I am sharing excerpts from an article by Seeta Pai, at commonsensemedia.org about the most important things you can do to prepare and support your child in kindergarten .
Encourage a love of learning. While kindergarten may be your immediate focus, you're really laying the foundation for lifelong learning. It's more important for your child to enjoy learning than to master facts and figures. Nurture curiosity, encourage questions, support critical thinking, and model being a learner yourself.
Help your kindergartner get along well with others. Much of school -- and life -- involves relating to and working with those around you. Kids who can share, play well with peers, and resolve conflicts are starting the game ahead.
Support self-control and planning skills. Young kids are just beginning to learn crucial self-regulation and executive functioning skills and it's key to success in school. Even kindergartners have to manage a lot of information, avoid distractions, and carry out plans. Help your kid practice remembering a sequence (after breakfast, we brush our teeth, put our shoes on, and go to school), curbing impulses (grabbing other kids' toys), and adapting when things don't go as planned.
Talk and read … a lot. One of the strongest predictors of later success in reading and other school subjects is early vocabulary -- and oral language skills in general. Talk to your kids, use challenging words, describe what they mean, read to them, play word games, make up nonsense rhymes and stories together, teach listening skills, listen to them, sing songs -- anything that emphasizes language.
Boost independence. Kindergarten is a big transition into a world of strange adults and peers, especially if your kid hasn't had much preschool experience. But there's lots you can do at home to set the stage: Teach kids to fetch and put away their things and to carry out basic routines independently. These picks can help your child prepare for the novelty -- and inevitable separation anxiety -- that school brings.
Provide opportunities to learn the three Rs. The "softer" skills above are core to kindergarten readiness. But if your kid's showing interest, there are many tools that will help introduce the building blocks of reading, writing, math, and more.