4 Things Your Child Will Learn in a Typical Kindergarten Curriculum

Your kid is starting kindergarten! That's no mean feat. It will be their first official year of school, and you can bet they will learn lots of new things. As a responsible parent, you may have heard about the typical kindergarten curriculum but are wondering if it does any good to your child. It's okay to feel a bit worried. It only shows you want the best for your child. 

To ease up your concerns, this post focuses on the four things your child will learn in kindergarten. 

Letters and Sounds

The first step to reading and writing is identifying the letters of the alphabet. In kindergarten, your child learns to recognise, name and write the 26 letters (uppercase and lowercase). Be prepared to hear that timeless alphabet song on repeat! 

Beyond that, your child starts to understand phonics, and they will know the sound that each letter makes. They can also distinguish vowels from consonants and the role that each of them plays in a word. 

Writing Their Name and Short Words

After understanding the 26 letters of the alphabet, your child will learn how to combine them to form words. Generally, they will start with writing short CVC (consonant, vowel, consonant) words like boy, dog, red and hat. Consequently, they will learn to write their own names and construct simple sentences such as 'The boy ran home.' 

It's worth noting that some children may struggle with writing legibly at this stage. If your children cannot write properly in kindergarten, don't stress. With more practice, your child will soon be able to write legible words. 

Numbers and Counting

Kindergarteners are taught to recognise, order, write and count items up to number 20 or 30. This includes adding and subtracting small numbers (like adding a number to 10 or subtracting from 10). The lessons on addition and subtraction will go all the way to their second grade. 

While at it, they may also learn basic skip counting. This is where they learn to count by 2s, 5s, or even by 10s. It's the first step to understanding multiplication and division, although they won't cover these topics until a couple of years later.

Shapes and Objects

At kindergarten, a child learns to name common shapes such as circles, squares, rectangles and triangles. And it's not just naming. They can observe a shape and tell how many dimensions or sides it has. This means they can explain why a triangle is a triangle and not a square. They can also identify various objects by their size or shape.

The knowledge of shapes and objects is crucial for their future math success. By being able to identify sides and angles, your child is well set to understand geometry in the future!