How To Know If Your Child Is Ready For Kindergarten

Your preschooler is getting older and it’s time to start thinking about kindergarten but you aren’t quite sure whether or not he’s ready. Maybe he’s just a little bit shy of kindergarten age and you aren’t sure whether to go ahead and enroll him, making him the youngest kid in the class, or to hold off a year, putting him perhaps a year behind everyone else. Or perhaps you know that your child is technically age appropriate for kindergarten but don’t know if he’s really got the social skills necessary to do well in school yet.

Here are some things that can help you to figure out if your child is ready for kindergarten:

Communication skills are age-appropriate. If your child is able to clearly state his needs and engage in age-appropriate communication with peers and adults, he is likely to be socially ready for kindergarten.
He knows the basic academic material that a kindergarten would be expected to know (such as first and last name, address and telephone number, colors and shapes, etc.)
He’s been in preschool for several years. Chances are that if you’ve given your child a preschool education for the past several years and he’s doing fine in that situation, he’s probably got the skills that he needs to move on to kindergarten.
Listening skills are developed enough to follow simple directions. This is part of what school readiness is all about; being able to listen to what the teacher says and follow the rules.
Motor skills are developed enough to accomplish basic kindergarten tasks (such as cutting paper with child scissors).
Other adults say so. Yes, you know your child best but sometimes you’re too close to the picture to be able to see it all. Ask your child’s doctor, preschool teachers and babysitter for their opinions about your child’s kindergarten readiness and consider those opinions as you make your decision.
You can leave your child for significant periods of time without problems. He attends preschool or spends time with babysitters or other family members on a regular basis and doesn’t have long crying fits or other problems. This is a sign of kindergarten readiness.
Your child no longer naps. If your child is up all day and able to engage in activities or naps only briefly in the afternoons, he’s probably ready for the full-on daily activity of kindergarten.

Like it or not, you’re going to have to let your child go at some point. Kindergarten is often one step in that ongoing process. But you don’t want to do it too early. If you know that your child doesn’t have the basic motor and listening skills, social abilities or academic foundation to start kindergarten, go ahead and wait a year. But if your hesitations are more about your need to hang on than your child’s ability to grow, then you might have to admit that kindergarten readiness isn’t the problem.

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