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
wanted to visit their child’s kindergarten classroom. And about 40% reported that they wanted to be a part of the transition meeting. (Transition to K.) I found it to be even more interesting that parents who received financial aid for preschool, showed less interest and less family involvement in the kindergarten transition activities, than those who did not receive any financial aid. (Transition to K.) Their monthly communication with their preschool teachers was at a lower percentage as well. This automatically gives me a very opinionated thought that when parents (not ALL) receive financial aid to allow their children to go to a more advanced preschool, they do not think that their involvement is important, that the school has it under control. This may be a very broad opinion, however, I found the statistics to be crazy! Over 80% of the parents who were surveyed, expressed that they would like more information on the kindergarten expectations, academically and behavioral.
(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
kindergarten. At the preschool that I work at, both our four and five year old room are taught by previous elementary school teachers. One was a first grade teacher and one was a kindergarten teacher. I think this is a substantial tool for the preschool because both teachers know what to expect in elementary school and they can prepare the children better than someone who is not familiar with the public school environment. These two teachers also have great strategies on how to prepare the parents for the transition. A month before school starts, they both send home a “What to do” packet. It has ideas on how to prepare yourself, child, materials needed, and common expectations. This is a big step towards the future for children, it is important that we are preparing them the right way.
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
involvement!