The kindergarten year should be a time of joyful discovery, laying a foundation for life-long learning. Exploring, observing, listening, following, practicing, and playing should be common elements of a kindergartener’s experience. Listening to fiction and non-fiction stories, poems, and library book CDs will lure a child into the world of print. Identifying shapes, numbers, and colors throughout his/her daily experience will add relevance to future math lessons of sorting, categorizing, counting, and ordering numbers. Visiting the post office, zoo, doctor, park, and fire station provides rich experiences on which to build later social studies lessons. Planting a garden, watching the seasons and weather patterns, and caring for a pet are wonderful introductions to the world of science. Playgrounds, jump ropes, paint brushes, and moving to music can provide great large motor development exercises that aid fluent body movement and prepare for art, PE, and music classes.
Textbook lessons can provide structure, consistency, and familiarity with future classroom parameters—but there is also plenty of time for that in the future! Enjoy the freedom of kindergarten, providing a rich environment and experiences in which a child can build his/her future structured reading, writing, math, social studies, and science lessons. Integrate structured activities for short amounts of time with the understanding that the “rule of thumb” is for a child’s age multiplied by one minute to equal the typical attention span for that maturity level. Display lots of artwork on your main display case, i.e., the refrigerator and save key papers and projects that show the growing maturity and understanding of your child.
Finally…
When we instruct children in academic subjects, or in swimming, gymnastics, or ballet, at too early an age, we miseducate them; we put them at risk for short-term stress and long-term personality damage for no useful purpose. There is no evidence that such early instruction has lasting benefits, and considerable evidence that it can do lasting harm…resist the pressures [of contemporary society] and provide a secure, warm, stimulating environment…if
[children are] well cared for, talked to, played with, and provided with a safe environment filled with interesting objects to observe and explore, they will do just fine. (Miseducation: Preschoolers at Risk by David Elkind, p. 3-4, 51)