Free printable kindergarten readiness checklist

Ready for Kindergarten Checklist - Printable Parents

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The school year is coming. As a parent, you want to be prepared. So grab the ready for kindergarten checklist pdf and practice those skills.

“I want to go to kindergarten and I want to make friends.”

I’ll never forget the day my four-year-old daughter told me that. First, she was speech-delayed and that was an impressive sentence.

And second, I was a little clueless about how to support her.

Even as an experienced teacher, I wanted a guide that would help me.

So I create one for you. The ready for kindergarten checklist pdf has the top 15 skills that will help your child be school ready.

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links; read more here.

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Ready for Kindergarten Checklist PDF

The ready for kindergarten checklist pdf is a quick and easy way to see what skills you want to target for your child before Kindergarten.

Depending on how much time you have prior to the school year, choose a couple of goals to work on.

A word of warning: no child is going to be completely ready for kindergarten. That’s okay.

Work on the skills you can with your child and then trust that your child will learn and grow the rest of the skills in school.

What should a five-year-old know for kindergarten?

For a child to be ready for kindergarten, they need to have skills in several different areas. In the ready for kindergarten checklist pdf you will see that I broke it down for you into five categories.

The skills for kindergarten doesn’t just boil down to simple academics, but there are tangible concrete things you can work on to develop skills in each of these areas:

• Social-emotional skills
• Self-care skills
• Executive function skills
• Academic skills
• Fine Motor Skills

Learn Social-Emotional Skills at Home

Social-Emotional Skills to be Kindergarten Ready

The first area highlight in the ready for kindergarten checklist pdf is social-emotional skills. This is truly the most important. An emotionally capable child will have an easier time learning.

Now if you have a kid with BIG feelings like me, just keep plugging away on these concepts.

1. Identify their feelings

By the time children start kindergarten, it’s important that they can name their emotions and notice the emotions of other around them.

This is the foundation for emotional regulation which is essential for social skills. It becomes hard to make friends or listen to a teacher’s instruction if your child is overwhelmed by their own feelings.

2. Regulate emotions in some situations

While most 5-year-olds are going to need help to regulate their emotions in some situations, there will be times when they should be able to get calm independently.

Situations like the need to wait for a turn or losing a game require children to manage their own feelings.

3. Show empathy for others

Show care and concern for others in a foundational social skill. In order to have healthy relationships, we need to consider how other people are feeling.

Self-care Skills to be Kindergarten Ready

At home or daycare, your child has access to an adult to help with many self-care tasks. At school, there will likely only be one teacher to 15-30 children.

Your child needs to be able to tend to their physical needs.

4. Have independence with the bathroom routine

Your child needs to be able to go to the bathroom by themselves: from pulling down their pants to wiping, they need to be independent.

Make sure to choose pants with elastic unless your child has mastered buttons. If the school requires a button, practice that now, too.

5. Wash hands thoroughly

Kids are germ machines and schools are germ factories. Even before the pandemic, it was important to have good hand hygiene.

This will increase your child’s likelihood to stay healthy and miss less school.

• Related: Fun Handwashing Activities for Children

6.

This might be a surprising one for parents, but children should be able to open their own lunch containers.  Lunchtime can be really short and if they have to wait for the one adult to help dozens of other children, they won’t have a lot of time to eat.

So practice this now. Or invest in a lunchbox where they just need to open the lid and all the food is ready to go.

Everything Alphabet Printable Pack

Executive Functioning Skills to be Kindergarten Ready

The group of skills around planning and focusing are called executive function. The part of the brain that manages it doesn’t finish developing until people are 25 years old.

So practice and develop skills around following a plan and completing tasks.

7. Follow a five-step routine

Your child’s teacher is going to want your child to put away their backpack, turn in a folder, put their lunch box in the right spot or choose hot lunch, and then get to work.

You can practice routines at home. I recommend you start with the morning routine because it will make your school mornings smoother.

• 5 Tips for Using a Morning Routine Printable

8. Listen to directions the first time

Your child’s teacher is going to give directions once and expect your child to follow the directions. You can practice this at home with games.

Tell your child something like, “Jump three times.” Then make it more complex with “Jump three times then find a book and give it to me.”

This builds your child’s listening skills and ability to follow instructions.

9. Finish a simple academic task independently

Think about something as simple as trace then color a picture. In kindergarten, your child will be expected to do this.

Can they do it without you hovering? If not, you’re going to want to practice.

Find something like these pages in the Everything Alphabet Bundle. An activity where your child knows the instructions because there is repetition will build that muscle memory on how to finish a task to the end.

Learn to Write Numbers Printable Pack

Academic Skills for Kindergarten Readiness

When parents think about skill for kindergarten they often go the academics. That’s because it’s school right?

• Related: A Parent’s Guide to Phonological Awareness

While there are other areas, it’s true that some foundational academic skills will help your child be ready for school.

10. Understand numbers 0-10

Math is based on numbers and having a basic knowledge of the numbers 0 -20 will be really helpful.

We want to move beyond rote counting and make sure your child understands those quantities. So when you work on it, choose a material that will help your child both write the numbers and learn their values.

11. Know the alphabet

Ideally, your child will know all 26 letters. Research indicates that letter naming and letter-sound fluency are predictive of early reading success.

As you work on this, include both lowercase and capital letters and use different types of font.

• Related: Learning the Alphabet is Important

12. Know the letter sounds

After learning the letter names, you can introduce the letter sounds.  This the beginning of phonemic awareness – or the ability to hear the speech sounds that the letters represent.

English is a language of 26 graphemes (letters) that represent 44 phonemes (sounds).

We use picture cut and pasting to focus on the sounds that are represented by the 26 letters. In the Everything Alphabet Printable Pack, also includes the 5 long vowel sounds. So your child will master 31 of the 44 sounds in English.

