Thrive in 2025: Holding Kids Back for Success

Ready -- or not?

Most states let parents enroll a child in kindergarten in the spring and then decide to defer entry up until school starts. You can feel comfortable sending your kid if she can do the following.

• Sit still and listen to a story attentively for ten minutes.
• Play cooperatively with others (take turns, share, resolve conflicts amicably).
• Follow simple, two-step instructions ("Please choose a book, and then take it to your desk").
• Ask for help when she needs it.
• Express herself in complete sentences of at least five words and be understood by non-family members.
• Use the bathroom on her own.

Although these skills aren't first-day prerequisites, you should start working on them with your child one to two months before kindergarten begins.

• Cutting with scissors.
• Recognizing some rhyming sounds and the starting sounds of words.
• Counting from 1 to 10.
• Zipping or buttoning a jacket by himself.
• Packing and unpacking his backpack.
• Using a pencil or crayon properly.
• Reading a few common sight words, like Mom and go.
• Singing the entire alphabet song.
• Writing his name.

Originally published in the August 2011 issue of Parents magazine.

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