Kindergarten Assessment
TIPS & STRATEGIES

1. Remember That Kids Will Talk. This is not such a big deal as to necessarily merit being the first point made — but as we were writing this up, we realized it was a theme that repeated through a few different areas, so we thought we might as well lead with it! One of the books we read told a couple of illustrative stories. In one kindergarten assessment, the child told the admissions director that his parents really wanted to go to some other school. In another, the child told the admissions director that his parents promised him a new electronic toy after the interview. A little to easy imagine happening with your child, yes?


2. Play It Cool. From our experience, what our pre-school teachers and directors told us, and what we've read in multiple books, you must play it cool — because your kids will smell fear on you a mile away! They'll pick up on your anxiety, become anxious themselves, and then things will keep going downhill from there. Here are some specific tips on playing it cool before and during the kindergarten assessment.


• Explain — But Don't Over-Explain. We tried to keep it simple. We told our older child that we were going to have some "play dates" at some different schools where he might go to kindergarten. We never talked about them being interviews or assessments. We tried not to convey any preferences we might have had among the schools. And we went with whatever seemed to interest him. Early on, this was comparing the differences between the playgrounds at the different schools — so that's what we discussed with him!


• Don’t Over-Coach. Doing a lot of drills or coaching very specific answers seems likely to add pressure and could ultimately reduce performance during the actual assessment. Plus, admissions directors have probably seen it all. You can imagine your child may revealing during the interview that her only reason for a particular answer is that Mom or Dad told her to say that…


• Reduce Other “Day Of” Stresses. The usual common-sense stuff: get to the kindergarten assessment a little early and leave some time for casual exploration and settling in, as opposed to conveying the stress inherent in running late.


3. Ease the Separation Portion of the Kindergarten Assessment. If your child is on the shy side or can be in new situations, as we thought ours might be, your deepest nightmare is that your child will simply refuse to separate — and you'll be the only parent in the room with a screaming child who refuses to let go of you. That's not all that likely to happen, but here are a few things you can do that might help or at least make you feel like you are doing something helpful!


• Visit the School with Your Child Beforehand. Our child likes familiarity, and at times, he liked to talk about having been to certain places before or having been to certain places a certain number of times before. So we visited the schools with him ahead of time, walked around a bit, and on the day of the assessments would remind him that he had been to there before.


• Send The Parent To Whom The Child Clings Less. One book suggested that sending only one parent makes the whole visit less of a big deal — but we particularly liked its suggestion that the parent to whom the child clings less may make for an easier separation. We can't tell how much difference it made, but that's what we did, and it seemed to work out!


• Schedule on the Same Date and Time as a Friend. One book suggested coordinating with other families to end up at the same date and time. We found this tip long after our kindergarten application process, so we didn't get to try it; and we have some sense that admissions directors make some effort to break up kids from the same preschool, for example. But this still seems worth a try. By happenstance, we had one kindergarten assessment in which our child knew someone there already, and that did seem to give him some additional comfort.


• Consider Reverse Psychology. This will work only with some kids and could backfire — for us, this works generally more with our older child (and it works okay with our younger child, who is more willful, but sometimes backfires). I told our older child that, during his "play date," I would have to go into a boring meeting with the other parents — and asked if we could switch places, with me going to the play date and him going to the boring meeting. He seemed to like this kind of play and sending me off to my fate at the boring meeting. In the meantime, it seemed to distract from the separation itself.


• Light Bribery or Promise of Fun is Probably a Good Thing. We followed multiple suggestions that we promise our child that we were going to ice cream afterwards. This seemed to be within the acceptable range of this type of motivation. Promising a new toy or something more extravagant may get revealed by your child in an unflattering way, as we mentioned above!


4. Avoid the Last Kindergarten Assessment Date, If You Can. That way, if you wake up that day, and your child is under the weather or is just having a bad day, you can still try and call in to reschedule.


5. Manage Disasters. If, despite your best efforts, the assessment is just a disaster, see what you might do to manage that. If you think it really was just an off day, you might gently ask whether a rescheduled date is possible. If your child's in preschool, you might consult with your preschool director or teachers about contacting the admissions director about what your child is typically like every day at preschool.