• Related:  Teach Your Child to Read

Fine Motor Skills for Kindergarten Readiness

Having strong fine motor skills will really set your child up for success in kindergarten. Much of school work is dependent on writing so strong hand muscles will go a long way!

13. Hold a pencil

Most schools teach children to write all 26 lowercase and capital letters in kindergarten. In order to do this, they need to be able to hold a pencil.

Fortunately, you can work on this at home really easily.  Choose 1-3 strategies listed in the post to work on daily with your child.

• Related: How to Improve Pencil Grasp

Our personal favorites are q-tip painting

14. Write their first name

Know our names is an incredibly important milestone. Before your child can write it, make sure they can spell it.

You can use hands-on activities like writing letters of their name on MegaBloks and then building their name with the blocks before you put a pencil in their hands to trace it.

15. Use scissors and glue

Children will be asked to do a lot of cutting and gluing in kindergarten. Give them systematic practice with cutting on a straight line and then pasting down small pieces.

How many letters should a child know before kindergarten?

As I mentioned above, research shows the value of learning the alphabet and having fluency with it (ie. quick effortless recall). So ideally your child will know all the capital and lowercase letters.

But if your child doesn’t know them yet, just practice for five minutes a day until kindergarten begins.  Learning those letters and their sounds is a common core standard for kindergarten and your child’s teacher will work on it with them.

Friendly reminder: mastering the pre-academic skills like knowing the alphabet is just one part of being kindergarten-ready.

How high does my child need to count before kindergarten?

Knowing the numbers 0-10 is just fine.  The teen numbers can be tricky so if your child is ready for that, then go for it!

But, your child needs to count them and also understand the value of each number.

So before you teach your child to count to 100, see if they can count a group of just 8 objects accurately. This is called one-to-one correspondence.

In kindergarten, the common core standard is to learn to count to 100. So your child will have plenty of time to master that.

Conclusion

Dropping off my daughter on that first day of kindergarten gave me all the feelings.  But the best was the pride that she was accomplishing a goal she’d set for herself: going to school.

You can have that same experience at drop-off. Print off the kindergarten ready checklist pdf and check off what your child can already do.

Choose a few skills to work on before school starts and find your resources. Then enjoy those special times working with your child on those kindergarten skills.

Kindergarten Readiness Checklist - The Good and the Beautiful

Get ready for kindergarten! Learn tips throughout this post on how to prep your child for kindergarten, and be sure to download our free, printable, Kindergarten Readiness Checklist!

Starting kindergarten is an exciting milestone for both you and your child. It is a year of new experiences. Many children begin kindergarten in the fall of the calendar year they turn five. However, there is more to consider than just the child’s age when determining whether or not your child is ready for kindergarten. 

Keep reading or click on a specific question to jump to the topic.

1. Is my child ready for kindergarten?
2. What skills should my child know before kindergarten?
3. How can I help my child get ready for kindergarten?
4. Should I wait a year for my child to begin kindergarten?

If you also have these questions, we are glad you’re here! Keep reading for the answers, then download our free Kindergarten Readiness Checklist, along with a collection of ways to help your child get ready for kindergarten.

Click here for free download!

It is common to think age and academic skills determine a child’s readiness for kindergarten, but there are other things to consider as well, such as the child’s interest.

A child’s desire to learn and experience new things is a good sign that your child is ready. Does your child ask questions, make observations, and express interest in the world around him or her? 

Along with an eagerness to learn is a readiness to listen to others and focus on a task. Kindergarteners commonly have shorter attention spans than older children. This is normal and acceptable. They learn best through hands-on experiences like building, experimenting, storytelling, moving, and playing. 

Kindergarteners are new to “sit-down work” and do best with brief, focused lessons. As your kindergartener’s year progresses, his or her attention span will increase, but every child is unique and develops at his or her own pace. Stay positive and patient with your child to help him or her enjoy learning as they grow in maturity! 

Children entering kindergarten should have some experience with the following six skill areas:  

• Language and Communication
• Reading and Writing
• Math and Reasoning
• Social and Emotional
• Fine and Gross Motor
• Independence

Download this Kindergarten Readiness Checklist to help you decide if your child is ready. Children do not need to master all the items on the checklist before entering kindergarten. Rather, use this list as a guide to evaluate your child’s exposure and growth in each of the categories. 

Click here for free download!

One of the beauties of homeschooling is that the transition from preschool to kindergarten is pretty smooth! We’ve compiled a list of activities you can do to help your child prepare for kindergarten.

1. Make instant pudding, sand, paint, or mud. Spread on a cookie sheet and practice writing and drawing.
2. Draw with chalk on the sidewalk or driveway.
3. Make collages using junk mail by cutting up and pasting the images on paper.  
4. Cut letters out of sandpaper for your child to feel with his or her fingers. Lay paper over the top and rub the side of a crayon over the paper. Watch the letters appear!
5. Make a “writing tool box.” Fill it with paper, crayons, pencils, pens, markers, scissors, glue, stamps, stickers, and more.
6. Use Doodles and Pre-Writing for Littles to practice writing strokes.
7. Cook and bake with your child, letting him or her stir, crush, and mash ingredients.
8. Set up a “building tool box.” Fill it with small tools for screws, nuts, and bolts.
9. Use your child’s own clothes or dolls to practice buttoning, zipping, tying, and snapping.
10. Build with small, connecting blocks.
11. Create with beads, string, stamps, paint, dough, scissors, glue, and more.
12. Find more craft ideas on our blog.
13. Put together puzzles.

