Supporting kindergarten readiness at home

I'd like to start helping my son prepare for kindergarten by cultivating some of the skills he'll need. We're happy with his play-based preschool, but I want to supplement the social and emotional development he's getting there with some more specific academic and pre-academic learning. I plan to do this at home for the next 1 1/2 years. I ask for your suggestions for activities, workbooks, or other fun, age-appropriate resources that can help us work on fine motor skills, focus and concentration, and other skills needed for kindergarten. My son will be a young five-year-old when he starts K, and we don't want to red-shirt him; we simply want him to be ready, and we believe we can help him. Advice from kinder teachers and parents who have done this already is especially appreciated! Mom who believes in preparing

It is helpful if your child knows at least some of his letter names and corresponding sounds, but they will focus a lot on that in kinder, so I wouldn't worry if he doesn't know them all. You can help his phonemic awareness (ability to hear and manipulate sounds in words), with rhyming games and oral word play. There is not nearly enough instruction and practice with penmanship in kinder these days, so you can get him activity books that help him practice holding and using a pencil (tracing lines, etc.) Teach him how to hold scissors and give him a bunch of paper to cut up.

If he is interested, you can start pointing out high frequency words in the stories that you read to him; words like ''the'', ''a,'' ''said,'' etc. Another fun activity may be to have him dictate a short story to you. You then write the story for him. Then read the story back to him, pointing to each word as you read.

Of course there is all the social readiness stuff, but you asked about academics. Pre-school should take care of the social stuff.

Whatever you do, don't push him. Let him take the lead; Keep it fun and light. teaching mama