17 Simple Things We’re Doing to Prepare for Kindergarten this Summer

I’m not sure which one of us is most excited about starting Kindergarten in September: mom or David! What I can tell you for certain is that we are both engaging in some activities this summer to gear up and get ready to be a Kindergartner. Entertaining and caring for twins plus one who are 4 years apart every day is serious work and effort! I try to incorporate these quick things we can do at home to prepare for Kindergarten, especially to avoid spending too much time watching TV. Some days this is really difficult to do, especially with more time being spent outdoors in the summer and all the more challenging when you have 2 toddlers around as well, demanding mom and big brother’s attention. Below is a list of some very simple and quick ideas and things we have been trying out throughout our days. Each of these items only take a few minutes to complete and can easily be incorporated as routines while younger kids are around (or even better done as quiet activities while the young ones are napping). And while I am no expert in preparing a child for Kindergarten, I can certainly tell you that these activities make both David and I feel more confident about starting school again!

Practice writing letters and numbers: this summer we bought a Star Wars themed workbook (available here on Amazon) for tracing and writing letters that my son is really excited to use each day. We use regular pencils to write with, and we also bought a few fun animal stamps (in bulk from Amazon) to use whenever he completes a letter. As for numbers, we just practice writing 0-10 in a wide ruled notebook (one number per page). We try to do one letter and number every day.
Writing our full name: my son recognizes his name in print now (likely because he’s been going to “school” since his nursery days at age 2.5), but we are at the point now where he’s also able to write his last name, in addition to his first name. This isn’t necessary to start Kindergarten, but since he already learned his first name in preschool, we felt learning to write his last name made most sense to challenge him with for the summer time.
Cutting Paper: we started cutting paper for “fun” to be totally honest, and because I wanted to help David develop fine motor skills. (Being left-handed, I still remember feeling mortified when I was in Kindergarten because I couldn’t cut a single thing - I still remember the teacher who first let me use a pair of left-handed scissors.) At first we began practicing this skill with David by shredding paper into little bits using our hands to make “confetti,” which our twin babies loved to help us gather from the floor. Then we moved to learning how to properly hold a pair of child scissors and pretending to cut someone’s hair. Finally, we started using scissors to paper - Most times I just let my son cut up the paper as he wishes, but every now and then I will draw a shape or squiggly line for him to try to cut out.
Reading aloud daily: we visit our local library often during the summer time, and we always read to David in the evenings so it feels natural. This summer on the days where he is not attending camp, I try to read to him during the day time as well and have the younger boys listen in too. We try to do at least 15 minutes of reading aloud to David every day, and it’s exciting when he gets to choose his own books at the library because he looks forward to reading. We even recently read 2 Captain Underpants books this summer and began talking to him about chapters and how to use a bookmark.
Playing Letter-Sound Recognition Games: this is a skill we are still working on, but in order to help promote learning letter-sounds we play quick little “games” around the house like spotting things in the room that all have the same starting letter sound, or seeing who can gather the most toys that start with the same letter, and at bed time we often do a little rhyming game where I say a word and he has to think of words with the same ending sound that rhyme with that one (and if he’s successful he gets more time to “play” before he has to sleep)
Celebrating Independent Moments: I try finding a few moments throughout the day to praise and celebrate my son when I see him doing something independently and reminding him how proud I am of how ready he is for Kindergarten - things like using the bathroom alone, washing his hands properly, teeth brushing, dressing himself, putting on own shoes, packing a bag, cleaning up after eating, etc. It takes a few seconds and can really go a long way with your future Kindergartener.
Counting aloud: this really only takes a few minutes, so each day we try to count from 0-100 aloud, and we incorporate some claps, which the twins love listening to and watching. And because we live in the city, we try to encourage counting with David while outside too - like counting the street signs or counting down the numbers on the crosswalk sign, etc.
