What Kindergarten Teachers Wish Parents Knew

I spent three years in Metro Nashville Public Schools kindergarten classrooms before joining Sunflower. What I saw in those classrooms — and what I still hear from former colleagues — forms the backbone of everything we teach in Pre-K here. Here's the honest version of what kindergarten teachers actually want families to know.

Academic skills matter far less than self-regulation. Every kindergarten teacher I know would trade a child who can read 20 sight words for a child who can sit in a circle for 15 minutes, wait their turn, recover from frustration without a meltdown, and use words to solve problems with peers. These executive-function skills are the substrate on which everything academic builds. A child who can regulate themselves can learn to read. The reverse is not guaranteed.

The ability to separate from a parent without extended distress is a real skill that affects classroom learning. A child who struggles with drop-off every day is not available for learning during morning meeting — the highest-yield instructional time in the kindergarten day. Practice separation before kindergarten. Every childcare and preschool drop-off is training. Use them.

Pencil grip, scissors use, and fine motor skills are genuinely hard to remediate in kindergarten. By the time teachers see 20 kindergartners trying to hold scissors in May, the ones who needed more fine motor practice in preschool are visibly behind. This is entirely preventable: playdough, lacing cards, tearing paper, using child scissors, drawing. Twenty minutes a week of focused fine motor play in preschool eliminates this problem.

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