Kindergarten Expectations

My son, Huey started KINDERGARTEN. Seriously...time flies!  Can we stop the time or make it go a little bit slower?!!  My mom, Huey's grandma says, "Time will go even faster as you get older."  Not good news either... 

The good news is that "As learning begins, kids will bloom like a flower."

Huey's school, proudly representing NYC DOE Public School, provided parents with a list of some Kindergarten academic expectations as follows:

English Language Arts: 

• Print upper and lowercase letters
• Use frequently occurring nouns and verbs
• Form regular plural nouns orally by adding /s/ or /es/
• Understand and use question words (i.e. what, who, when, why, how)
• Use the most occurring prepositions (i.e. to, from, in, out, on, off, etc)
• Produce complete sentences
• Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing.

Math:

• Know number names and the count sequence
• Count to tell the number of objects
• Compare numbers
• Understand addition as putting things together
• Identify and describe shapes

As I followed through the list, I thought of some Kindergarten Life Skills Expectations.

Life Skills Expectations:

• Follow the simple step (1-2 step) directions (i.e. (For school) Finish your drawing and put it in your folder; (Home) Find the peanut butter jar in the refrigerator and bring it to mommy.).
• Dress self and manage some fasteners such as velcro, relatively big size buttons, snaps, and zippers.  I do not worry about tying shoes at this age. 
• Open own lunch container.  Many kindergarten kids have hard time opening the school milk cartons because they don't see the same type of milk carton or bottle in the market.  

This is the container that we can easily find in the
supermarket.  

 

This is the milk carton that I usually see in school.  I don't often find this one in the supermarket.  I sometimes see an orange juice container which looks like this and it has a little pre-cut circle for a straw.  

          

• Go to bathroom and manage lower body garments.  Clean-up after the toilet use can be not as clean as a grownup expects them to be, but should be somewhat clean. 
• Say social phrases appropriately such as "Hi", "Bye", "Thank you", "You're welcome." and "Oops", etc.   

I hope this list of Kindergarten Expectations is helpful and useful to parents who have Kindergarteners or younger children at home.  You can help your child's life skills by giving them enough time to manage daily activities by themselves.  Just be conscious of how much you're providing them.