12 Things We’re Doing During the Summer Before Kindergarten

I absolutely cannot believe that I am about to be the mom of a kindergartener. How did this happen? How is this even possible? But it’s true! In about two months, my Ella will be off to kindergarten!

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As a former teacher (I taught first, third, and fourth grade), I know that kindergarten these days is no joke. When I was in kindergarten thirty-plus years ago, my day consisted of mostly playing and meeting the Letter People… and it was only a half day. Now, kindergarten is a full day of rigorous learning!

My daughter has really thrived in preschool and although it’s nerve-wracking, I know she’s going to do well in kindergarten. Still, there are some things that we will be doing this summer (both academic and not) to help her feel even more prepared! So here it is: my list of the 12 Things We’re Doing During the Summer Before Kindergarten.

Reading every day — Studies have shown for years that one of the top predictors of student success is how often a child is read to at home. Fortunately, this one is pretty easy for us, and it might be relatively easy for you too if you already read a bedtime story or something similar. Here are some kindergarten-themed books that we’re going to make sure to read this summer: The Night Before Kindergarten Kindergarten, Here I Come! On the First Day of Kindergarten

Drawing and writing to label pictures — Okay, this is yet another easy one for us… because Ella is obsessed with drawing. Like, stacks of pictures everywhere obsessed. Whether your child is super into drawing or not, encourage them to draw a picture and label it and see how they do! For example, Ella loves to draw family portraits and write everyone’s name on the picture. If your child isn’t ready to write words on the picture themselves, that’s okay! You can help by writing labels on the picture for him or her. **This Picture Story Paper would be perfect for drawing and labeling pictures!
Writing our first and last name — Ella has been able to write her first name independently for quite a while but we haven’t spent much time practicing writing our last name. This is a good opportunity to a) make sure your child KNOWS their last name and b) practice writing it, if they are up for the challenge.
Counting everything — The easiest way to practice math skills at this age is to make them part of everyday life. You can ask your child to count cars in a parking lot as you walk past them, candies in a jar, how many steps it takes to walk across the living room… the possibilities really are endless on this one!

This Feed the Candy Monster activity is perfect for counting and early math skill practice!

Wiping our own butt — This is definitely not the most glamorous item on the list. But it’s an important one! Children need to be able to use the bathroom independently in kindergarten. Busy Toddler has a blog post about HOW to teach your child to wipe their own butt. This truly is on our list of skills to master this summer!
Practicing cutting with scissors — The summer before I started kindergarten (again, we’re talking thirty-some years ago), my mom asked my kindergarten teacher what skills she should be practicing with me at home, and my teacher said, make sure she knows how to hold a pencil and cut with scissors. Years later, these certainly aren’t the ONLY skills your child needs to be ready for kindergarten, but they’re still important! Ella is pretty confident in this area but it’s certainly a skill worth practicing.
Reviewing letters and the sounds they make — If your child doesn’t know all of their letters and letter sounds going into kindergarten, that’s okay! But to be honest, the more they DO know, the better. And if you’re looking for some fun activities for practicing letter recognition, I’ve got you covered. Check out some of these hands-on resources for fun ways to learn about letters and beginning reading skills:

Talking about shapes — Again, this doesn’t have to be super formal. Talk about shapes you see in the real world. Circles, squares, triangles, rectangles, pentagons, hexagons, octagons. Where can you find them in everyday life?

We love this Feed the Shark activity for fun 2D shape practice!

Click here to read more about how we’ve used this activity!

Practicing opening foods for lunch — In preschool, your child most likely ate lunch in his or her classroom, with his teacher right there. In kindergarten, that most likely won’t be the case! For most children, kindergarten is the first time eating lunch in a big cafeteria. Yes, there are some adults available to help with things like opening juice boxes and chips, but they may not be as readily available as your child is used to. Spend this summer helping your child learn to open the foods that will be in their lunch box… and then if you find that some things are really hard for them to open, give some thought to whether you want to include those in their lunch or not! **Last year we used a bento box similar to this one to pack lunch. I highly recommend grabbing something similar!
Getting clothes and shoes on and off independently — Can your child button their own pants? Tie their shoes? Ella and I will be fine-tuning her skills this summer. And no, children don’t HAVE to be able to tie their shoes independently in kindergarten! But it’s certainly worth working on and getting them as close to independence as possible.
Talking about what kindergarten will be like — This is going to be a huge one for us. Ella thrives on routine and knowing what’s coming next. And so many things about kindergarten are going to be brand new to her! So, we will spend a lot of time this summer just talking about kindergarten. What will her school be like, what will morning drop-off and afternoon pick-up look like, the cafeteria, recess, PE class… any details we can talk about will help her feel more confident about the upcoming school year!
Play, play, play! — Yes, I want my baby to feel confident and ready for kindergarten. But I also want her to soak up every minute of being five years old and having FUN! Be sure to take plenty of time to have fun and ENJOY your child this summer. Make memories, get outside, go on adventures, and PLAY!

Looking for some ideas on how to make your summer even more fun? Check out my list of 90 summer bucket list ideas!

So there it is. The 12 things we’ll be doing during this summer before kindergarten. Is there anything you think I missed? How will you be implementing these ideas? Comment here on the blog or come tell me on Instagram what you think!