A Grade-By-Grade Guide to Education

Kindergarten

What you can expect: Gone are the days of free play, games, and songs. Most states now have full-day kindergarten with fairly academic programs that emphasize reading in groups, solving simple math problems (like addition and counting by tens), and developing writing skills. 

-You'll find a lot of seat work and pencil-and-paper tasks as kids learn to master their letters, numbers, and writing short words like "to." (Reversing letters and numbers while writing is totally normal now.)

-Your child will be expected to sound out simple words (especially rhyming words) and learn to identify different parts of a book, such as the writer, the artist and illustrations, the title, and the story. 

Don't be surprised if... Your child has a hard time sitting still to do all that work. It's expected, and a savvy teacher knows to let these kids move around a lot. For more on fidgeting and focus, learn when to test your child for ADHD.