1. Provide small and large playgroup opportunities with other children so they experience meeting and interacting with new kids. Ideas: local storytimes, neighborhood playgroups, cooperatives, etc.
2. Provide one-on-one playtime with a friend.
3. If there is a disagreement between children, give them time to see if they can solve the problem in a positive way before stepping in. If they need your assistance, be careful not to embarrass any of the children. Demonstrate and explain appropriate behavior, as well as why it’s a more effective way to work out their differences.
4. Praise your child for pleasant behavior towards others as often as possible. It encourages your child to do it even more!
5. Make a habit of using manners in your home. Use words and phrases such as please, thank you, you’re welcome, can I help you, excuse me, may I use your ___, and I’m sorry. 
6. Teach your child how to share things with others. A child learns from example.
7. Play board games as a family to teach proper behavior for winning and losing.
8. Make and use puppets or pretend play different situations

• Teach your child self-care skills: 
  1. Dressing and undressing
  2. Showering or bathing
  3. Handwashing and nose blowing
  4. Dental care
  5. Hair care

• Teach your child how to do simple chores:
  1. Setting and clearing the dinner table
  2. Emptying and filling the dishwasher
  3. Sweeping and vacuuming
  4. Wiping spills
  5. Dusting
  6. Taking out the trash
  7. Caring for pets
  8. Picking up toys
  9. Folding clothes
  10. Making bed

1. Use a large, descriptive vocabulary to talk about the things your child sees and does.
2. Encourage your child to ask questions, and then help him or her discover the answers. 
3. Ask your child about his or her feelings, and share your feelings too.
4. Give your child directions to follow. Start with two-step directions.
5. Read, read, and read together! Books build vocabulary, experience, comprehension, attention span, and relationships. It is precious time spent with your child.
6. Play guessing games like “I Spy” to practice reasoning and problem-solving skills. 
7. Read poetry and sing songs with your child to expose your child to rhyme and rhythm. Check out these poetry blog posts for more ideas and free downloads.
8. Play an imitation game where the child does or says what you do or say. 
9. Listen to your child with the same attentiveness that you expect from him or her. 
10. Have your child retell a story you have read to him or her.
11. Sequence 3–5 pictures in order of events.
12. Host a poetry party using Poetry Parties for Littles.
13. Play any kind of memory game.
14. Talk about daily tasks in detail as you do them.

Download our Kindergarten Readiness Checklist for a list of fun ideas in the following areas of early childhood development:

• Fine motor skills
• Social skills
• Independent living skills
• Language skills
• Literacy skills

Click here for free download!

In some instances, waiting a year is the best answer. A child who is newly five may not have the attention or maturity needed for kindergarten. Waiting a year allows a child to gain confidence, social maturity, and academic skills. 

High school graduation is another thing to consider when thinking about an early or late start to kindergarten. Think about the age your child will be when he or she graduates high school. 

We hope this post eases your worries and helps you learn how to prepare your child for kindergarten, using our kindergarten readiness checklist! Learn more about our customer-favorite Preschool and Kindergarten Prep courses by clicking either image below! 

These colorful, exciting courses are easy to teach and keep a child’s interest with bright images and fun games. Children learn letters and their sounds, shapes, numbers, how to hold a pencil, and much more. 

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how the short stay group can help, books, videos and recommendations for parents

Vera Danilenko

helped the child get used to kindergarten and did not go crazy

Author profile

When my son was a year and 10 months old, I sent him to the short stay group stay. And when he turned 2.7, he went to kindergarten for a full day.

Before, I naively thought that a child goes to kindergarten easily and joyfully: he waves his hand, smiles and hides behind the door with the teacher. After that, the happy mother goes to drink coffee in peace and quiet.

In the end, everything turned out exactly the opposite. In the first days, both sobbed: the child was in the arms of the teacher, and I was under the door. Later, the son either wanted or did not want to go to the garden. Sometimes I really didn’t want to - once I couldn’t even dress him, he waved his arms so much and pulled out in the process of getting ready.

I will tell you how I solved this problem with the help of information from books, advice from experienced parents and my own intuition.

How I assessed my son's readiness for kindergarten

I decided to send my son to kindergarten when he was one year and 10 months old. I already wanted to work, but that was not the main reason. First of all, the behavior of the child prompted me to such a decision.

The son grew up active and needed to communicate with other children. We often walked with my friend and her son, and I began to notice that my child is much more independent. For example, a friend’s son didn’t want to leave his mother and pulled her into the sandbox with him, while mine paid almost no attention to me: he ran to the other end of the park, explored puddles, climbed stairs and fences, played ball with other children.

On the Internet, I saw a lot of different materials on how to assess the readiness of a child for kindergarten: and advice from mothers of large families who have gone through this several times, and recommendations from psychologists, and even information on the websites of kindergartens or clinics. With their help, I identified the following criteria for a child's readiness for kindergarten:

1. Understands and follows simple instructions and requests. For example, he can bring a certain toy and put a glass of water on the table.
2. Can say what he wants.
3. Makes contact with peers.
4. Accustomed to daily routine.
5. Can eat independently.
6. Drinks from a mug, not a cup.
7. Goes to the potty.
8. Puts on pants on his own. It can still be difficult for three-year-olds to fully dress without the help of adults.
9. Can spend several hours without mother.

/priem-rebenka/

How to enroll a child in a kindergarten without a residence permit

The problem was that my son was not yet two years old and he did not have time to master all the skills of self-care. This is normal: in our short stay group, most of the babies walked around in diapers, did not know how to dress, and some caregivers even had to be spoon-fed. But I could not find the readiness criteria for such babies.

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What to do if the child was not given a place in kindergarten

Because of all these questions, inconsistencies and many different opinions, I was guided only by my feelings and estimated my son’s readiness for kindergarten intuitively. For me, the main question was: will he be able to spend several hours without me? Other requirements were not so important, so the rest of the skills can be pulled up.

