Talking about Kindergarten readiness

        If you have a child in preschool, this is probably a BIG topic on your mind. It’s also a BIG one on ours. Each year many of our parents start to make a choice between continuing for one more year of preschool, or sending their child onto the BIG K. Our Teachers do their very best to begin thinking about this for their students early on, and assessing which choice they believe will benefit the child most, and set them up for the most success. When our Teachers start thinking about this milestone, often times they will tell Parents, “If there is ANY doubt at all, we would definitely rather a student, their Teacher, and their family be extremely confident in their child’s ability to navigate Kindergarten successfully, rather than to be unsure of whether their very first year will be a constant struggle, or a joy.” Kindergarten has become a much bigger deal in the last decade, than it was in the past. It has always been a milestone, but the magnitude has changed.

         So much is expected of our children starting school, and much of it requires a higher level of maturity, independence, and emotional intelligence than in generations before, and simply more than many of our children are possessing of when they have just turned 5.This does not in any way, mean that there is anything wrong with a child. Every child matures and progresses at a different rate, and it is in no way a reflection on the child’s value or intelligence, or on the skill or devotion of the parent. All children are simply made differently.  Navigating a bigger school, school buses, much older school mates, lunch rooms, new friends, independent work expectations, and 5 very long days of intense focus, are just a few of the giant challenges that children have to meet in their first year of school . In addition to the maturity and confidence required to navigate these social challenges, they are also expected to enter Kindergarten with beginning academic skills such as: Knowing Upper and lowercase letters, how to write them, and what sounds they make; counting to at least 30 and being able to identify those numbers; knowledge of all shapes and colors; beginning literacy skills such as word segmenting, syllabic segmenting and rhyming; being able to hold scissors and writing utensils correctly, and use them to write their name in lowercase letters, cut on a line, draw a picture etc. 

At CBCP, our staff is devoted to helping you and your child navigate these waters in any way that we can. Our number one priority is always the success of our students. We know that a continued love for learning begins at the very start of the school experience, and our dearest hope is that our students enter Kindergarten joyful, confident and excited to learn!