How you can support your child's school readiness

school readiness

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Promoting school readiness

The transition from kindergarten to school is a significant step for your child. It's crucial to build a solid foundation for the upcoming school years and ease your child's departure from kindergarten. Discover more about how to support your child's readiness for school and promote essential social and emotional skills. As a caregiver figure in this phase of development, you play a central role in this phase of development. Guide your child through this journey and help them start school with confidence and proper preparation.

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Mastering new challenges

The transition from kindergarten to school is a significant step and can present major challenges for some children. As parents, you play a crucial role in the development and education of your child to ensure a positive start to their school life.

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The transition from kindergarten

In general, children face major changes when they make the transition from kindergarten to school, and the start of school does not always go smoothly. For some children, starting school is associated with considerable difficulties and has an impact on the subsequent years of their schooling. As parents, you are your child's first learning companions from birth. You have a decisive influence on your child's development and education to ensure a good start to school. The transition from kindergarten to school is a significant developmental step and brings with it new challenges. First of all, this means that the child will be saying goodbye to friends with whom they have been associated for a long time. Saying goodbye to kindergarten also means saying goodbye to familiar things such as the usual daily routine, the way to kindergarten, toys or special experiences. In kindergarten, the children had many opportunities to move around in the group room, on the playground or on walks, whereas at school a lot of time is spent sitting down. This poses a considerable challenge, especially for children who enjoy movement. In addition, daily school life requires children to develop numerous other skills, such as independence, concentration, creativity, perseverance, communication and cooperation in class. With your loving support, you will enable your child to have a positive start to school, which will have a beneficial effect on the coming school years. In the ›Support activities‹ section, you will find numerous suggestions aimed at supporting your child's language, motor and cognitive skills.

A parent and a preschool child play catch with a ball in a children's room.

Every day offers a few minutes of valuable family time to accompany a child on their path of development.

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School readiness is more than just knowledge

School readiness begins to develop in early childhood and encompasses crucial areas of a child's development, including motor, cognitive, emotional and social skills. Children get off to a positive start at school if they acquire basic skills in these areas at an early age that make learning at school easier. Children gain such daily experiences mainly in the family and their immediate environment through shared activities and personal encounters with people, animals, nature and different materials. In this sense, a child's readiness for school is largely determined by the present experiences, which at the same time always offers room for further development and positive changes.

An Asian girl carefully cuts out a shape from a piece of paper with scissors.

A boy closely observes a snail through a magnifying glass.

Being ready for school

Children grow up under very different conditions and develop their individual personalities in the process. The family and the environment in particular have a major influence on the child's development and education. However, education does not only mean expanding knowledge, but also enabling children to shape their own lives independently and responsibly. Education enables children to better understand their environment, recognize connections and discover what gives them particular pleasure. Crafting or painting, for example, supports fine motor skills and promotes the joy of creative design. Spending time together exploring nature deepens your child's connection with the environment and encourages their curiosity. This developmental process begins at birth for every child, not just in the year before starting school. School readiness develops from the learning experiences that a child gathers and processes in the world around them. Through these experiences, the child expands their linguistic, motor, and cognitive skills. A child's early years therefore undoubtedly play a decisive role in their later educational path. School readiness at the start of school depends less on innate talents or chance and more on the experiences and impressions that the child gathers in the first six years of its life. However, school readiness is not exclusively linked to a child's abilities at the time they start school. The school also has a responsibility to offer lessons in which the children's abilities continue to develop and improve.

A toddler picks apples on a farm in autumn.

School readiness develops from daily experiences right from the start.

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Food for thought

Starting school is a major turning point in your child's life. As a parent, you play a key role in making this transition as positive as possible. Through your support and guidance, you play a crucial role in strengthening important social, emotional and cognitive skills in your child. The following suggestions offer you practical food for thought to prepare your child as well as possible for everyday school life and life's challenges. Help your child to start this new phase of life with the necessary skills.

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Safety and trust
Give your child security and trust by remaining firm, even if your child challenges you.

Respectful interaction
Avoid making derogatory comments to your child in the presence of other people.