In Russia, at the age of two, a child can be placed in a short stay group or nursery. I'll tell you more about how everything is arranged there.

What is a short stay group

I learned about short stay groups from my friends. Not every kindergarten has them, but ours, the nearest one in Abakan, had them.

There are several kindergartens in Abakan with nursery groups, where children are taken from two months old: these are specially equipped rooms with changing tables, refrigerators for baby food and breastfeeding rooms where mothers can come. Short stay groups - GKP - are more like a regular kindergarten, but with limited functionality.

Children do not spend the whole day in the GKP, but only 3-4 hours. Walks and sleep are not provided during this time, but children are fed once. The rest of the conditions are similar to an ordinary kindergarten: children play and go to classes according to the schedule - they do physical education, drawing, music. They also visit the sensory room: there is a pool with balls, tactile paths, an interactive panel with touch sensors and sound accompaniment - children listen to the sounds of wildlife. All this relaxes the kids, develops their fine motor skills and activates thinking.

Regulations on short stay groups in Abakan

From what age to accept children in such groups, each kindergarten decides independently. You can enroll a child in our kindergarten only from the age of one and a half.

Enrolling in kindergarten was not difficult. I called the manager, found out if there were places and what was needed for enrollment. There were places, but I was advised to hurry. The one who filed the documents in advance succeeded.

I signed up in August 2020. Due to the coronavirus, the situation was unstable, the gardens worked intermittently. Everything more or less stabilized only by the end of August - then the admission of children to the CPC was announced. But usually the set goes already in May - it is better to find out about this in advance in your garden.

/prava/deti-deti-detishechki/

Rights of kindergarteners' parents

The main condition for admission to kindergarten was a medical examination. We did everything in a day: we visited a pediatrician, a neurologist, an ophthalmologist, a pediatric surgeon, an otolaryngologist, a pediatric urologist-andrologist and passed two general tests - urine and blood. There was a dentist on the list, but the doctor was on vacation. We did not pass it, and after that we were not forced to do it.

We also bought a medical card 026/U-2000 - this is a printed book where all the results of the child's examination are entered.

The next morning we went to the garden, I handed over all the documents to the manager and signed the contract. The son went to the garden from Monday, it was the end of August 2020.

In our most ordinary, public kindergarten, there were two groups of short stays: morning and evening. In the morning group, kids are from 09:00 to 12:30, in the middle of the day they are fed lunch. The evening group is open from 14:30 to 18:00, children are fed a hearty dinner: soup, fresh vegetables, bread and compote. Both groups have the same teachers and nannies.

718 Р

we paid for the evening short-stay group

15 people are recruited into each group. We didn’t get into the morning class: the places were quickly taken, but we managed to sign up for the evening class. The fee was 718 R per month.

Parents can receive compensation for attending the PCU, as well as for full stay groups: in this case, part of the kindergarten fee is returned to the parents' account. The monthly compensation for the first child is 20%, for the second - 50%, for the third and subsequent children - 70%.

But there is a caveat: in some regions, all parents without exception can apply for compensation, and in some regions, only those in need. For example, in Khakassia, only those parents in whose families the average per capita income does not exceed one and a half times the subsistence minimum established in the republic can count on this money. We do not meet this criterion, so I have never issued compensation.

Decree of the Government of the Republic of Khakassia dated February 5, 2014 No. 39

In other cities, the conditions in the GKP may differ. For example, sometimes children go to the garden not every day, but three days a week, attend a group only with their parents and bring a snack with them. If you are planning to send your child to the PCG to free up time for other things, check in advance exactly how these groups work in your kindergarten.

How we prepared for Kindergarten

This is what my son and I did before he went to the GKP.

Set up a daily routine. So that a clear schedule does not become a shock for the child, I decided to introduce a daily routine at home. Now I tried to wake up, put to bed and feed my son at the same time.

Difficulties arose only with daytime sleep. When my son was a year and 10 months old, he had one two-hour daytime sleep. He fell asleep at about one and woke up at 15:00. When it became known that he only got into the evening group - it works from 14:30 - I had to adjust the schedule and put it at 12:00.

Because of this, at first it was difficult: the son could not fall asleep, he was spinning for a long time. As a result, the regime shifted - I began to put him to sleep earlier at night and wake him up early in the morning so that by 12:00 he had time to get tired.

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Often walked near the garden. I wanted my son to get used to the idea that there is a kindergarten and he would go there. The garden is located next to the square where we walked every day, so sometimes we came close to the fence, watched the kids play in the gazebos or on the playgrounds. I told my son what was happening there, and said that soon he would be able to play there too.

They began to visit public places more often. I was worried that in kindergarten a child might be frightened of a large number of strangers, and I would not be able to support him. To prepare our son, from the age of one and a half we began to go to game centers, a zoo, parks and spent at least 1. 5-2 hours there: according to my idea, this was to teach my son to explore new spaces and not be shy in situations when there is noisy around and vain.

We also went to developmental classes several times - first to music, then to drawing. I wanted my son to do something in the company of other kids and find out that there are other entertainments besides the sandbox and active outdoor games.

We just spent a lot of time together. I thought that if my son and I constantly play, read, draw together, then he will get fed up with me and more willingly go to the garden to find a new social circle.

How I brought my son to kindergarten for the first time

In our kindergarten there were neither parent meetings nor preliminary acquaintances with teachers. They signed a contract, gave an invitation, and said what day and time to come. All.

We managed to see the room where the children are only from the corridor: moms and dads were not allowed to go inside due to coronavirus restrictions. But the group left a pleasant impression: the garden is new, clean and beautiful, in a small room where children work, a slide, tables with chairs and several closets with toys.

