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The Hidden Skills Your Child Needs to Thrive in Kindergarten (Beyond Reading)
93 Plays4 hours ago
Episode 89. In this episode, Beth breaks down what kindergarten readiness actually looks like and why reading is just one small piece of the puzzle. She walks through the practical skills children need before they start kindergarten, why an extra year doesn't automatically make reading easier, and what parents can do right now this summer to set their child up for confidence and success on day one.
Join us for Big City Summer! LINKED HERE
What you'll learn
- Why your child does not need to enter kindergarten already reading and what the research actually says
- Why the brain is not naturally wired to learn to read (and what that means for your child)
- Whether holding your child back an extra year will actually make reading easier
- The concept of print skill most parents overlook, and how to check if your child has it
- A practical checklist of kindergarten readiness skills across literacy, fine motor, social, and self-care
- Why emotional readiness and excitement about school may matter more than academic skills
- How co-regulation and the way you talk to your child shapes how they talk to themselves
- What to practice with your child this summer to build confidence before the first day
Topics
science of reading, kindergarten readiness, early literacy, concept of print, phonemic awareness, rhyming, fine motor skills, school readiness, redshirting, structured literacy, kindergarten, parent tips social-emotional learning, letter recognition
About the host
Beth Gaskill (Miss Beth) is a reading specialist, early childhood educator, and founder of Big City Readers. She helps parents support their children's literacy development through research-backed, science of reading strategies.
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Transcript
The Purpose of Kindergarten
00:00:00
Speaker
So here's what I wish every parent understood. Your child does not need to enter kindergarten already reading. Kindergarten is for learning. It's for learning so many things, but it is for learning how to read.
00:00:14
Speaker
So from a literacy standpoint, delayed entry does not at all guarantee that reading will come more easily. An extra year can be helpful for some kids if they need time to develop some their language, attention, or confidence.
Podcast Updates and Personal News
00:00:29
Speaker
But age alone does not teach reading. Play Onwards! This is Play Onwards from Big City Readers.
00:00:39
Speaker
And this is Beth. Hello, hello. Welcome back to the Play On Words podcast from Big City Readers. It's Miss Beth, and I am very sorry to have taken an unexpected break, but I'm back and we will have at least two episodes a month this summer. It is the end of May. You may be experiencing May-cember. like many of us, which actually I just saw a friend say, what the heck is May Sember? She has two little kids. They're three in one. And I realized, you know, that we all talk about things as if everyone knows. But May Sember
00:01:25
Speaker
is a viral slang for the chaotic, overscheduled month of May. Usually it means like it's like as crazy as December. It's December's sister or cousin mirroring the nonstop school event. So if you don't have kids in school yet, you probably haven't experienced the hecticness of December or May.
00:01:47
Speaker
So it wouldn't really make a lot of sense if you if you don't have school-age kids yet. But there's a lot of school events. There's the Christmas show. There's graduations. There's recitals. There's holiday parties. if you're the room parent, especially, you've got to do a lot in that. There's sports playoffs. i don't know if I already said that. and But it just is a big school milestone time. There's award banquets, there's finals if you have older kids, standardized testing, final assessments, end-of-year parties, projects, field days, and teacher appreciation days. And all of these things require a lot of volunteer work from parents. So that's why everyone is talking about the craziness May-cember. But if you didn't know it was crazy in December, then May-cember doesn't make a lot of sense. so
00:02:38
Speaker
Here we are. It
Tutoring and Summer Programs
00:02:40
Speaker
is May-cember. It doesn't feel that crazy over here, except ah we are having a baby. If you missed that on Instagram, I shared that just a couple weeks ago. We just got back from our baby moon. i am 22 weeks and feeling great. i officially have taken all of my spots off the market for summer tutoring. I usually add about, I have recurring families that I work with, um and then i add a few spots in the summer that I can work with families. And the reason I only have a few is because we do a lot of training for schools and speaking, and I have the podcast. We have our other tutors that I have to work with. or get to work with.
00:03:27
Speaker
We have our courses that we're creating and our partnerships with hotels and schools and libraries and all the trainings that go with that and the recording of the content and yeah, just the general running of the business. So my schedule only allows me to have a few families. And part of that reason is also because we don't just do tutoring. We do a very in-depth kind of tutoring that you will get feedback from me every week and assignments specific to what your child is working on in that lesson. And you also get coaching calls and daily support from me. So it's really at all hands on deck experience. So um there's only a few families that I can really get to be able to talk to every single day. So I'm so excited to be working with those families. But if you're like, oh no, I should have gotten tutoring. We're behind. What am I doing? Don't worry.
