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Although all children develop social and academic skills at a different rate, there are general markers that parents should be aware of to see if their child is on track.

By the end of kindergarten, your child should be able to:

• Identify letters, basic colors, and shapes
• Know letter sounds to include combination letters like th, ch, sh
• Write all the letters of the alphabet in both upper and lower case
• Count to and identify numbers up to 20
• Recognize and understand the value of pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters
• Know the days of the week and months of a year
• Comprehend and retell a story that was read aloud
• Recognize simple words by sight

By the end of first grade, your child should be able to:

• Know how to phonetically sound out words
• Read first-grade books aloud and comprehend what has been read
• Read and write high-frequency words
• Write simple sentences with correct capitalization and punctuation
• Tell time on the hour and half-hour
• Count to 100, and count by 2's, 5's and 10's
• Know addition and subtraction for number groups 1-10
• Complete two-digit addition and subtraction problems up to 20
• Complete take-home papers in a timely fashion with guidance from parents

By the end of second grade, your child should be able to:

• Read fluently
• Recognize most irregularly spelled words
• Tell time to the quarter-hour
• Count to 1,000
• Count by 3's and 4's
• Add single and two-digit numbers
• Know the concept of multiplication
• Measure using a ruler in inches and in feet
• Complete take-home papers in a timely fashion with slight guidance from parents

By the end of third grade, your child should be able to:

• Write neatly in cursive
• Read chapter books with comprehension
• Use prefixes, suffixes and root words
• Count by 6's, 7's, 8's, 9's and have the multiplication table memorized
• Multiply and divide single-digit numbers
• Tell time to the minute
• Understand distances such as yards and miles
• Weigh objects with a scale and understand ounces and pounds
• Complete take-home papers in a timely fashion

If you feel your child is not on track with these grade level academic markers, have your child tested for skill gaps. Children who struggle early in their school life quickly develop negative attitudes toward learning. Tutoring Club's diagnostic testing evaluates and detects the exact problem area your child has and then develops a personalized solution to get your child back on track and feeling good about school and themselves.