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What should be in a safe kindergarten and school

For the first time, my son perceived the kindergarten as another children's center: now we will play, scatter everything and go home. He entered the group with interest, but when I was about to leave, he burst into tears. Although I told my son about good teachers, guys with whom you can play with a bunch of different toys, this did not affect the first day in the garden.

My son went to the group with his teachers, and I sat in the hall for an hour. It was a very long hour. The watchman aunt reassured me: “We have such good teachers! He will soon get used to it, everything is like that at first.” My son greeted me with tears.

The second day was even worse. The child did not want to go to the garden so much that I had to carry him in my arms from the door of the apartment to the door of the group in the garden. The road takes a maximum of 3 minutes, but with fifteen roaring kilograms on hand, it was difficult to overcome even this short path.

He didn't want to let go of my hand either. As a result, the teacher almost literally had to tear my son away from me, but I left him in the group - again for an hour.

At that moment, I realized that the adaptation that I had planned for myself would not happen.

I started to communicate with parents who already had experience of adapting to kindergarten with older children. Everyone agreed: the sooner you send the child to kindergarten, the easier everything will be. And tears are a normal reaction of a child to new conditions. Today I also adhere to this opinion. The only question is how long these tears will last and whether the parents will be able to help the child get used to the garden.

How to carefully prepare a child for kindergarten

Olga Viktorova

clinical psychologist, specialist in child and family psychology

organized. With a competent approach, you can equally successfully adapt both a one-and-a-half-year-old and a five-year-old child. Ideally, success requires a sensitive educator who is ready to build relationships with the child, a small number of children, a constancy of the environment and a gradual process.

There are no children who are ready and not ready for the garden - there are adults who are ready and not ready to adequately adapt the child. Parents should be consistent and, first of all, decide for themselves how much and why they need a garden. Then it will be much easier to convince the child of this. Prepare for the garden in advance - explain to the child what changes will come in his life and why they are needed. This must be discussed with an emphasis on how useful such a decision is for both the child and the family as a whole.

Adapt to changes gradually - give yourself and your child time. In the first days, it is optimal for a baby to be in the garden with a parent, getting used to and building relationships with a new adult - a teacher. In order to leave the child for a full day, you need to come not immediately, gradually increasing the time spent in the group.

Be a team, focus on progress. Don't idealize or demonize the garden: a calm and realistic attitude is the key to a child's peace of mind. And of course, it's nice to have the same adequate teacher on the other side.

If the adaptation fails, you will notice significant changes in the state and behavior of the child: increased anxiety, the development of all kinds of fears, excitability, or, conversely, apathy. Perhaps a violation of appetite, sleep, developmental regression, neurotic manifestations, such as enuresis.

Whims and unwillingness to go to the garden, tears when parting with parents at first, refusal to eat or sleep in the garden can be considered normal.

What to read and see for parents

When it comes to adaptation in kindergarten, they usually talk about a child. But in fact, it is also difficult for parents: physically, when you have to carry a roaring baby to the garden, and morally, when you are haunted by the thought that the decision to send him to the garden was wrong.

The problem of parental adaptation arose not only for me, but also for other mothers in the group. One day, one mother wrote a long accusation message in a general chat that caregivers do not help her child get used to the garden. At the end she added: "It's your responsibility."

Many stood up for educators, emphasizing that helping a child to adapt is not only the task of educators, but also of the family. At the end of the correspondence, the mother, who started the conversation, admitted that she had lost her temper and added that it was simply very hard for her to see her child's tears every day.

/kuda-detey/

Which is better: a private garden, a public one, or a nanny

I try to establish normal relations with caregivers, without baseless accusations and demands, for one simple reason: to make my child calm. Many situations can arise in the garden when a parent will need the help of a teacher: dress warmly for a walk, if the weather suddenly deteriorates, wake up early, because dad will pick up the child not at 17:30, as usual, but at 16:00. It’s more comfortable for me to voice my requests to educators, knowing that we have a good relationship, which means they will help me.

In order to better understand the child's reactions and not overreact to them, I began to study the topic of adaptation. Let me tell you what helped me.

What books helped me

Anna Bykova's book "My child goes to kindergarten with pleasure." Anna - teacher, psychologist, mother of two children - talks about the psychological side of adaptation. She worked as a kindergarten teacher and partly showed the wrong side of this profession. Sometimes you need to put 20 servings of porridge on plates, and it's really difficult, because one child spilled a coffee drink on himself, another vomited, and the third was just brought in, he screams and does not want to let his mother go. So, when we first came to the garden, I immediately looked at the teachers as heroes.

This book has helped me the most. I learned that tears during the adaptation period are normal. That a kindergarten is not a place where you can want or not want to go. This is the place you just have to go. And I also understood the main thing: adaptation is not a leap, but a long way that the whole family will have to overcome in small steps.

Book by Ludmila Petranovskaya "Secret Support". Lyudmila Petranovskaya is a well-known psychologist-teacher. And her "Secret Support" is one of the bestsellers for young parents. In the reviews, many mothers write that this book should be given out in maternity hospitals along with a booklet on breastfeeding, and I agree with them.

Petranovskaya tells in detail about the peculiarities of a child's development at a particular age: what are the stages and how they go, when to expect crises and how to cope with them. This book helped me find a common language with my own child - this is especially important for the adaptation period.

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As a new parent taking their child to kindergarten for the first time, it was useful for me in principle to know what to tell a child about kindergarten.

What videos helped me

Dr. Komarovsky's YouTube channel. Evgeny Komarovsky is a pediatrician who conducts an educational program for parents on a variety of topics: not only about health, but also about how to help a child get used to a new environment and what to do if he turns out to be a non-sadik.

Sometimes I play his video in the background while I cook dinner and listen to everything: about food and water for children, about vitamins and medicines, about seasonal diseases and how to deal with them. And so, imperceptibly for myself, I am replenishing the treasury of knowledge about everything related to the upbringing and health of children.

