Kindergarten readiness checklist: is my child ready for kindergarten?

Kindergarten readiness checklist

• Follows simple two-step directions, like "Get your shoes and come to the door."
• Takes turns and plays with other children, with some help.
• Calms down from upsets with an adult's help, and asks adults for help.
• Speaks in sentences that unfamiliar adults mostly understand.
• Listens to a picture book and tells you something that happened in it.
• Hears rhymes like cat and hat, and names some letters, especially in their name.
• Counts to 10 and counts a small group of objects one by one.
• Names some basic shapes and sorts objects by color or size.
• Holds a crayon and tries to write some letters of their name.
• Uses the toilet, washes hands and puts on a coat without much help.
• Opens their own lunch containers and water bottle.
• Has had a recent checkup, including hearing and vision.

Try this today

1. Lunchbox practice picnic. Pack a lunch in the containers your child will use at school and have a picnic at home or in the park. Let them open everything themselves. You'll quickly see which lids need practice, or which containers to swap for easier ones.
2. Count-and-move board game. Play any board game with a die. Your child counts the dots and then counts out loud as they move their piece, touching each space. Talk through taking turns and how to be a kind winner or a good sport when they lose.
3. Three-picture story. Draw three quick pictures of something your child did today: getting up, going to the park, eating lunch. Mix them up and ask your child to put them in order and tell the story using first, next and last.