Cat, Hat, Bat, Matt! Getting Ready to Read

So often, parents want to know what they can do to get their children ready for kindergarten. My best advice is to help your child with all the self-care routines. Some things to consider:

• Can your child use the bathroom independently?

• Can your child snap, zip, button, and tie clothing and shoes?

• Can they open and close snack and lunch containers?

What about reading and writing? In kindergarten, we will help your child learn letters and sounds. Those letters and sounds will be used for reading and writing. If you’d like to help give them a jump start on the process, keep it relaxed, fun, and playful. Here are some ideas to try:

• Rhyming: Give two words and ask if they rhyme or not. Once your child can do that, give them a word and ask them to give you a rhyming word. Play with sounds. Nonsense words are fun!

• Syllables: Clap, stomp, snap the syllables in a word. Start with shorter words that have 1 or 2 syllables and then move up to longer words.

• I Spy, you can look for things that start with a specific letter or sound.

• Change the sound – Change the first sound in a word to make a new word and give a clue to the new word. “Say, bat. Ok, change the first sound to make something you wear on your head.”

Please remember that your children’s kindergarten teacher has no expectation that children come in reading and writing. That’s our job! Summer is for fun. If you play some letter/sound games, that’s great, but there’s no pressure!

Matt Halpern is an expert in the early childhood community! Check out his amazing work on his website, Instagram, and Youtube!