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Responsibilities of parents

YouTube channel Family is… Psychologists, pediatricians, specialized pediatricians and other specialists in short videos talk about everything that worries parents. For example, how to survive childhood crises, what not to tell a child about, and what will help to cope with feelings of guilt.

Psychologist Marina Romanenko gives basic advice on how to prepare a child for kindergarten. As I have seen from my own experience, they work.

How my friend supported me

My friend's support helped me apply all these tips and techniques in life: our children went to the same group. We walked together while our sons were in the garden, took turns calling the teacher to find out if Misha and Dima had calmed down, shared advice from psychologists' books about children's adaptation, came up with new rituals that would calm children down. It helped a lot.

It is important that we had time for this: when our sons went to the garden, we were on maternity leave. I would advise other parents to allow time for adaptation. Probably, ideally, the more the better.

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What rules helped my son to go to the garden without whims

I will tell you about a few rules that helped my son get used to a new place and new people. These rules did not immediately appear in my head - I read something in books, heard about something from other parents, came to something intuitively.

Explain to the child that they are waiting for him in the kindergarten. A child should not go to some abstract kindergarten. He must go to a person who will temporarily replace his mother, protect and caress, if necessary.

This was not a problem in the short-term group. Both the teacher and the nanny were sensitive, hugged the children, sat them on their knees, carried them in their arms - in general, they replaced their mother as best they could. Therefore, if my son did not want to go to the kindergarten, I often told him that the teachers were already waiting, bored and prepared his favorite toys for him. It worked.

Now my son goes to a full-time group, and I can only use this method every other time. One of the teachers is kind, and the second is stricter, and her son does not go to her with such a desire. I understand that I cannot demand joyful greetings, smiles and emotions from the teacher. The main thing is that he should watch the children, help them eat, fall asleep, and dress them according to the weather before the walk. Therefore, I solved the problem in a different way - I shifted the focus from the educator to the children.

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How to get compensation for kindergarten

I took a closer look at which of the guys during the day my son plays the most. Now, when a strict teacher meets the kids in the morning and the son does not want to go, I remind him of the friends who are waiting for him.

The main thing is to check in advance in the group chat whether the kids will come to the kindergarten, otherwise it will turn out to be a deception, and this will undermine the child's trust.

Do not leave the child in the garden immediately and for a long time. Situations are different. Sometimes a ticket to the kindergarten is already given when parents need to go to work, so there is no time for adaptation. But I could afford to pick up my son from the garden at any time and decided not to leave him immediately for the entire duration of the group.

At first I intuitively felt that “the best way to learn to swim is to throw it out of the boat in the middle of the river” is not really the best, and then I found confirmation of this thought in books. For example, Anna Bykova warns that a child may lose a sense of security, and this will affect behavior in other situations. For example, he will stop letting his mother go from him at all day and night.

The first time I left my son in a short-term group for an hour. Gradually increased the time: today - an hour, in a few days - an hour and 15 minutes, and so on. There was no clear scheme: I looked at my son’s mood and, if I saw that he was doing well in the garden today, I left it for 15, then 20, then 30 minutes longer than yesterday. So the child gradually, without strain, got used to the teachers and the children.

My son spent the prescribed 3 hours in the garden only a month and a half later, when I felt that he could endure this time without me.

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Do not miss the garden without a good reason. I fell for this trap once. We missed the garden just like that: my son didn't want to go, but I succumbed. The next day, I couldn't even put on his pants and jacket - so he protested. I had to write to the teacher: “Sorry, Misha won’t come today - I can’t collect the child.”

Once you give up the slack, and the child will remember it. Therefore, for several months after this incident, I repeated in the mornings: "Dad goes to work, mom works at home, Misha goes to kindergarten." The son got used to this thought, and morning preparations became a familiar routine without whims.

Never be afraid of a garden. I know parents who tell their children: if you misbehave, I will take you to kindergarten. Or: if you don’t collect toys, I’ll be the last to pick you up from the garden. Perhaps this gives an educational effect, but it seems to me that it only complicates the process of adaptation: who wants to voluntarily go to a terrible and unpleasant place.

From the very beginning, my husband and I spoke in front of our son about the kindergarten only in a positive way: there are good teachers, many children with whom you can play, delicious porridge for breakfast. And in our garden there is a large aquarium with beautiful fish, a lot of bright drawings on the walls, an incredibly friendly guard aunt who knows everyone by name and greets everyone with a smile.

The most difficult thing is to follow what other relatives say to the child about the kindergarten. Grandmothers, when they meet, often begin to ask their grandson whether they feed at all in kindergarten and whether other children offend. We have to explain that such questions should not be asked so that the child does not associate the garden with a place where they can offend or leave hungry.

I see that our tactics have had the effect I wanted: for him, kindergarten is a place where they eat, sleep, and play.

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Don't disappear without saying goodbye to your child. This is probably the mistake most parents make. It's easier to run away than to watch your baby cry. But the problem is that the principle “if I don’t see it, then it doesn’t exist” does not work here.

I read from Lyudmila Petranovskaya that such disappearances can negatively affect the child: he will constantly wait in suspense that his mother is about to disappear without warning. And even a momentary parting, when mom needs to go to the bathroom, will be accompanied by crying.

As a result, I formulated the following rule: the child must see and understand that the mother is leaving. This is a sad moment, but it is needed so that the child knows: mom is gone, but she will return. When a child cries and protests, he is psychologically preparing for parting - do not add deceit to this.

Allow the child to throw out emotions. When my son went to the GKP, I began to notice that after kindergarten he becomes very active. We were going home for 15-20 minutes: he had to run around the whole locker room, indulge, laugh out loud. At home, this continued: he could jump on the sofa for half an hour, and react to any prohibitions with aggression, for example, to swing or even hit.

