Exploring ways to prepare your child for kindergarten

By Elijah Qualls 
AFRO Intern

August is national Get Ready for Kindergarten month, so the AFRO spoke with a few educators and experts who specialize in how families can best prepare their children for kindergarten. Those experts also discussed obstacles faced by Black families, such as not being able to afford the tools and programs to assist their child in their early years.

One of the best things that parents can do with their child before they go to kindergarten is read with them, said Lauren Barkdull, an elementary school principal in Hilliard, Ohio, adding the activity is instrumental in a child’s success.

“Naturally as kids get older they start to understand how to hold books, and that we read on the page from left to right, and pictures often go along with the words in the books,” Barkdull said. “Reading with your child as early as when they’re born is so important just for those pre-reading academic skills.”

According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and mass agreement among the teaching and psychology community, the most impressionable years in a human’s life are the first 12, many say the first 1,000 days. For that reason, practicing language development skills with your child is highly encouraged.  

“A common misconception that I see a lot in education is that kids need to come into kindergarten knowing all of their letters and numbers,” Barkdull said. “While that is helpful, some kids come knowing all of that, and some kids come knowing none of that. What’s more helpful is just giving them that foundation of skills.”

Deya Osgood, the director of the Ready for Kindergarten program at the Children’s Reading Foundation, told the AFRO that simply talking with children is important too. This will improve their vocabulary, but also help them articulate their needs better. 

One of the biggest obstacles that families and early education organizations share is funding. 

“Many schools are struggling to get the personnel to be able to offer these workshops for free,” Osgood said. “At every one of our workshops, parents are supposed to get not just information but also the tools to play with their child at home.”

Katy Erlsten is a primary school principal and preschool director in Galion, Ohio, and she told the AFRO that programs like preschools and daycares are beneficial for mediating some of the early education aspects, but the pricing poses a challenge for many families. 

“Especially in smaller towns, it’s not as easily accessible to some people. They financially can’t afford it if there are no options for preschool based on income,” she said.

While Erlsten’s school has grants to assist families who can’t afford preschool, not all preschool programs have those finances afforded to them. That is where initiatives like Baltimore’s Head Start program or Catholic Charities’ Head Start of Baltimore are imperative. Head Start seeks to teach children fundamental skills for early education like letters, words and numbers. 

Not all families can afford preschool and other early education programs, therefore, it’s all the more important to understand what parents can do to prepare their children.