Kindergarten Registration and Readiness Tips

Registration for the upcoming school year starts now! Our Director of Education (and former Kindergarten Teacher) shares resources and advice to make sure your little one is set to start strong!

Published on April 1, 2021

At the Children’s Museum, we are passionate about supporting school readiness! We do this through play in our museum exhibits that help children connect their personal experiences and learn by doing and exploring, and through all our other programming. Our mission expresses this well, We inspire growth in all children by engaging families in learning through play. As schools begin the process of registration, we want to encourage parents in our community to get their preschooler and kindergartner registered on time.

As a former Kindergarten teacher, and former kindergartner (as you can see from the photo above :)) I can tell you how important it is to have every student registered and ready for the first day of school. Often I had children start late (due to a need for immunizations that kept them from being in school, parents that were unaware of the school year start date, and a myriad of other reasons) and I saw first-hand how starting late had a detrimental impact on those children. They had missed a critical window where the class learned school and classroom expectations, got to know each other and establish routines that increased their comfort level and opened their young minds to be ready to learn.

Smart Beginnings has a great resource to help you know what documents you need to complete the school’s registration process in one go and information specific to your local school.

If you don’t find the answers you need, try calling 2-1-1– a helpful resource connecting people with free information on available community services. When you dial 2-1-1, a trained professional listens to your situation and suggests sources of help using one of the largest databases of health and human services in Virginia.

Registering is only the first step. Take advantage of the time between registration and the start of the school year to ensure your child is practicing good routines (personal care, bedtime, household chores, daily reading, healthy eating…) and learning the critical skills needed for school success. Below are some helpful links to get you started. And don’t forget our Children’s Museum blog- we will continue providing engaging learning activities and information to support learning each week.