00:04:23
Speaker
We actually have some great news for you. So before we jump into today's episode, I wanted to tell you about something. Today's episode will be all about kindergarten and a lot about it. But um if you have an older child or or a younger child, this will still be relevant for you.
00:04:43
Speaker
But before we dive into that, let's talk about the elephant in the room that you probably, if you're anything like me, oh my gosh, you see way too much stuff on the internet and then you panic. Andy says he wants to take away the internet from me for the next six months to 18 years because every day I'm like,
00:05:02
Speaker
I have an anterior placenta, and this person said that that means that you're going to have to have a C-section. And are you going to have to have a C-section? And all the crazy things that we were never meant to have this much access to. So if you have an internet page like me and experience that overwhelm of panic, you might be seeing things about the summer slide. So one, yes, it is real. But two, you don't have to panic.
00:05:29
Speaker
So the summer slide is when your child loses two to three months of reading progress over the summer. That means that the confidence that they built all year can disappear by September.
00:05:44
Speaker
Which soul shattering, especially as someone who works with these kids. To see them take that much time off and lose their progress is not only hard for you as a parent or the tutor to see, but it's hard on that child's confidence to lose all that stamina.
00:06:04
Speaker
But here's the good news. In just a few minutes a day, you can keep up with all the gains they made in the school year. And here is the exciting thing. So just a few short science-backed lessons each week can help your child maintain and even accelerate their reading skills. So maybe they're ending the school year a little bit behind and you want to give them a boost That can happen in the next eight weeks. This is exactly why I created our summer reading program. So here's what it is. It is our typical on-demand course.
00:06:42
Speaker
which is 20 on-demand reading lessons that are about 15 to 20 minutes each. These are for your child. It is a press play and walk away. I'm the bad guy. You don't have to fight them about doing their work. And I promise you, they will do their work. All of our lessons are not only rooted in science of reading research, they are mostly guiding kids in their mindset around reading. So we're also building their so their resilience, their reading skills, their writing skills,
00:07:12
Speaker
their word work. It's not just sitting there and reading for 20 minutes, which if you've been here for a while, you know that I think that that's not the best way. That's not the way to get kids to grow as readers. And you're just going to have so many battles with them if you're just trying to get them to do 20 minutes. But Here is what you get.
00:07:31
Speaker
I made a calendar for the next eight weeks of what you are going to follow. So you're going to print it out and put it on your refrigerator. So it's no longer you telling your child what to do. It's Miss Beth's calendar. This is what our whole family is doing today. It might look like this. Monday, lesson one. Tuesday, check your inbox. Miss Beth sent you a special message.
00:07:50
Speaker
Wednesday, lesson two. Thursday, here's a special challenge from Miss Beth. Friday, go read a book as a family. It's going to outline five days a week for eight weeks. And in that eight weeks, if you follow that calendar, I promise you, literally giving you my guarantee right now, that your child will have real reading and writing growth and success come the next school year. You'll get weekly check-ins from me. And here's the best bonus.
00:08:18
Speaker
Actually, my team is so mad at me for doing this because we are adding two live coaching calls for parents. Now, the entire course costs less than what those two coaching calls would cost.
00:08:32
Speaker
So that's why they were mad at me because they're like, this is an insane bonus. The calendar is enough to give as a bonus that you made. Plus the weekly check-ins you're going to give this, like they're literally getting...
00:08:45
Speaker
A $700 value for under $200. And I was like, I know, but I have talked to so many parents who really just want accountability. And I know that I can't work with every single family daily one-on-one, but this is the way that we can. i will be with you the entire summer. You will have me checking in with you. We'll have that coaching call and you can tell me about your child and I'll give you real-time specific answers. And then we're gonna have that other coaching call at the end. And if you didn't do it, I am not going to be happy with you. So you have that accountability for eight weeks. And I guarantee so much that your child will make real reading gains. that If they don't, you're not seeing growth. I will personally get on a call with you and do a private session with your child and tell you what I think is going on. because If you follow this plan for eight weeks, there is absolutely no reason that you should not see real reading and writing growth come the next school year.
00:09:42
Speaker
So no planning, no worksheets, no reading battles. You simply press play and follow this plan. And because reading and writing will finally make sense to not only your child but to you, kids actually enjoy doing these lessons.
00:09:57
Speaker
By the end of the summer, your child will feel stronger, more confident, and absolutely ready to crush the next school year. So grab this summer program in our show notes. You have until June fourteenth to join us. That's when we're kicking it off, and that's when all these bonuses get taken away. So you have some time to think about it, but don't wait too long because we are kicking off June 15th.
00:10:22
Speaker
We are growing together. You are not going to want to be left behind. Because I'm telling you, it's going to be a fun summer. So check that out in the show notes.
