For both parents and children, preparing for kindergarten can be daunting.

By the time young children are getting ready to turn 5 years old, parents have a plethora of choices and questions ahead of them regarding officially starting their child’s education.

Making the leap between preschool and kindergarten is a significant change, and children benefit from early preparation before that transition, said Julie Thumma of LifeSteps.

“When children transition (into kindergarten) successfully, they’re more likely to enjoy school and show continued academic growth,” Thumma said. “When their families are engaged early, they’re more likely to stay engaged.”

Thumma is a resource development specialist at LifeSteps, an independent, nonprofit, social service agency working with children, families, older adults and individuals with disabilities across Western Pennsylvania. Part of her role involves coordinating between preschools and kindergartens to ease the move forward for children and families.

“We’re looking at what early learning opportunities exist in the community, and we implement projects to support positive outcomes for children,” Thumma said. “Children can experience fear, anxiety, happiness or being overwhelmed. It really depends. The more they visit and they become comfortable with the people and things that they can experience in kindergarten, (the more) they make a better transition.”

Public and private schools across Butler County offer a number of options for kindergarten. Mars Area, Seneca Valley and South Butler County school districts all offer half-day morning and afternoon kindergarten, while Butler Area, Slippery Rock Area, Karns City Area, Moniteau and Allegheny-Clarion Valley school districts offer full-day kindergarten.

Based on parent schedules, some families are interested in one timing option over the other, said Elizabeth McMahon, assistant superintendent at Mars Area School District.

“The a.m. session is identical to the p.m. session, but for their family it might work better for them,” McMahon explained. “It just depends on the family dynamic.”

Mars Area determines the morning and afternoon sections for kindergarten through a lottery system, she said.

“It’s so that they have a chance to get it, versus just dictating a.m./p.m. based on your address,” she said.

Mars offers a kindergarten orientation a week before classes start, and is bringing back the “Watermelon Welcome” event in the spring.

“They get an opportunity to meet the teachers, and we review curriculum, so they kind of have an idea of what to expect coming into kindergarten,” McMahon said. “The greater exposure we can give them, the smoother the transition can (be). That’s our hope.”

Susan Miller, Slippery Rock Area School District assistant superintendent, described Slippery Rock’s program as having “all of the great things that make school fun.”

“We do run a full-day kindergarten that is developmentally appropriate,” she said. “Kids have access to all of the support services. We have specials for kindergarten, and they also have all of the resources that they may need in terms of special needs.”

Slippery Rock Area’s “Rising Rocket” camp incorporates the transition time in the summer into a new kindergartner’s process of starting school.

“We do activities in the summer to get kids ready for school,” Miller explained. “There’s an opportunity for kids to come in in August and get acclimated to the classrooms, teachers and expectations. It’s really our transition activity for incoming kindergarten students.”

Parents looking for smaller class sizes or religious options have a variety of choices across in the county, including private schools like Butler Catholic School, First Baptist Christian School, St. Luke Lutheran School and Holy Sepulcher Catholic School, among a number of others.

Sister John Ann Mulhern, principal at Butler Catholic School, emphasized the school’s small class sizes as a benefit to children.

“Our program is a child-centered program. Our class size is 15, no more than 17. It’s a small class, so the teachers can do individual work with them,” she said. “The individual time that the teacher spends with the child, helping the child to adjust to formal learning where they are not necessarily the center of an adult’s attention all the time, is really beneficial to them.”

Butler Catholic also incorporates events before the first day of school to introduce students to the classroom. Mulhern said the events can be helpful for parents too.

“In August, two weeks before school starts, we have the ‘Kindergarten Kickoff.’ It’s in the evening. The parents bring a picnic supper and our phys ed teacher and some of our eighth-graders have some activities for the kids,” Mulhern said. “The parents get to meet each other because it’s very important for parents to know the parents of (the children) their kids go to school with. Then they have the picnic supper outside. It helps everybody, both the kids and the parents, with the transition into school.”

Events introducing young children to kindergarten before their first school year starts can begin as early as November of the previous year, Thumma said. She advised parents to reach out to their local schools, even if they have missed some of the events already, to get involved and get their child exposed to the learning environment.

“The sooner parents can connect to their school district and register, the more likely they are to make sure to be invited to those events, which are very helpful in (supporting) their children to make a successful transition,” she said. “I think taking advantage of any opportunity available as we’re having fewer restrictions would be definitely even more important than in the past because our children haven’t had as many opportunities to be in group settings (recently).”

Pre-kindergarten introductory events aren’t just for the benefit of the children, Thumma added. They allow parents to be acclimated to sending their child off to school, and they provide important information.

“They are very important for the parent because it is confusing — there’s a lot to learn, especially when it’s your first child,” she said. “The better connected they get, the more likely they are to feel comfortable and be connected and engaged in their child’s learning throughout.”