Kindergarten Readiness Toolkit

Supporting children and families

The Buckeye Ranch’s Early Childhood Mental Health (ECMH) team provides prevention support, mental health tools, and educational resources for preschools and caretakers of children ages 0-5 to improve overall emotional well-being to ensure long-term academic success. This toolkit was developed for the community by this team.

Preparing your child for kindergarten

Overall emotional well-being is a significant factor for academic success. Here are strategies to help strengthen social/emotional learning skills for preschool-aged children:

Play Together

Play is how children learn about themselves and the world around them
Let your child direct the play
Ask your child questions during play
Encourage play with others
Give children the opportunity for unstructured playtime

Relationships

Open communication with teachers and other caregivers promotes positive relationships for a supportive environment
Modeling this behavior for your child promotes positive peer relationships for them

Engaged

Be present with your child
When engaging in activities give them your full attention to let them know that they are your priority at that moment
Actively participate and listen

Social Skills

Support self-regulation through allowing your child to share what is bothering them
Practice mindfulness activities to support emotion identification and being in the present
Help develop empathy by asking your child to consider others’ feelings
Be attentive to their self-perception especially during play
Consider toys and educational resources that align with their cultural background

Connect

Interactions with caregivers build vocabulary, comprehension, and communication skills. This can happen during everyday routines
Reading together is an opportunity to connect
When children feel secure and loved, they are more likely to engage positively with others and manage their emotions effectively

Healthy Habits

Establish daily routines
Limiting screen time
Provide structure and sleep routines to ensure they are getting enough rest
Maintain wellness visits with medical dental and vision providers for prevention and early identification of needs

Offer Choices

Use open-ended questions to better understand your child’s needs and emotions
Use guided options to help them identify an appropriate solution

Opportunities to Practice

Let your child know it is okay to make mistakes
Positive reinforcement encourages learning and feeling safe in learning from failure

Laugh

Make learning fun
Do things that interest both you and your child
Be playful

why it matters

According to Civil Rights Data Collection from 2017-2018 enrollment for black preschool students was at 18.2% yet they accounted for 38.2% of pre-school suspensions. A 2016 Yale Study indicated that black boys were tracked more frequently than other students contributing to the disparity in preschool suspensions. Below are some resources for parents, caregivers, and educators to consider.

Educational resources for caretakers

As you embark on the kindergarten readiness journey with child/ren, a few trusted resources that can help guide you are below.

Questions for caretakers to consider

As you support your child in their kindergarten readiness journey, here are some guiding questions to help inform how you’re supporting behavior modeling and learning:

Kindergarten Readiness Toolkit

Supporting children and families

Preparing your child for kindergarten

Play Together

Relationships

Engaged

Social Skills

Connect

Healthy Habits

Offer Choices

Opportunities to Practice

Laugh

why it matters

Educational resources for caretakers

Questions for caretakers to consider

What are things you do for yourself to model for your child how to express a variety of emotions?

How do you realize stressors are impacting you?

How do you take care of yourself before taking care of others?

How do I respond to my child’s experiences and join them during play?

A special thank you to our community resource partners:

Questions?