Kindergarten Readiness Discussion
00:10:32
Speaker
Okay, so let's talk about kindergarten readiness. This is not going to be about kindergarten redshirting, though it is a very hot topic. I posted about it on Substack last week, and it got me to the number four rising spot in education because it was such a popular article.
00:10:49
Speaker
I talked about how our baby girl is due at the end of September and is that the American dream? So you'll have to check that out. I will do some more podcast episodes about redshirting. Spoiler alert, there is no absolutely do it or absolutely don't do it answer.
00:11:04
Speaker
Let's talk about what does it look like for your child to be ready for kindergarten. So I will give you a little bit of background about redshirting and what it means in this episode, but we're going to define what it actually looks like to be ready for kindergarten, mostly in this episode. So kindergarten redshirting means you're choosing to delay kindergarten for a child who is age-eligible to enroll. So that means if your child turns five before the school cutoff date, for us in Illinois, it's September 1st, which is why I said, oh my gosh, end of September, that's great. and But if they turn five before the school cutoff date, they're technically eligible to start kindergarten.
00:11:45
Speaker
Malcolm Gladwell made this a popular trend when he wrote about it in his book, Outliers, explaining how being relatively older than some of your other classmates gives children a massive advantage in sports and academics. That's his words, not mine.
00:12:02
Speaker
So some families started to choose to wait an additional year so their child could begin school older than many of their classmates. Now, we're not going to get into this right now about how this is such a privilege if you do get to do this because so many families don't have the financial means to do that or don't have that ability. We'll talk about that in another episode. But families started to do that.
00:12:27
Speaker
And they would make that choice hoping that their child would have more emotional maturity, better attention skills, stronger social confidence, and more readiness for academic expectations. The real problem here isn't that more and more parents are redshirting. The problem is that kindergarten has become not developmentally appropriate. ah Kindergarten is really first grade now, and it should be so much more play-based education.
00:12:53
Speaker
Don't get me started. These are valid concerns that people have, parents have. It feels really different. It feels really different today than it did 10 years ago. And as someone who has a summer birthday, I will say that i didn't like being the youngest. I was sensitive. I was an average student, but I probably would have done well starting school later.
00:13:18
Speaker
But my parents did not redshirt me. It wasn't very popular then. So what does readiness even mean? Kindergarten readiness is about so much more than letters and numbers. So many parents worry that their child doesn't know all their letter sounds, can't read, which is you know ridiculous because you learn how to read in kindergarten. But so many kids...
00:13:40
Speaker
And parents think that they need to read before, but um it's just such a spectrum of reading. Some kids learn to read earlier, and some kids aren't ready till later. They worry because their child is having trouble sitting still or gets overwhelmed in groups, is shy around new kids or struggles with transitions.
00:13:58
Speaker
And these are definitely things to consider. But they do not automatically mean that a child isn't ready for kindergarten. True readiness includes emotional regulation. That doesn't mean that they don't have fits or outbursts or a hard time transitioning. That means that they can emotionally regulate when they do.
00:14:18
Speaker
They need to have ability to separate from their loved ones and caregivers. That doesn't mean it's it's not hard. It just means that they're able to not cry all day, but are able to be away from their caregivers. They need to have communication skills, like to say when they need to go to the bathroom or they need help, with something like their lunch or if they're feeling worried or if something feels confusing or if someone was not nice to them. They need to be able to communicate.
00:14:43
Speaker
um A curiosity and willingness to learn. They don't need to come into kindergarten knowing how to do everything. Kindergarten is for learning. And they need to have support from caring adults. And if you're listening to this podcast, I can tell that you are the caring adults that are supporting them.
00:15:02
Speaker
So here's what I wish every parent understood. Your child does not need to enter kindergarten already reading. Kindergarten is for learning. It's for learning so many things, but it is for learning how to read.
00:15:17
Speaker
So from a literacy standpoint, delayed entry does not at all guarantee that reading will come more easily. An extra year can be helpful for some kids if they need time to develop some their language, attention, or confidence. But age alone does not teach reading. In fact, our brain actually is not wired to learn how to read. I know I sound like a broken record saying that, but our brain is typically wired to learn how to walk and talk, but it needs to be explicitly taught how to read. So turning a certain age does not make it easier or harder.
00:15:56
Speaker
So what matters most in kindergarten readiness is feeling safe, being encouraged, developing confidence, receiving instruction that matches their needs, and knowing that learning is a process.
00:16:11
Speaker
And it is something that we can nurture at any age. Okay, so let's talk about a couple of things that you can do to help your child get ready for kindergarten if you want to. Again, they are eligible for kindergarten by the time they turn five. They don't need to know how to do all of these things. But can they recognize some uppercase and lowercase letters by name and by sound? Some. Maybe 60%.
