A balloon drop falls on children from the Cedar Hill and Avondale HeadStart and pre-K programs during a news conference at the Creative Discovery Museum on Wednesday, Mar. 11, 2015, in Chattanooga, Tenn., to announce a new initiative, Countdown to Kindergarden, designed to help children be prepared to start school. 
Children from the Cedar Hill and Avondale HeadStart and pre-K programs hold "countdown" balloons during a news conference at the Creative Discovery Museum on Wednesday, Mar. 11, 2015, in Chattanooga, Tenn., to announce a new initiative, Countdown to Kindergarden, designed to help children be prepared to start school. Learn more
* Sign up online at cdmfun.org/kindergarten-readiness * See the tip sheets for skills kindergartners need online at cdmfun.org/school-readiness-skills
Countdown to Kindergarten Club promises
* Read to and with my child 20 minutes every day and discuss what we read. * Have daily conversations with my child. * Encourage my child to be independent. * Allow opportunities for free play and creativity, making sure there are "screen free" times at home. * Develop healthy routines now, such as morning clean-up, homework and bedtime. * Use the tip sheets.
For a preschooler who's never been to kindergarten, it can be scary to step onto a big, yellow school bus for the first time.
"It's intimidating when you're little and those steps are big," said Lynda LeVan, spokeswoman for the Creative Discovery Museum.
So a school bus that kids can explore will be parked at the children's museum in downtown Chattanooga on Aug. 1, for the culmination of a Countdown to Kindergarten campaign the museum launched Wednesday.
Getting comfortable riding the school bus is just one of dozens of skills the museum hopes to help instill in the roughly 4,000 kids who'll head to kindergarten in the fall at Hamilton County's public schools.
Writing numerals from zero to 10, learning letters, walking in a straight line for 8 feet, kicking a ball and being able to wash their own hands are some of the skills kids need, according to tip sheets for parents offered through the museum's new program.
"They learn to read in kindergarten now, so they have to know their ABCs before they get there," LeVan said.
Only about half of kids who show up for kindergarten have the emotional, social, physical and intellectual skills needed to succeed, museum officials say.
So museum officials hope parents of kindergarten-bound children will sign a Countdown to Kindergarten Club contract. It asks parents do such things as read for 20 minutes daily to their children, develop healthy routines and have daily conversations.
In return, each child will get a free T-shirt that says, "I'm a Countdown Kid." Parents also will get tip sheets and a punch card good for two free museum visits for one child accompanied by an adult. Since daily admission costs $12.95, two free museum visits for a child and adult has a roughly $52 value. Donations from Unum and United Way have made the Countdown to Kindergarten campaign possible, museum officials say.
Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke and Hamilton County Schools Superintendent Rick Smith spoke at Wednesday's campaign launch, which featured a group of kids from the federal Head Start early learning program for low-income families from the Avondale and Cedar Hill Head Start centers in Chattanooga.
Contact staff writer Tim Omarzu at tomarzu@timesfreepress.com or www.facebook.com/tim.omarzu or twitter.com/TimOmarzu or 423-757-6651.