Kindergarten Curriculum Guide – Know What Your Child Will Typically Learn

Starting kindergarten schooling is one of the most exciting and important phases in a child’s life and this meaningful academic year becomes the foundation ground for all the future learning too. So, when you finally decide to enrol your child in a kindergarten, you may want to know what all your child will learn so that you can prep your kiddo accordingly. Well, if that is what you are concerned about, reading the following post may help you get a fruitful insight into what typically your child will learn!

Skills Your Kid Will Learn From a Kindergarten Curriculum

Kindergarten is officially your child’s first exposure to formal education. The main objective of the kindergarten curriculum is to focus majorly on teaching vocabulary, basic math concepts, recognising basic shapes, and other such associated topics. This section discusses skills that you can expect your child to learn from a kindergarten curriculum and also what you can do to help get a better learning experience for your child:

1. Letters and Sounds

By the time your child will graduate from kindergarten, he will be able to master all 26 letters of the English language. This means the kindergarten phonics curriculum will help your kid in not only recognising the letters but also name and write them in both upper and lower case. The child will also be able to read ‘sight-words’ or high-frequency words such as in, an, as, and, etc.

How to Prepare at Home: Reading is one of the best ways to prepare your child for learning sounds and letters or helping your child with the phonics curriculum. You can find some age-appropriate books for your child and spend some reading time together. Apart from nurturing your bond, reading is a great way to build a child’s vocabulary, focus, and concentration.

2. Reading and Writing

Kids learn to read and write short simple consonant, vowel, and consonant words at this stage, which includes words like, cat, hat, rat, dog, etc. They will also be able to read and write simple sentences such as, “This is a hat”.

How to Prepare at Home: You can make a writing supply box that can have pencils, crayons, erasers, sharpers, notepads, etc. You can encourage the child to write simple sentences about the things he likes doing or about his day. The best way to help your child with the kindergarten reading curriculum is by encouraging the child to read these sentences out loud. You can also boost your kid’s writing skills by making a stick-on board in his room and you can stick whatever he pens down on this board!

3. Counting and Numbers

A kindergartener will be able to recognise numbers up to 30 and even be able to state them in the correct order and write them too. Kids will also be able to count random objects up to this number. The kindergarten math curriculum will also include the addition and subtraction of small numbers (up to 10 or less than that). However, these concepts will continue and reach the next level in upcoming grades.

How to Prepare at Home: You can ask your kid to count random day to day objects at home. For example, give him a tray with assorted fruits and ask him to count them, or when you are dropping him off to school, you can ask him to count all the black cars on the way, and indulge him in other such counting exercises.

4. Common Shapes and Objects

Children will learn about basic shapes such as circle, square, triangle, rectangle, etc.  By the end of the year, the child will not only be able to learn to identify with shapes but also recognise, sort and classify various shapes and objects according to its size, shape, and colour.

How to Prepare at Home:  You can talk about different properties of different shapes and then give examples to elaborate on the taught concept. For example, you can ask your child to identify objects that he thinks come in a particular shape category such as circular objects, square objects, etc. Asking your kiddo to sort his toys according to size, shape or colour is also a great exercise in teaching him this concept.

5. Seasons, Weather and Time

Young kids such as kindergarteners are more concrete thinkers whereas time may seem like an abstract concept to them. However, by year-end, they will be able to assimilate knowledge about various seasons and identify everyday events or time. They may still not master the concept of time at this age and will master this concept in the coming school years.

How to Prepare at Home: To teach about the concept of time to your kiddo, you can keep referring to the clock as you get involved in different activities and chores during the day. For example, you can say “It’s 6:00 AM and it’s time to wake” up or “It’s 9:00 PM and it’s time for bed”. Also, using words that explain time frames such as morning, noon, evening and night should be used more often.

You can talk about the basic characteristics of various seasons to let your kid know more about seasons. For example, you can talk about clothes worn in different seasons. You can also get hold of charts that have pictures describing different seasons and hang them in your kiddo’s room.

6. Other Learning/Skills

There is no doubt the above-mentioned areas are the major fields that are covered during this time. However, apart from language and math, there are other concepts that are taught to the youngsters at this stage. This includes social studies curriculum, science curriculum, music, art, physical education, etc.

How to Prepare at Home: Helping your child in understanding kindergarten art curriculum can be made easy by providing your kid to the world of art by handing him crayons. In the same manner, another curriculum can be taught by making your kiddo listen to good music, teaching him about healthy habits, teaching him about sharing about caring and being kind, etc. These are some of the ways in which you can prep your child for some other important learning or skills.

As parents, it is normal to feel excited about every small event in your child’s life, and sending him to a kindergarten is certainly one of the important stepping stones for every child. Every parent wants their kid to fit well in the new environment and, thus, make endeavours in prepping their kids to face the new challenges. We hope this article helped you in getting an idea of what you can expect in the kindergarten curriculum and how you can help your child at home.

Many kindergarten schools have the provision of screening sessions that will help in acquainting the parents as well as the kids with the school and its surroundings. Usually, these screening programs are designed to evaluate if any child requires any extra help or facing any learning challenges that may require special assistance and care at school. Every state may have different education standards and even curriculums differ from one school to another. No matter where your child starts his basic education or kindergarten, what is important is that you help your child in building his self-confidence so that he enjoys the learning process!

Also Read:

Ideal Age to Start Preschool
Should Your Child Repeat Kindergarten
Benefits and Importance of Early Childhood Education