Kindergarten Transition

Transitions are hard enough on children, let alone adapting to a whole new ball game of expectations and rules. The article that I focused on for this assignment is about surveying 132 parents and caregivers in the Northeast. The survey was sent out and seeking information about the concerns and thoughts of the preparation for children who are transitioning into kindergarten. The results that this article gave, stated that parents wanted more information and involvement in the transition to kindergarten. (Transition to K.) Parents were finding themselves to be blind sighted by the expectations and how to prepare their child for such a dramatic change in environments. In the statistics that the article gives, it shows that half of the parents …show more content…
(Transition to K.) This is a large number of parents who are feeling out of the loop. But what can we do as early childhood educators? While preparing the students academically and developmentally, we need to also be digging deeper into context and finding out information from the elementary schools. Preschool teachers can set up a field trip where the parents, students, and teachers all take a trip to the elementary school to walk around and become familiar with expectations, teachers, and the new schedule that the children will be following. This would also be a good time for the principle to give the parents handbooks with expectations and maybe even paperwork for them to become familiar with. This will not only prepare the students more, but it will help the parents to get an idea of what is expected of their child and what they still need to work on before their first day of …show more content…
After reading all of these statistics, I am shocked at how many parents felt that their child was not prepared and they were not familiar of expectations. Communication about the transition is very important. This is where the preschool teachers or caregivers can step in and provide their assistance with making this process less hectic and more enjoyable. I am going to share this article with some of my co-workers because I think they will enjoy reading it and the statistics provided. I know it will make the two teachers in the preschool feel great because preparation for kindergarten is one of the big things that they focus on! Not only do they prepare them with all of the knowledge that they need to have a major head start, but they also prepare them for what to expect. This was a great read about parent