When should we start getting ready for school?

Hand skills and attention develop through play from about the age of three. You can add a little more focus in the year or so before your child starts school — but still through play, not workbooks.

Does a preschooler need to read before starting school?

No. Learning to read is what the first years of school are for. It matters more that your child can tell sounds and shapes apart, stick with a task for a while and has a relaxed hand.

How can I tell my child is holding a pencil wrong?

They grip it in a fist or with all their fingers, or press very hard and their hand hurts after a short while of drawing. Triangular and shorter pencils help, as does drawing on a vertical surface. If the problem persists, talk to your child's early childhood teacher.

Are preschool workbooks any use?

For a child who enjoys them, yes. If you have to push them into it, playdough, beads or cutting do the same job for the hand — without putting them off writing.

What's a good gift for a child about to start school?

Something they can use all year: a wall-mounted board, a craft set, a search-and-find book or a book in which they are the hero. School supplies will come with a list from the teacher anyway.

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Getting ready for school: gifts that teach through play

3/10/2026 · The Hero of the Book Team

Getting ready for school doesn't have to mean workbooks. Gifts that train a preschooler's hand and attention without them noticing they're learning.

Getting ready for school: gifts that teach through play

Quick answer

Getting a preschooler ready for school isn't about learning letters early. It's about a relaxed hand, a good pencil grip, being able to stay with one thing for a while and listening carefully. All of this is best practised through play: threading beads, cutting, playdough, search-and-find books, memory games or listening to stories. A well-chosen gift does more than a workbook you have to coax your child into.

What school really expects from a preschooler

Nobody expects a child to read or count to a hundred before their first day at school. What early-years educators talk about are the skills that reading and writing are later built on.

The hand. A new school starter will be writing several times a day. They need strength in their fingers, a relaxed wrist and shoulder, and a three-finger grip (thumb, index and middle finger). A child who holds a crayon in their fist and presses hard tires quickly when writing and starts to hate it.

The eye and attention. Telling b from d, spotting the difference between two pictures, following a line from left to right. This is called visual discrimination, and it can be practised without a single letter.

The ear. Hearing which sound a word starts with, clapping out syllables, repeating a short sentence. Listening attention matters as much for reading as eyesight does.

Staying power. At school, children sit and work on tasks they didn't choose. A preschooler who can stay with a puzzle for ten minutes has a head start.

The gifts below target exactly these four areas. For a wider choice by age and development, see the article gifts for preschoolers based on what your child is learning.

Gifts that train the hand

Gift	What it quietly trains	What to watch out for
Triangular crayons and large sheets of wrapping paper	the three-finger grip, big relaxed strokes from the shoulder	a small format tempts children to draw from the wrist and press too hard
A magnetic board or chalkboard on the wall	drawing standing up loosens the shoulder and elbow, so the hand doesn't lock	the board should be at your child's eye level, not above their head
Playdough or homemade salt dough	finger and palm strength, kneading, rolling, pinching	hard dough puts children off — start with a soft one
Beads and laces for threading	hand–eye coordination, the pincer grip	save smaller beads for a child who no longer puts things in their mouth
Child-safe scissors with a cutting book	two hands working together, smooth movement along a line	left-handed scissors for a left-handed child — ordinary ones hide the line
Peg mosaic or a hammer-and-nails set	picking up small pieces precisely, planning a pattern	keep the template simple, or the game turns into a task
A construction set with smaller pieces	fine motor skills, spatial imagination, staying power	the instructions are a bonus — free building is just as good for the hand

Gifts for attention, sight and hearing

Search-and-find and big picture books
A page full of detail where your child hunts for a particular character or object. It trains them to scan a picture systematically — exactly what they'll later need when reading along a line.
Memory games and quick-reaction card games
Pairs games teach children to remember where things are, while fast games about spotting matching symbols train quick reactions. Two players can finish a round in five minutes, which is the ideal length for a preschooler.
Jigsaw puzzles with twenty to a hundred pieces
Putting a puzzle together means comparing shapes, colours and edges — visual discrimination in its purest form. Start with a number of pieces your child can manage alone and add more gradually.
Mazes and dot-to-dot pictures
Guiding a line through a maze or joining numbered dots is a step towards writing. Unlike the warm-up exercises in a workbook, it feels like a puzzle.
Audiobooks and listening to stories
Listening without pictures makes your child hold the plot in their head. Afterwards, ask what happened first and what happened at the end — it trains auditory memory and the order of events. Tips for listening without ending up in front of a screen are in the article on bedtime stories.
Rhythm instruments
A small drum, rhythm sticks or a tambourine. Clapping and drumming out syllables is a classic early-literacy activity, and at home you can turn it into an echo game.

A book where they look for themselves

A preschooler who can't read yet goes back to a book for the pictures. When they are the main character, they look more closely: they search for themselves on every spread, check whether their sister or the dog is there too, and recognise their own name in the text before any other word. The first letters a child really knows are often the ones in their own name.

A personalised book from Hero of the Book is made from a single photo — the hero in the illustrations looks like your child, and you can add siblings, friends or a pet to the story. The book has 12 illustrated spreads, the digital version is usually ready within 15 minutes, and you can add an audiobook so your child can listen to the same story too. You choose the theme yourself — it could even be an adventure about the first day at school, if that's what your child is nervous about. How such a book is made is described in the article a personalised book for your child.

How to give the gift so it doesn't feel like school

1
Don't call it practice
Saying “this is to help you learn to write” turns play into a chore. A gift is a gift — the scissors are for making a crown, not for training.
2
Play along for the first few days
A preschooler is more likely to try something new when they see you enjoying it. Ten minutes together is enough, then let your child carry on alone.
3
Don't correct the grip in the middle of making something
If your child holds the crayon wrong, offer a triangular or shorter one (a short crayon naturally pushes them towards a finger grip). Correcting them out loud while they draw spoils the fun.
4
Notice what draws them in
One child will spend an hour with beads and find cutting boring; for another it's the other way round. Add more of whatever they enjoy, and try the other thing again in a few weeks.
5
Give things a permanent place
A box of playdough, scissors and paper within reach means your child will reach for crafts on their own, without being asked. That's exactly the independence they'll need at school.

Gift messages for a child about to start school

“Dear Annie, in a few months you'll be starting school. May this box full of colours help you draw everything you dream up. Love, Grandma and Grandad”

“Tom, this is a book about a boy who isn't afraid of anything. He looks a bit like you, doesn't he? Love, Mum and Dad”

“For our soon-to-be schoolgirl — may school go as well for you as it does in this story. We love you heaps.”

Looking for exam preparation for secondary school or university?

Plenty of people searching for “getting ready for school” are actually looking for help with secondary school exams or university entry. That's a completely different discipline from starting school, and the gifts in this article won't help with it. For exams, the most reliable material is usually past papers published by the body that sets the exam; university entry requirements are set by each university, and you'll find details and examples on its own website.

Sources

Your child's early childhood centre or kindergarten — Teachers can tell you how your child is getting on with fine motor skills, attention and listening.
The school your child will attend — The most reliable source on what the school expects in the first weeks and which supplies children will need.