Teaching My 3 Yr Old???

My daughter is 2 1/2 and reconizes all of her letters, some of her numbers and reconizes her name. However, I am looking into a 3 year old preschool and have been told over and over again that most of the children do not know there letters and numbers and how to spell their name. By the end of the PK3 the teachers goal is that the children recognize their letters and numbers (1-10, I believe). Once I heard this I realized that they are not expected to know this but will learn at their pace. As long as you introduce it, emphasize it and make a game out of it, he may learn it now or in the next year. I believe that sometimes as parents we put too much pressure on our children and need to realize that they all learn in their own time in all areas.

1) Leap Frog has a number of great products for learning and they're available at Target.
2) There is a Core Knowledge series by Hirsch that you can find on-line. He has a book, "What Your Preschooler Should Know" that will give you an organized approach to teaching your child age appropriate skills and facts. He has a whole series that go up until 6th or 8th grade based on the premise that schools teach skills (reading, math, etc.) but don't teach facts (history, music, religion, etc) and he fills in the blanks left by our educational system.
Good Luck.

There are many resources on the internet that will assist you in knowing what your child should by the time he enters kindegarten. The basics include counting 1-30, letter and letter sound recogntion, recognizing ones name, ect.

My son is 22 months old now. In teaching your child, repetition is the key for young children under five. At the age of 16 months my son could recognize all of the alphabet, identify and recite the sounds of all alphabet letters, recognize shapes, colors and count to 10 and recognize the numbers 1-10. (We are working on 11-20 now). I know that this sounds amazing, but true. Everyone was involved in this process from the babysitter to grandparents in reinforcing concepts.

For counting, we counted everything all day, going up and down stairs, his favorite toys, ect. We also purchased a book series from Brainy Baby with separate books for numbers, letters, shapes and the alphabet. The four book series had the same picture concepts throughout. We would read different books from the series on a daily basis. The books are very visually simulating and he enjoyed looking at the pictures. Buy this series if you can. It is geat!

For letter recognition, the Leap Frog video called "The Letter Factory" was great. We got it as a gift on his first birthday. He started watching the video in the evenings before bed at about thirteen or fourteen months. He really enjoyed and would cry when the video ended. By the time he was 16 months he would randomly identify letters and tell you the sounds of the letters as well. He now is the alphabet king! The video has catchy vinettes that for each letter and sound. We also reinforced the concepts identified in the video with our son. So we also recited the catchy songs for each letter and reinforced the visual concept given for each letter with him as he bathed, ate, walked or played in the park. Repetition was the key. Your son will LOVE this video.

Dom't worry too much that your child is not at the same level as other children at this point. Every child is different and have different learning curves. Tap into the things that your son enjoys doing and create learning opportunities from them.

Finally, make learning fun. Get excited about his grasp of anything. We would get excited about everything, which made our son want to get that positive response from us.

If you get the video and book series, please let me know how he likes it.

Kids remember things from repetitions. But make it fun. Just keep singing ABC and count 123 on everything that you do together. Like count the bubbles in his bath, or maybe the cheerios on his plate...etc. Soon enough he'll sing it with you. Don't stress yourself over it. As long as you constantly communicate with your child, and showing him examples along the way then you will be fine. I always sang out the spelling of my son's name and after awhile he picked it up. As far as the writing goes, same thing - I hold his hand to write his letters - over and over again. They love the security of having things done the same way, so you will find that he will be the one bugging you to help him sing his abc, or write his name with him.

Just have fun with it.

:-) M.
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My daughter is 3 and a half and knows her ABC's can count to 20. I taught her to recognize her letters (we are still working on some lower case ones) and her numbers (she still sometimes forgets to ID 11&12). She just learned to write her name, but is very limited with the rest of the letters. She knows her colors, shapes and can carry a solid conversation. But as the mother earlier said, this is all learned through repetition. We used flash cards almost every morning, a different topic each one, and she loved them. It was more of a game for her. My son, who is now 2, knows his colors and shapes just by playing the flash card game with his big sister. Count everything. My daughter and I have counted steps since before she could talk. Oh, and don't be discouraged if he isn't receptive at first. My daughter hardly spoke before 18 months but suddenly knew all thes ewords. Turns out she was just absorbing all the information first. My son on the other hand, repeats every word he heres.

By the way, I'm also in the same boat with the age requirements. My son's birthday is December 10th.

Good luck and Happy New Year