PRESCHOOL READINESS CHECKLIST
Going to preschool is a big step in a child’s life. This is where they will figure out what a classroom is like, begin to learn, and develop different skills. While this can be an exciting and beneficial time for your child, it may also be a hard transition, which is why it is important to help your child prepare. To ensure that your child is ready for preschool, we put together a checklist that can help you determine whether or not they are ready and what needs to be worked on.
At Yellow Brick Road Early Childhood Development Center in Minnesota, we offer preschool as one of our child care programs. Our other programs can help prepare your child for this next step in their life and make sure that they are ready for whatever preschool throws at them.
Improve Your Child's Preschool Readiness.
While our child care programs can help prepare your little one for this next big step, we know that some children don’t attend child care until it is time for preschool. If this is the case, there are some things that your child needs to know and be able to do to improve their preschool readiness. Our preschool program focuses on teaching students early math and literacy skills, works on language development, and helps children with social-emotional growth. Your child will develop new skills and learn a lot during our preschool program, which will prepare them for the next step. Yellow Brick Road has multiple locations across Minnesota, allowing you to find the location closest to you so that your child gets the best preschool experience possible.
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What Is Preschool Readiness?
Preschool readiness refers to how prepared your child is to make a smooth and successful transition into preschool. This includes everything from the preschool environment to the routine, expectations, and social development. Preschool is a big step in your child’s life and if you want to make sure they have a good experience, you will want to ensure that they are properly prepared. When your child begins preschool, they are expected to have some social and language skills, be somewhat independent, and able to follow directions.
Preparing for Preschool
If you want to start preparing your child for preschool, you can start working on these things to help them develop the skills needed to succeed.
Before your child starts preschool, they should have some self-regulation skills. This means that they should be able to properly display and manage their emotions, focus their attention, and behave appropriately based on the activity. Your child should be able to behave in a social acceptable way with other children and adults. They should no longer throw tantrums and be able to deal with their emotions in a better way.
Before preschool, your child should have developed skills in both receptive language and expressive language. Receptive language is their ability to understand. Expressive language is their ability to use language. Working on language skills with your child is important before they start preschool.
When it comes to understanding language, your child should be able to understand basic concepts and follow instructions. Basic concepts include big and little, in and on, under and over, and so on. They should also be able to understand questions and be able to answer.
You also will need to work with your child on using language. Before starting preschool, they should be able to communicate their wants and needs. They should also be able to communicate ideas and thoughts easily. This is an important lesson to work on with your children since they will need to be able to communicate with the teacher properly.
It is also important for your child to have a certain level of social skills before starting preschool. They should be able to interact with others both verbally and non-verbally. They should also be able to play with others and compromise. Working with your child on their social skills can help them to better recognize social cues and follow social norms. This includes things like taking turns, waiting for their turn to talk, and responding when someone speaks to them.
It is important to work with your child on their social skills because this is a necessity in the classroom. They need to know when to raise their hand to talk, how to interact with the other children, and how to interact with the teacher.
While young children are not going to be fully independent, your child should be able to do some things on their own. Before starting preschool, there are a few things you should help your child learn to do on their own. This includes getting dressed, feeding themselves, and using the bathroom by themselves. While your child will likely be toilet trained by this point in their lives, you also want to make sure that they can complete the entire task without help, from using the toilet to washing their hands.
They should also be able to follow directions independently. In other words, they shouldn’t need a teacher, or you, walking them through a process step by step while staying by their side. They should be able to clean up for themselves and complete tasks independently.
Motor skills are also important for your child to have before starting preschool. Both fine and gross motor skills are important for your child to develop. Gross motor skills involve whole-body movements and core strength. This includes things like running, jumping, and other activities like this. Fine motor skills involve finger and hand movement, such as writing, cutting, playing with clay, coloring, and other activities that involve finger strength.
Working on both of these sets of motor skills with your child can help prepare them from preschool. Since your child will be doing a lot of whole-body activities, as well as crafts that involve fine motor skills, they will need to work on both. And during their time in preschool, they will further develop these skills.
These are some of the basic developmental skills that your child should have before starting preschool. While they may not be perfect in all of these areas, they should be close or at least beginning to develop these skills.
Along with these different skills that your child should have before preschool, we wanted to give you a better understanding of some of the knowledge-based skills that your child should have.
RECOGNIZE & NAME COLORS
Show more interest in and enjoy the company of other children. They will go from playing alone near other children to interacting more, even though they will be protective over their toys.
SORT BY COLOR AND SHAPE
They should be able to sort items by color or shape.
COUNT TO TEN
They should be able to count to at least 10 and slowly make their way to 20.
SPEAKING IN SENTENCES
They should be talking in full sentences.
BEGINNING TO WRITE
They should be able to or trying to write their own name.
Learn, Develop, and Grow!
These are a few of the many things that your child should be able to do before preschool. Working on these basics with your child can help prepare them for this next step in their lives and put them on the path to success. While we know that preschool is meant to teach them a lot as well, starting them off with the right basics can help them learn even more.
If you want to know if your child is ready for preschool, be sure to contact Yellow Brick Road. Our teachers will be able to help determine if your child is ready and what you can do to help them become even more prepared. You can also start them off right by enrolling them in our other programs! We look forward to working with your child during this important year in their life by helping them learn, develop, and grow.
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