“I’m a walking billboard for KRE – my kids loved it!”
What does it take to be ready for kindergarten?
Five-year-old twins Zuri and Zaire felt ready, but their mom Traci thought they would benefit from a boost. When she heard about PTM’s Kindergarten Readiness Experience (KRE), she didn’t hesitate to sign up.
From the first day of KRE, she was amazed.
“KRE was a great experience — a great balance of letting the kids play, have fun, and the instruction and structure they’ll need to prepare them for the school year.”
Kindergarten Readiness Experience is a free, evidence-based program at Please Touch Museum that prepares kids for what kindergarten will feel like, look like, and sound like. Over the course of four 90-minute sessions, caregivers and children engage in activities to support social-emotional skill building in a classroom setting, with opportunities to continue that learning at home.
The twins learned so much in their four KRE sessions, Traci shared — from reading strategies to tying their shoes.
Traci learned a lot, too: “The opportunity to see my children in the kindergarten environment with their peers, and experiencing that alongside them, was amazing.”
The sessions allowed Traci to see that her son, Zaire, was quieter than usual next to his more outgoing sister, Zuri. Seeing this inspired her to ask their kindergarten teacher to separate the twins more at school, to help Zaire find his voice.
“Seeing the classroom experience firsthand really helped me navigate that conversation,” Traci said. “I wouldn’t have been aware of that dynamic between them without the KRE experience.”
Now that their KRE session is over and her twins are happy in kindergarten, Traci is making use of the free PTM membership, a perk included in the program. But her kids haven’t forgotten KRE. “Zaire still says all the time when we go to PTM, ‘Are we going to class!?’”