The kindergarten my son went to had no such requirments he couldn't hold a pencil properly spell his name or recoganize all the letters he could say them though. I never worried about it to be honest isn't that what school is for? I guess it really depends on the school here you have to register in Jan so you should be able to ask then and have lots of time to prepare. My friend put her child in a really academically structed program and she had to know a bunch of stuff for kindergarten they also had homework everynight in kindergarten.