School Readiness: How do you know when your child is ready?

School Readiness: How do you know when your child is ready?

Finding the right time to send your child to school is a decision most parents avoid. Evaluating your child’s skills, behaviours and knowledge from a non-professional perspective is often subjective and involves emotional attachment. More than often, school readiness is associated with the ability of a child to read, write, and even add or subtract numbers. This is a misconception. Social, emotional, cognitive and physical development is the main objective of preschool learning and for school readiness. Young Academics aims to instill such skills to assist in the developmental process.

What are the skills needed for my child to be ready for school?

It is proven that children will do better at school if they are given an opportunity to spend quality time developing necessary life-long skills. Skills appropriate to school readiness include:

• Physical development: common misconceptions of physical development is fitness. Although primal, other physical skills are important for school readiness such as drawing with pencils, catching a ball and cutting with scissors.
• Practical life skills: understanding how to complete day-to-day tasks is imperative to school readiness. These include using the toilet independently, washing hands, and unpacking their lunchbox.
• Social skills: Being able to share and take turns is no easy task for a little one. Getting along with others is a developmental quality that encourage cooperation and establishes relationships.
• Concentration skills: Following rules and completing tasks is compulsory in a school setting. Ensuring your child follows and adheres to instruction can avoid problems occurring.
• Emotional maturity: Understanding is emotions is no easy task; even for adults. However, handling being angry, happy, sad or even frustrated is important for young children.
• Communication skills: listening and responding is a lifelong skill which is often shadowed by ‘shyness’ or ‘lack of confidence.’ Establishing communication skills can increase your child’s confidence and encourage conversation.

School readiness is a process, not a product

Children cannot succeed in school without the necessary skills to manage real life setting and fruitfully succeed in big school. Complemented by Play-Based Learning,  YAs preschool learning activities are the foundation for school readiness.

Sending your child to pre-school allows the potential for school readiness to surface. Young Academics, in conjunction with our learning programs, carefully places these types of skills at the forefront of our learning processes, and encourages their optimisation. View our learning programs here

Looking for signs such as reading well or writing well are only fragments of school readiness. Look out for skills and behaviours and enrich them through learning. After all, you cannot teach school readiness, it can only be encouraged. Step one starts with you.

Enquire now, and learn how Young Academics can encourage your child to be independent and confident.