangles.

Gross & Fine Motor Skills Development

• Play catch with them a couple of times a week, to teach hand-eye coordination.
• Have them stack blocks, knock them down and stack them up again.
• Engage in outdoor opportunities, like running, climbing and jumping, on a regular basis.
• Show them the correct way to hold a pencil.

Creative Arts Development

• Allow them to draw, color and paint using various materials like crayons, colored pencils and watercolor paints.
• Allow them to enjoy his fantasy playtime. For instance, let them be a superhero or an elephant if they wish.
• Ensure your child can recognize basic colors including red, blue, orange, yellow, green, black, pink and brown.