I did not understand why the garden “spoils” my son so much until I found an explanation in the book of psychologist Bykova. For a child, kindergarten is a new place where he experiences great stress. All the time while he is there, he has to internally clamp down, suppress emotions. And then you urgently need to throw them out.

Therefore, I tried not to limit my son. If after the garden he wanted to play around, run around the playground or pull his pants over his head, I did not interfere. If he wanted to do something unsafe - like sitting in a puddle or climbing too high on a ladder and jumping off it - I just explained over and over again why it was impossible.

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Violent attacks, as I called them, went away after about 2-3 months. The son finally got used to the garden.

How were the first days in the full-time group

We received a full-time kindergarten ticket when our son was 2.7 years old. It was the same garden where he went to the short-term group, but everything was new for the child.

New educators have appeared in the full-time group, and the schedule has also changed. The son stayed in the kindergarten for the whole day. During this time, they were fed five times, put to sleep during the day and taken out for a walk twice.

On the first day, it was not clear to my son why we, as usual, did not go up to the second floor and generally turned the wrong way. The sight of the new teacher brought tears to his eyes. It helped that many of the guys were familiar to him. I managed to convince my son that old friends were waiting for him here too.

I planned to pick up my son from the garden just before going to bed: I could not believe that he would fall asleep in a new place without me. But it didn’t have to: the teachers were able to put everyone to bed. On the second day, everything happened again. It turned out that from the very first day, the son began to stay in the garden for the whole day - until 17:30.

The son ate well and played well with other children, but the stress from the change was still there. In a dream, he sometimes said "No stomp!" That's the name of his group. He also cried: both in the morning, when they left him, and in the evening, when they took him away.

How are the daily preparations for the kindergarten going? I convinced him that there was no way without it: dad had already left for work, mom also had things to do, so Misha would go to kindergarten.

I distract with a cartoon. I created a folder with my son's favorite cartoons on a flash drive and put it in 10 minutes by the time of collection. If the morning started with tears, we turned on the cartoon that the son asked for: this helped him calm down and come to terms with the state of affairs.

I suggest choosing clothes. I want to give my son the feeling that he himself can control something. If the shorts don't match the T-shirt he chose, I don't care. The main thing is that it helps to cheer up the child.

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I suggest taking a toy. According to the rules, you can’t bring your own toys to our kindergarten: other children will also want to bring their own, then someone else’s will play, someone will be taken away, someone will be offended . .. But I know that if my son puts a figure of Spiderman in his backpack , then he still won’t get it in the garden, because he will simply forget. But during the preparations, he will be greatly cheered up by the thought that his favorite toy is going to the garden with him.

I'm not in a hurry. If you don’t get distracted, the road to the garden takes 3 minutes, but with us it usually takes 10 minutes: I tell what we will do in the evening, my son touches everything, throws pebbles into puddles, picks up sticks. I am not in a hurry - I think that the child should be allowed to calmly overcome this path, calm down internally, tune in to the fact that he will spend the whole day without mom and dad.

In the kindergarten locker room, tears usually start again. Even if the son comes in in a good mood, one crying child is enough for him to cry too. To distract my son, I immediately hand him sandals and ask him to put them in the shoe rack.

The rest was usually sad. I put on shorts for the child - he cried. She pulled on her socks and cried. I took out a change of shoes - I cried. Rather, I threw all my clothes into a locker in order to say goodbye and leave as soon as possible - I cried. It was necessary to come up with something.

The locker organizer helped us. This thing solved two problems at once: it put things in order and distracted the child from tears. Now, every morning, the son almost does not pay attention to the crying children, because he is busy: he takes out a change of clothes from his pockets, tries to fold and put something back.

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The last push is to hand over the disguised child to the teacher. I noticed a long time ago: the longer you say goodbye, the more difficult the child goes to the group. So this is the fastest moment: I kiss my son, wish him a good day, say who will pick him up today, mom or dad, wave my hand and close the door.

Even if my son suddenly burst into tears at this moment, I know that he will be more quickly distracted if I am not around.

What else helps to cheer up a child

When my son started going to the garden, I noticed that the same actions calm him down.

For example, one day before going to a group, we were sitting at the door. I, as usual, said that my mother needed to go to work and soon I would pick him up. And then she took me on her knees, hugged me and sang a song in my ear, which I usually sing before going to bed. He liked it so much that each time, before stepping over the threshold, he asked to sit on his knees, hug and sing a song. This was our first ritual that cost nothing, but helped our son get ready for a day without parents.

I saw that the rituals worked, so others soon appeared in our lives. I will tell you about what we do every day so that the child feels comfortable and calm in kindergarten.

We blow bubbles. This ritual appeared in the summer: every morning we went out 5-10 minutes early, stood at the entrance, blew and popped bubbles.

This cheered up not only my son, but also other kids who walked by. Many stopped and popped bubbles with us, some stopped crying.

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We take a piece of home with us. Once I saw key rings in the form of multi-colored rubber cubs in an ordinary newsstand and bought three pieces of different colors. When my son didn’t want to go to the garden, I took out key rings: we attached one to the child’s backpack, I took the second, and dad took the third.

I explained to my son what to do if you feel sad in kindergarten: you can open the locker, look at the teddy bear and remember that each of us has a piece of the family, which means that we are all as if close by.

Pick up early from the garden. It was not clear to me why my son was crying when he was taken from the garden. The teacher clarified the situation: Misha was upset if his parents took someone away earlier than him, and then splashed out these emotions when we appeared.

Once, when the preparations for the garden were tight, I promised that I would take the first son if he would stop being capricious. The effect was obvious: we calmly reached the garden, my son waved his hand at me before parting. I really did pick him up first from the group - an hour earlier than usual. There was a lot of joy.

