To attend kindergarten, children must be 5 before August 31.

Ideas to prepare your child for Kindergarten

• Play board games with your child to practice taking turns.
• Visit the local library.
• Set up several play dates this summer.
• Visit your child's school playground, practice playing on the equipment, and follow rules such as 'slides are for going down'.
• Have your child practice following one-step and two-step directions. You could do this by making lunch together or having them pick up their toys.
• Read to your child for a combined total of at least 20 minutes a day.
• Draw together, allowing your child time to practice using different tools (crayons, markers, pencils, sidewalk chalk).
• Have your child practice writing their name multiple ways (with playdough, using a stick in the dirt/sand, shaving cream, using sidewalk chalk, or on paper).
• Have your child practice sorting objects around the house. This is especially fun while doing chores together (sorting clothes, silverware, and toys).
• While driving in the car or shopping in a grocery store, notice letters, numbers, sign colors, or objects around them.
• Practice counting to 20 while taking a walk or driving in the car.
• Count objects together. Count everything in and out of the home. While collecting rocks is especially fun!
• Engage in pretend play together. For example, use a plain cardboard box to go on an adventure to the moon.
• Visit local parks and beaches, and notice the amazing wonders nature offers.
• Provide plenty of opportunities for your child to engage in free play both inside and outside the house daily.

WaKIDS is a transition process that helps to ensure a successful start to the K-12 experience and connects the key adults in a child's life. Please visit the Washington Kindergarten Inventory of Developing Skills (WaKIDS) website.

Three Components of WaKIDS

1. Family connection welcomes families into the Washington K-12 system as their child's education partners.
2. Whole-child assessment gives kindergarten teachers information about the social/emotional, physical, cognitive, language, literacy, and mathematics development of the children in their classrooms so they may tailor their instruction to each child's individual needs.
3. Early learning collaboration aligns the practices of early learning professionals and kindergarten teachers to support smooth transitions for children.

• ECEAP (wa.gov)
• National Association for the Education of the Young Child (Great articles and videos for families)
• Reading Foundation (Great resources for families to promote reading)
• WaKIDS (Washington Inventory of Developing Skills Assessment)
• (DEL merged with WA State Dept. of Children, Youth, and Families first part of July)
• (FREE milestone tracker app and developmental milestones checklists)
• Milestones
• (FREE online ASQ for families to complete on their child-tied to Within Reach-representative reviews the ASQ and contacts the parent if they have any questions, concerns, referral, resources, etc.)
• child-development/child-development-screening-public
• (Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute)
• (Center on the Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning)
• (Office of Head Start-US Dept. of Health and Human Services-Administration of Children & Families)