Appreciation
Appreciate your child's efforts, regardless of the outcome.

Show patience
Be patient. Children develop at their own pace and in their own way.

Positive communication
Constant scolding and criticizing leads to children no longer listening. Respectful interaction is the basis for positive communication.

Listen attentively
Listen attentively to your child and answer their questions. This teaches your child to be curious and to question things.

Admit mistakes
Admit mistakes and ask your child to forgive you. This shows that nobody is perfect and mistakes are part of life.

Joint activities
Take time regularly to do joint activities together, such as going for a walk, playing a game or reading a story aloud.

Routine and structure
Children feel more comfortable with a daily routine and structure. It gives them security and they know what's coming next.

Sincerity and honesty
Always be honest with your child, even if it's not always easy. This will show them how important honesty and trust are.

Empathy and understanding
Try to put yourself in your child's shoes and understand how they feel. Show compassion and understanding.

Dealing with emotions
Teach your child how to deal with their emotions in a healthy way. Through your role model, they will learn to recognize feelings and deal with them appropriately.

Be a role model
Children learn by imitation. Therefore, be a good role model and pay attention to how you act and react.

Strengthen self-confidence
Give your child the space to make their own decisions. This strengthens self-confidence and promotes independence.

Friendly interaction
Spend quality time together. Shared activities promote a strong bond with your child.

Explaining rules and boundaries
Rules and boundaries offer children security, structure and orientation and help them to find their way in everyday life. Explain to your child why these rules and boundaries are important.

An Indian preschool child hugs his mother with love and affection.

A sad girl rubs her eyes with both hands.

Emotional skills

Emotional skills play a crucial role in school because they help children cope with their own feelings as well as the feelings of others. They enable children to manage stress and frustration and to deal more easily with challenges. Children are better prepared to resolve conflicts among themselves and to build friendships when they understand their own emotions and are able to communicate them to others in a positive way. From infancy, children start developing these skills, primarily through interaction with their parents. For example, babies learn how to maintain eye contact and smile through their parents' affectionate communication and response, which contributes significantly to building an emotional bond. Children learn a lot from their parents. By talking openly about feelings at home and showing how you deal with both positive and negative feelings, you help your child to develop and express these important emotional skills themselves. If rules are observed in the family and consideration is shown for one another, the child will learn to do the same. Talk to your child about feelings. Use stories and picture books to talk about feelings. For example, if a little bear is sad in a story, talk to your child about why the bear is sad. Ask your child when they feel sad themselves. Think together about what the little bear can do to feel better. This will help your child to develop empathy and compassion as well as to better understand and express their own feelings.

A girl with a school bag gets ready for school with her mother.

Making the start of school easier

Talk to your child about the upcoming start of school before they start and help them prepare by visiting the school together and getting school supplies. Discuss in detail with your child what a typical school day looks like. Explain new routines, such as the way to school, break times, lessons and other activities. This will help your child to mentally adjust to the upcoming changes and reduce anxiety. Help your child to come to terms with saying goodbye to their kindergarten friends, for example by talking to them together or creating a farewell gift. Encourage activities at home that promote your child's concentration, such as puzzles, painting or crafting. Practice walking the route to school together several times to give your child a sense of security and help them become familiar with the new environment. Make the start of school easier for your child by patiently answering questions and showing understanding for uncertainties in this new phase of life.

A father accompanies his daughter on the way to school.

Starting school without fear

Please remember that the start of school is also associated with anxiety for some children. It is important not to prematurely judge your child as anxious or to make derogatory remarks. Instead, prepare them actively and sensitively for this new stage in their lives. Start exploring the route to school together a few weeks before school begins, whether on foot or by bus. It is also helpful to explain the meaning of traffic signs and traffic lights to your child while exploring the route to school. This will help your child to reduce possible fears and encourage safe behavior in traffic. Keep in mind that every child is unique and requires their own time to adjust to new situations. Comparisons with other children are not helpful and create additional pressure. Instead, boost your child's self-confidence by encouraging them to openly express their insecurities. Doing so strengthens their self-assurance and supports a positive start to school.

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