Since then, I sometimes promise my son that I will take him first: in the morning it helps to get ready without whims, and in the evening it causes delight.

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Wave balloons from the balcony. One day my husband took my son from the garden, and when they came to the house, I hung out the laundry on the balcony. There were balloons in the corner that were left over from some holiday. I took an armful, opened the balcony window and leaned out with colorful balloons. This impressed the child so much that it became another ritual.

I don't often meet a child like this, but this method always cheers him up. The only problem is that the balloons quickly deflate, so you always need to keep a small supply at home.

We put surprises under the pillow. Every day I try to put something tasty under my pillow. The son comes from the garden and first of all runs to the sofa to joyfully turn over all the pillows and find the "treasure". It cheers you up even after a hard day in kindergarten.

Remember

1. Adapting to kindergarten is a complex process, and it is better to prepare for it in advance: read the advice of psychologists and ask other parents to share their experiences. Remember that not only the child adapts to the kindergarten, but also the parents.
2. Tears during the adaptation period are normal, they should not be feared. A child needs time to get over the separation from their parents.
3. If possible, let the child get used to the garden and do not leave immediately for a full day: this will help reduce stress.
4. Be prepared that your child may behave unusually after kindergarten: cry at the sight of their parents, be overly active and even aggressive. This is normal: this is how the child splashes out the emotions that he managed to accumulate during the whole day in a new environment with strangers.
5. The most important rule is to be honest with your child, even if the truth upsets him. He will still see that his parents have left, and deception will only aggravate the situation and prolong getting used to kindergarten.

which doctors? – health articles

The practice of maintaining unified medical records for each pupil has more than one decade. During this time, it has demonstrated its advantages for both medical personnel and parents, since if a child’s outpatient card is lost, it became possible to restore information according to Form No. 026/u-2000.

Description

A certificate for kindergarten is the first thing that modern parents of preschoolers face when they receive a ticket to a preschool educational institution.

Form No. 026 / y-2000 is a child's medical record, and not just a single certificate. This is a full-weight A4 notebook with a hard cover, where all the medical information about the baby will be summarized from the moment he enters the kindergarten and until the completion of secondary education.

General information is placed on the cover: the surname, name, patronymic of the minor, his gender, date of birth and registration address, below is the children's clinic to which he is assigned, and contact phone numbers.

Is it mandatory

The presence of a medical card No. 026 / y-2000 for a kindergarten is mandatory, rather, for health workers, since this is the main reporting document where information about medical examinations, Mantoux reactions and vaccinations will be entered. On the other hand, maintaining a card is convenient for the parents themselves, as it allows them to get the necessary information from there (including in the form of extracts for provision at the place of demand), which can be especially important if the main outpatient card is lost.

Contact

In urban polyclinics, there is usually a rather long process of passing doctors and not all specialists are always available. It is easier and more comfortable to conduct an examination of a preschooler in a private clinic, where all the necessary specialists are gathered in one place. Modern private clinics often offer a comprehensive service "medical examination in front of kindergarten for children's certificate No. 026 / y."

Tests

In addition to the conclusions of specialists, a certificate for a child in kindergarten will contain laboratory tests.

• Urinalysis
• CBC + ESR

However, if the child has chronic diseases for which he is registered, this doctor will be included in the list of specialists, and the list of tests may be extended.

As well as examination by specialists, obtaining test results can be accelerated by contacting a private clinic. Here, the child will pass all the examinations in one day, parents will be able to save working time, and the child will be able to minimize stress from medical interventions.

About doctors

The certificate for the kindergarten form No. 026 / y-2000 includes specialists required to pass, the list of which may vary slightly depending on the age at which the child enters an educational institution for the first time. Some children skip kindergarten, and then parents apply for a child's medical record (form No. 026/y-2000) just before the first grade.

The child's medical record for kindergarten will include:

• Examination and conclusion by a pediatrician who will start and end the medical examination. In addition to the conclusion about the readiness and ability of the child to attend an educational institution, the pediatrician will issue directions for tests, determine the health group and give recommendations on the features or diseases identified as a result of the examination, if any
• Pediatric dentist will not only assess the condition of the oral cavity, but also make a conclusion about the correspondence of the number of teeth to the age of the preschooler in the form of a dental formula
• Pediatric otolaryngologist will check the level of hearing, assess the anatomical structure of the ENT organs
• Children's neurologist will assess the degree of psychological maturity, the level of mental development
• Orthopedic surgeon or pediatric surgeon will assess the correct formation and development of the child's musculoskeletal system, the functioning of the musculoskeletal system
• Pediatric ophthalmologist check visual acuity
• Pediatric gynecologist examining girls
• Pediatric urologist-andrologist examining boys

The child's developmental medical record for the school will require visits to the same specialists, in addition, an examination by a psychiatrist is required.

The following types of research are also carried out before the school:

• CBC (+ ESR)
• Urinalysis
• ECG and echocardiography
• Ultrasound of the abdominal organs and kidneys

Many of these specialists are visited by children during routine check-ups by age, however, some diseases may be detected for the first time at a medical examination before admission to a preschool educational institution, since here the child receives a full comprehensive examination.

List of documents

To issue a certificate for kindergarten No. 026 / y, you will need to have with you:

• Child's birth certificate
• SNILS (not required in private clinics)
• Insurance policy (in private clinics - only VHI policy)
• Passport of one of the parents, where the child is entered in the "Children" column (or the passport of one of the guardians / adoptive parents)
• Vaccination certificate with vaccination marks

If the child does not have any vaccinations and the parents do not plan to vaccinate him before entering the kindergarten / school, the medical office of the educational institution will require the parent to write a temporary refusal of vaccinations (form No.

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