Kindergarten Tutoring: How to Help Your Kindergartner

How to Support Your Kindergartner at Home

Read Aloud

Read stories to your child frequently to nurture comprehension skills as well as his enjoyment of stories. Choose books that have many pictures and appeal to your child's interests. While you read, refer back to the pictures to help your child understand that the illustrations are a resource for understanding the plot.

Additionally, have choral reading sessions in which you and your child read a passage aloud together. This activity may work the best with books that your child already knows very well. Although he may not be able to actually read the words, your child can participate in the reading process by reciting familiar sentences.

While reading, ask questions about the story. Keep in mind that your child will likely need a great deal of support from you. Help him refer back to the story to find the answers. You may also ask questions about story structure, like 'What happened at the beginning of the story?' or 'How did the story end?'

Interactive Activities

Support your kindergartner's counting skills by using hands-on materials, like blocks or candy. Ask your child how many blocks there are in total. Alternatively, help your child compare whole numbers by putting pieces of candy into two groups and asking which is larger.

For a challenge, introduce addition and subtraction using objects and simple word problems. For instance, if you have ten candies and then eat three of them, how many do you have left? By using the objects, your child will solve the equation 10 - 3 = 7.

Rhymes

Use classic nursery rhymes to help your child gain phonemic awareness. Phonemes are the individual sounds that make up a word. For example, the word 'bat' has three phonemes: /b/ /a/ /t/. By listening and creating rhyming patterns, your child will learn to recognize similar sounds.

You may even turn this activity into a game by taking turns coming up with rhyming words. Begin by asking, 'What rhymes with bat?' Continue playing until you and your child have exhausted all options. It's good practice even if your child comes up with nonsense words, like 'zat', because she is recognizing the similar ending sound (/at/).