How to Prepare Your Child for School: A Guide for Parents

There is no single agreed definition of school readiness. It usually covers three areas: early reading, writing and number skills; getting along with others and managing oneself; and physical development. The child’s surroundings matter too, at home and with the adults who teach them. Here is each area in turn, with links to more detailed articles.

Reading

A child does not need to read before starting school. What matters more is hearing the separate sounds in words, the best early sign of later reading success, along with recognizing their own name in print, knowing letters, holding a book the right way and finding rhymes. A fuller list of skills is in What a Child Should Know and Be Able to Do Before Starting First Grade.

Writing and Hand Skills

Before school, children usually try to write their name and a few letters. But the main thing at this stage is a hand ready for writing: by five, most children can draw a person complete with head, body, arms and legs, draw a triangle, a square and a circle, and cut along a straight line with scissors.

Numbers

It helps if a child can count to at least ten, count out about five objects, understand what “add” and “take away” mean and recognize simple shapes like a triangle, a circle or a square. Activities for this kind of preparation are collected in Preparing for School: Developmental Activities for 5-6 Year-Olds.

Speaking and Understanding

By five, children typically know about two thousand words and speak in sentences of five to eight words. A child needs to understand explanations and requests and be able to talk about their own experiences. Play builds language well, especially pretend play, where a child speaks in different ways for different characters.

Getting Along and Self-Control

Teachers often rate social skills above academic ones, because a classroom has more rules and more time alongside other children than home does. In the preschool years, children quickly get better at holding back an impulse and keeping their attention despite noise and distractions, and this affects how well they settle in at school. The emotional side of getting ready is covered in Psychological Readiness for School: Tips and Recommendations.

Body and Movement

Before school, a child can usually walk, run, jump and climb, catch a ball and go down stairs on alternating feet. Motor skills grow fastest in the years up to age five.

How to Help Your Child

What works best is step-by-step support: at first the adult helps a lot, and as the child gets the hang of a task, the help gradually fades. That is how children learn to manage on their own. Once school has started, see How to Help Your Child Adapt to School Life.

How to Get Started

In our school preparation course, children get to know letters and their sounds and start reading syllables and short words, count and compare quantities, tell shapes apart, describe pictures and make up short stories, get their hand ready for writing and learn to work on tasks on their own. We prepare children for schools in Ukraine and in the US, with lessons in English, Ukrainian or Russian. Lessons are open to children from age 5, and we suggest two lessons a week. A trial lesson costs $8: it is individual and lasts 45 minutes. More about the course is on the School Preparation page.