Repeating info from memory: I often ask my son to simply recite things like how to pronounce his full name (and say his last name in Albanian to help others at school pronounce it correctly), our address and his full birthday (took a while to remember the year for some reason). We just do this randomly like during a walk or in between TV commercials or to Gammy on FaceTime. Hoping to move to reciting months and days of the week soon.
Playing games that require directions: this summer my husband and I have tried playing some games at the park with David that require following multi-step directions, like kickball. And at home we play a few board games too (and don’t try to make it too easy for him to win). Candy Land was a major hit with David - he can play it for hours.
Drawing & storytelling about our day: this is a preschool activity David did with his teacher, and we have been trying to enforce it at home this summer by asking David to draw something exciting he did or saw this week and then taking time when Dad’s home from work to verbally explain the events to him. Sometimes I let him choose freely and other times I encourage him to draw something specific like what he did at camp, or the library or on our recent vacation, etc. We talk about the details first, before we begin drawing.
Maze games: I discovered David really found these maze games fun through the Star Wars writing workbook we began using this summer (there a few plugged into there), and so we bought a workbook full of mazes for him that were age-specific (available on Amazon). Sometimes it is tough for me to watch him struggle and want to give up, but I remind him that he’s doing this just for fun and can take a break - now he connects the maze activity as a solo one and has stopped asking for help or giving up too soon.
Start to practice site words: I am not expecting or pushing my son to start reading yet, however I noticed that when I read to him he asks me questions about specific words or how I know how to say them or of I can point to them, etc. That’s when I realized he may be ready for some exposure to sight words - common words often found in text that can easily be sounded out or remembered. We started with a Paw Patrol themed book of sight words from Scholastic that is dry-erase and David uses to write and read the sound words that come with a Paw Patrol sentence and picture. He seems to show more confidence about reading and is excited when he remembers a word - I am even able to see him start to try to “sound out” some words. We also recently started using BOB books Set 1, which a mom friend of mine recommended, to continue sight word practice (available on Amazon) - but you can also just look up and print a Kindergarten list of sight words from Pinterest to use at home.
Using educational websites: if I give my son my phone to use apps it somehow always turns into him playing a game rather quickly, so instead, I let him “play” on our favorite website Starfall.com using my laptop. This activity is low key and doesn’t involve too much help from mom, so it’s a good one to do when I have something else I need to do, too.
Researching extra curricular programs: I’ve used some time this summer to research after school programs and options for the upcoming year, even sharing them with David. A good place to start looking is on the school’s website or the sites of some local groups you’ve seen in your neighborhood - schedules are usually posted by mid-summer. Ask friends or neighbors or even people you may see with young kids close by about which programs their kids participate in - the best referrals come from other parents. You can also try reaching out to your school’s parent coordinator via email (listed on the school’s Directory online), who are usually working throughout the summer.
Blinging up our backpack: buying a new backpack is exciting for a kid, but David finds it even more exciting to “bling” up his new backpack this summer with some fun, new key chains for Kindergarten. We’ve found some soft, plush animal keychains to hang on his backpack from CVS that he adores.
Decorate a Special Kindergarten Folder: we took some time for a few minutes one afternoon this summer to decorate our Kindergarten two-pocket folder with things like stickers, stamps, images we printed and cut out of fav characters from the computer, and used some chunky markers to write on. David felt really proud of his folder afterward and already placed it inside his backpack.
Talking & reading about Kindergarten with our child: we picked up a few books at the start of this summer that were about Kindergarten to read to David, and this often leads to us having conversations about how Kindergarten is similar and different from Preschool, or role playing what he would say to a friend in Kindergarten depending on the situation we’re reading about or discussing. Sometimes I’ve just asked my son if he has any questions about Kindergarten to discuss - just the other day I had to break the sad news to him that there would in fact still be “rest time” in Kindergarten, but I was glad he got the opportunity to ask about it (I probably wouldn’t have ever thought to mention it to him otherwise).