Is my child on track?
A plain-language guide to what children are usually able to do at each year of PreK to Grade 5 — in reading, maths and writing — and when something is genuinely worth asking about.
Read this first. Children develop at wildly different rates, and the range of normal is much wider than most lists suggest. A child who is ahead in one column and behind in another is the ordinary case, not the exception. Nothing here is a diagnosis or an assessment. If you are worried, the child's teacher has seen hundreds of children this age and is the cheapest, fastest expert you have access to.
PreK (age 3 to 4)
Almost all of PreK is play. What looks like messing about with blocks is early maths, and what looks like babbling over a picture book is early reading.
Kindergarten (age 5)
Kindergarten is the year the alphabet turns into reading. The single biggest predictor of how the year goes is whether letter sounds become automatic.
Grade 1 (age 6)
Grade 1 is when reading becomes something a child does rather than something done to them. Expect it to be slow and effortful for most of the year.
Grade 2 (age 7)
Grade 2 is a consolidation year. Reading gets smoother, and maths moves from counting to genuine place value.
Grade 3 (age 8)
Grade 3 is the hinge year. A child stops learning to read and starts reading to learn, and any gap that was manageable before starts to compound.
Grade 4 (age 9)
Grade 4 is where written output ramps up. Children who read fluently but avoid writing become noticeable this year.
Grade 5 (age 10)
The last year before secondary-style demands. Organisation and independent work habits matter about as much as content this year.