A list of things your child needs to know before Kindergarten

Some kids are faster and some kids slower. However, it does not really denotes the capability of an individual. Some are good in academics while some excel in other areas like fine arts and etc. The key to it is to discover what your children is good in and what they are not so good in; thus reinforce.

Children nowadays are now being stress out by all the requirements at a young age to be better than the other children, or even fair as well as older children. That is sad. Hence, we have researched a list of things a chid should at least accomplished before heading into kindergarten. And we hope that through this list, it can help both parents and kids when they goes to kindergarten, main idea is that they are able to cope with the educational load and proceed better at handling future expectations.

We like to emphasise that competition is good but overly doing it may cause more harm. Like in one childcare my daughter was in last time, it is only needed of them to know until number 20 at K1. We shifted and the present standard was 40. Our friend's childcare standard was 50. Oops! Hence, let's all sit back and rethink what is neccessary and what is just way too much. Food for Thought!

All right, here you go on this list. =)

Personal and Social Development
Approach to learning
•Shows eagerness and curiosity as a learner
•Persists in task and seeks help when encountering a problem
•Is generally pleasant and cooperative

Self-Control
•Follows rules and routines
•Manages transitions (going from one activity to the next)
•Demonstrates normal activity level

Interactions with Others
•Interacts easily with one or more children
•Interacts easily with familiar adults
•Participates in group activities
•Plays well with others
•Takes turns and shares
•Cleans up after play

Conflict Resolution
•Seeks adult help when needed to resolve conflicts
•Uses words to resolve conflicts

Language and LiteracyListening
•Listens with understanding to directions and conversations
•Follows one-step directions
•Follows two-step directions

Speaking
•Speaks clearly enough to be understood without contextual clues
•Relates experiences with some understanding of sequences of events

Literature and Reading
•Listens with interest to stories read aloud
•Shows interest in reading-related activities
•Retells information from a story
•Sequences three pictures to tell a logical story

Writing
•Uses pictures to communicate ideas
•Uses scribbles, shapes, and letter-like symbols to write words or ideas

Alphabet Knowledge
•Recites/sings alphabet
•Matches upper-case letters
•Matches lower-case letters
•Identifies upper-case letters
•Identifies lower-case letters

Mathematical Thinking

Patterns and Relationships
•Sorts by color, shape, and size
•Orders or seriates several objects on the basis of one attribute
•Recognizes simple patterns and duplicates them

Number concept and operations
•Rote counts to 20
•Counts objects with meaning to 10
•Matches numerals
•Identifies by naming, numerals 0-10

Geometry and spatial relations
•Identifies 4 shapes- circle, square, rectangle, triangle
•Demonstrates concepts of positional/directional concepts (up/down, over/under, in/out, behind/in front of, beside/between, top/bottom, inside/outside, above/below, high/low, right/left, off/on, first/last, far/near, go/stop).

Measurement
•Shows understanding of and uses comparative words (big/little, large/small, short/long, tall/short, slow/fast, few/many, empty/full, less/more.
Physical Development

Gross-Motor Skills

•Pedals and steers a tricycle
•Jumps in place, landing on two feet
•Jumps consecutively- 7 jumps
•Balances on one foot for 5 seconds
•Hops on one foot 2-3 hops
•Hops on one foot- 6 ft.
•Throws a ball with direction- 5 ft.
•Catches a thrown ball with arms and body
•Climbs a playground ladder
•Skips smoothly for 20 feet

Fine-Motor Skills

•Stacks 10, one-inch blocks
•Strings 4 1/2″ beads in two minutes
•Completes a seven piece interlocking puzzle
•Makes a pancake, snake, and ball from playdough
•Grasps pencil correctly
•Copies: vertical line, horizontal line, circle, cross, square, V, triangle
•Copies first name
•Prints first name without a model
•Grasps scissors correctly
•Cuts within 1/4″ of a 6″ straight line on construction paper
•Cuts out a 3″ square on construction paper
•Cuts out a 3″ triangle on construction paper
•Cuts out a 3″ circle on construction paper
•Uses a glue stick appropriately
•Uses appropriate amount of glue for tasks


The Arts

Creative Arts
•Identifies 10 colors: red, yellow, blue, green, orange, purple, black, white, brown, pink
•Uses a variety of art materials for tactile experience and exploration

Music/Movement
•Participates in group music experiences
•Participates in creative movement/dance

Creative Dramatics
•Makes believe with objects
•Takes on pretend roles and situations