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Kindergarten Readiness

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Your child’s kindergarten readiness starts before they can even speak. First 5 San Mateo County is an advocacy organization which helps parents navigate those first five important years, that will help your child grow up health and thrive. Check out their guide here: California Parent Guide.  

Getting Ready for School | Kindergarten Enrollment

Getting Ready for School 

Health and Well-Being 

  • Practice good sleep routines. Help your child get enough sleep each night. 

  • Practice good eating routines, with healthy nutrition and exercise 

  • Provide age-appropriate opportunities for your child to practice independence and responsibility in the home. 

  • Give opportunities to practice their large (gross) and small (fine) motor skills 

  • Large motor skills: Walking, running, jumping and climbing 

  • Small motor skills: Using Crayons, pencils and scissors 

  • For kindergarten readiness, self-care becomes important. Self-care includes being able to feed and dress oneself, blow one’s own nose, cover coughs and sneezes, and use the toilet independently 

Social-Emotional Skills 

  • Talk about feelings, and help your child identify how or what they are feeling (e.g. happy, frustrated, upset, confused) 

  • Practice calming down when your child is upset 

  • Make time for playing with other children 

  • Set routines at home and provide structures 

  • Acknowledge your child’s hard work, effort and perseverance 

Language Skills 

  • Read!! Read to your child at least 20 minutes per day, every day. If English is not your home language, read and talk to your child in your home language. The Redwood City Public Library has children’s books and Storytimes in many languages! 

  • Talk to your child about the book, ask questions and point out things in the book (e.g. “What do you see in the picture?”, “What do you think will happen next?”, “Is that a red ball?”) 

  • Sing and rhyme with your child 

Mathematical Thinking 

  • Math also includes language skills! 

  • Count with your child. Count the child’s shoes as you put them on, count how long it takes for the stop light to change from red to green, county how many bananas are in the bunch at the grocery store. Keep counting! 

  • Cook with your child. Let them help measure or talk about your measurements 

Play! Play! Play! 

  • Play with different writing materials – chalk, crayons, markers, sticks in dirt 

  • Use Play-Doh, blocks, puzzles and other “building” tools.   

In short, Kindergarten Readiness is about social and physical skills as much as academic ones. Colorin Colorado has a guide in English and Spanish to help you gauge your child’s skills. Redwood City School District also has Top 10 Tips for Incoming Families. 

Kindergarten Enrollment 

California law requires children start formal schooling at age 6, but most children start kindergarten at age 5. The State of California recently approved statewide programs called Transitional Kindergarten, for 4-year-olds. School-based Transitional Kindergarten and Kindergarten are both optional for children.  

  • Private schools, preschool centers, and family child care homes also provide early learning settings for 4- and 5-year-olds. Contact individual providers to learn more about their enrollment policies. Learn more on our Parents page. 

If you think your child needs more support to be kindergarten ready, check our Parks & Recreation programming, Library storytimes, SVCF “Ready for Kindergarten” guide (and video!), and Good2Know!