00:16:39
Speaker
Can they go to the bathroom by themselves? Do they know how to hold a book? Like, do they know this is the front, this is the back, this is the first word, this is the last word? Not how to read those words, but they can point to the first word on the page. This is called concept of print, and it's really important pre-reading a skill. We can't just teach kids how to read if they don't understand how print moves from left to right and top to bottom.
00:17:05
Speaker
If your child is struggling with concept of print, I would definitely encourage you to start with having them point to the first page. picture in the book that you're reading or the first letter they see. If they don't even know what a letter is, then send me a message. If they're going to kindergarten and you ask them where the first letter on the page is and they don't know what that means, that might be something to think about and we might need to come up with some plans to help work on some more alphabet recognition and this summer. But not, again, that alone is not a reason not to go to kindergarten.
00:17:37
Speaker
Are they able to help themselves as things get tricky? Do they have some resilience? Can they open and close their lunch independently? Or are they working on that?
00:17:48
Speaker
Can they interact with a new friend in a positive way? Can they get dressed on their own, like put their coat on, zip it, tie their shoes? These are not things that they need to know how to do, but can they do a lot of these things independently?
00:18:02
Speaker
Can they print their name in uppercase and lowercase letters? Can they control their voice in different settings? Understand an outside voice and an inside voice.
00:18:14
Speaker
Can they trace a straight line or a curved line if you give them something to trace? Can they hold scissors correctly and cut a straight line? Do they rhyme? Can they recognize rhyming words if you say bat, sat, mat?
00:18:30
Speaker
And can they tell you another word that rhymes? Or if you say spoon, balloon, pig, which two rhyme? Can they tell you which two rhyme?
00:18:41
Speaker
Can they pay attention to a teacher or an activity for a few minutes? Can they recognize and write their own name? Can they follow one to two step directions like go brush your teeth and put your shoes on?
00:18:57
Speaker
Can they wait patiently? And are they excited about going to school? That is the most important thing to think about because we want them to feel excited and not afraid. And that comes from your excitement too.
00:19:14
Speaker
Kindergarten is exciting. It's such a fun time of life for both you and them. They're going to learn so, so many things this year. So get excited about it so that they can feel your excitement. Kids learn from us originally. You know, we are their first nervous system when they are newborns. Then they learn how to self-regulate because of how we help them co-regulate. They learn how to self-talk by the way we talk to them. How we talk to them becomes how they talk to themselves. And So if we're feeling excited, they'll start to feel excited too. So I want you to be excited and know that there's no right or wrong answer on kindergarten readiness. These are just some things to think about. I'm always here and happy to help if you have more questions or want to talk about your child and see if it sounds like they're ready for kindergarten or if you want more strategies to practice and support them with at home.
00:20:15
Speaker
And the very best thing you can do is take our kindergarten course this summer. There will be a lot. That'll be practice for them interacting with another adult. and They'll take my lessons and there's, you know, pause time during the lessons. So I'll ask them a question. They can interact with that. They'll get to express if they're frustrated or something feels too tricky for them. They'll get to tell you, which is great practice.
Kindergarten Course Promotion
00:20:40
Speaker
They'll get practice in writing, in tracing, in holding a pencil, in holding scissors, in building fine motor skills, in letter recognition, in sound recognition, in rhyming. So almost all of these skills that we have talked about are in our kindergarten course that is linked in our show notes. that you can take this summer. And like I mentioned, if you take it this summer, you get two bonus parent coaching calls with me. So that means even if you take that course and you're like, I still need help, guess what? I will be live to talk to you two times this summer. So you can say, I'm really stressed about kindergarten starting and I don't know what to do. Or
00:21:23
Speaker
This feels too easy. Did I make a mistake in holding them back? I will be with you every step of the way this summer. And this is my last time this year doing any sort of live coaching or tutoring because our baby is coming and I'll be taking some time off of doing live events. So this is really a special time to get to get in because It's the last time for 2026. So I really hope you join us this summer. If you have any questions or wonder if this is the right thing for you for your kindergartner, first grader, or second grader, please send me a message on Instagram at BigCityReaders or send us an email, hello at BigCityReaders.com. I cannot overemphasize this enough.
00:22:05
Speaker
This is the perfect thing for your entering kindergarten, first, or second grader. this summer. It is the easiest thing you can do. it is completely done for you. No thinking, no guesswork, and I will be holding your hand every step of the way.
00:22:20
Speaker
i want everybody to do this. I want to be able to support every family I can before i take a little bit of time off for our September baby. So please reach out if you have any questions, and I hope to see you all in the summer reading program in just a few weeks.
00:22:35
Speaker
All right, that's all for today. i will see you in our next episode.