Kindergarten Success Starts with You and Grows with Us

Dr. Bryn Harari | Hebrew Academy Principal

A parent’s role is crucial to preparing children for school. Emotional intelligence and maturity, intellectual readiness, and physical development are all important factors to consider when assessing a child’s readiness for Kindergarten. A child who is ready for kindergarten will typically separate from parents without tears, appear happy and eager to be at school, play with other children (not just alongside them), and demonstrate curiosity as they talk about what they learn.

Four things you can do to prepare your child for success in kindergarten and beyond:

1. Expose your child to a range of books and nurture language development.

Read aloud to your child and talk with them about setting, characters, and events in the story. Look for opportunities to build vocabulary. High quality online programming can support language development, but does not take the place of child-centered discussion and conversation with parents. This language development will enable them to express themselves, describe their needs, and understand others in kindergarten. These skills are crucial to their success and confidence in the new setting. Moreover, these language skills promote the foundations of reading and writing.

Choose a school that you trust, where teachers are available to guide and engage with you in the educational process. Your child’s success will depend on you and the teacher as partners in learning!

2. Cultivate your child’s natural curiosity and inherent desire to learn.

Encourage them to ask questions and explore. Ask open-ended questions using words like who, what, when, where, why, and how. “Wonder” out loud modeling curiosity and ask your child what they think before sharing your own thoughts. Curiosity, inquiry and exploration is the foundation of all learning and leads to great developments in all areas of science. Supporting your child’s natural curiosity helps them develop into eager and active learners and empowers them to solve the future challenges of the world.

Maximizing every educational opportunity, our Judaic program incorporates important academic skills and subjects to create meaningful and engaging lessons. At Sukkot, students learn how the Etrog tree started from a tiny seed.

3. Partner with your child’s teachers to understand how best to support learning at home.

Learning in a kindergarten classroom is different from any other learning environment your child has been in. Your teachers will help guide you in understanding and supporting readiness and growth. Choose a school that you trust, where teachers are available to guide and engage with you in the educational process. Your child’s success will depend on you and the teacher as partners in learning!

Hebrew Academy’s small class size creates opportunities for personalized instruction, meaningful feedback and reinforcing fundamental skills.

4. Visit a kindergarten classroom, in the school you are considering.

This is likely to build your confidence in choosing a school that will suit you and your child. Inquire about the daily schedule, the learning expectations and goals that teachers have for students, and the resources that the school has to support a variety of learning styles, including those who are advanced, or may need any kind of special support. Make time to “observe” in the classroom. Stand in the back of the room, focus your attention on how the children are behaving, what they are doing, how they interact with each other, and what kinds of skills they are working on. Notice their level of independence and self-sufficiency. Can you picture your child sitting in one of those chairs?