Is my 3.5 year old far behind concerning her studies?

Question

I've been paying alot money this past year to have my child in Montessori school. Well today, I discovered she can't recongize any of her numbers over 5 on a sheet of paper, and only knows a few of her alphabets. I am thinking about homeschooling her.
What should she know and this age? And should I be upset?
Serious answers only please. Thanks

For the record, I am not pushing my child with unrealistic expectations. It just seems that she should at least know her numbers 1-10 by now.
Anyway, her communications skills are well above normal. I am just afraid that they aren't taking anytime with her at school. She picks up concepts realitivly fast when I teach them to her....that's why I am thinking about home schooling.

Answer 1

http://www.pbs.org/parents/childdevelopment/literacy-3to4.html

I am around infants and toddlers on a weekly basis, I have a cousins that I have babysat when they were 2 and 4 and are now 5 and almost 7. When the youngest was 2 she knew some numbers and letters but only because of her big sister. By age 3 her big sister was in kindergarten coming home with homework, that taught letters, numbers, colors, shapes, the youngest picked up on this very quickly, she is now in kindergarten and is 4, I think that you should start working with your 3 1/2 year old to prepare her for kindergarten, remember if she was born before the december 2nd cut off date then she can start when she is 4 not 5. If you feel like she is not ready, hold her back another year.
I have taken alot of child development classes and I have knowledge with childrens learning abilities but, all kids are different. Montessori's main goal is to learn through play, I went to a montessori preschool and they believe that to the fullest that they learn through play. You can also talk to your child's teacher and see how she is teaching your child, or spend a day in the classroom to see what exactly is going on in the classroom.
Hope this helps! good luck!
oh and remember reinforcing these concepts at home will help your child be prepared for Kindergarten.

Answer 2

Homeschooling is a great idea if you think that she is behind and learns better with you. She IS only three and a half, but that being said, 1-10 is VERY reasonable for three year olds, and 1-15 is reasonable for 3.5 year olds. But there are other questions to be asked about this as well. Can she write her own name? Name the letters of the alphabet? Identify simple animal sounds, ex. cat, dog, horse, chicken, cow? The two year old I used babysit for ( she's 4 now) , her favorite "animal" noise was crying baby. If she is naturally socializing well with other peers her age, I would take her out of the Montessori school she is in and homeschool ,it wouldn't hurt her in any way, and even if she is not very social I would do it, because it will help her learn faster, especially if she is a quick learner. But I wouldn't worry about her at all because children at that age are all different. Hope this helps.

Answer 3

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Answer 4

Well my son knew his entire alphabet at age two, but he is autistic and they are usually highly inteligente people. It is not common for a three year old to know their letters and their numbers, there is a certain amount of maturity that has to take place before they can process such information, the fact that my son knew so much at such a young age was a tell tell sign that he was not quite what he should be. At three they should be learning a couple colors but it is mostly social that you are concerned about. I would not home school unless you just feel that is necessary, most children need the social interaction. I would not be concerned unless at age five and still in school that she is still not learning much. Also a three year old does not have a long attention span and that makes a difference when it comes to learning.

Answer 5

She's only 3.5 years old!
RELAX.
First off, she may have just not been interested in talking about numbers and the alphabet today.
Second, let her be a kid. Sure, it's good for her to learn as much as she can before KG, but don't push her so hard.

Answer 6

It sounds like she's doing just fine. Top up at home by extending her if you want. Get tracing paper and let her use a pencil to try to go over large letters, she won't get this right but it's the kind of thing she'll do when she gets to school. Relax though, she is doing fine. Remember they are really learning a lot through play that goes on in these schools.

Answer 7

A three and a half year old does not need to know numbers or letters at that age. Montessori is not necessarily about academics.
It is about working with others and being responsible for one's actions. It should have activities to help with coordination and, possibly speech, and things that are more age appropriate for pre-schoolers than numbers or letters. Little children have lots to learn before they are ready of reading or math or writing.

I'll tell you an easy way to get your daughter to learn the alphabet at home. Get those magnetic letters and put them on your refrigerator. Start with easy words or names and show your daughter what letters are and why we need them. Let her decide how much time she wants to put in with this sort of learning. It is not critical yet. As to numbers, we have five fingers on each hand and five toes on each foot. Remember this little piggy went to market? How many eyes? etc.

Keep in Montessori. She will always be better behaved and self aware from that sort of pre-school. She will be better organized at home and in her studies, if the Montessori is a good one.

I went to a really super private school when I was young. My mother taught there. I heard many discussions about child development. Six years old is a good age to learn letters and phonics. That's when I learned and by the time I was eleven, I was in the top two percent of high school seniors in reading comprehension.

Let her learn in her own time. Let her love learning for its own sake. Don't push her until school becomes a drag. I never heard that school wasn't fun until I went to public school in seventh grade.

Don't get too high pressured at this age. Enjoy your wonderful daughter and have fun.
http://www.montessori.org/
http://www.montessori.edu/method.html

Answer 8

Just because you pay alot of money doesn't mean the school is any better. I went to a private school and didn't learn any more then the kids who went to public school. I was also homeschooled, and highly recommend it. It allowed me to learn at my own pace, and I even got to pick and choose which subjects I wanted to learn (aside from the mandatory ones).

I wouldn't say she's behind necessarily, but you never know. Work on it with her and if she doesn't improve then talk to her teacher or her pediatrician.

Answer 9

How are her speech skills? These will highly influence her learning.
I suggest she have her hearing and cognitive skills tested by professional. This way they can figure out what level she is on and if she needs additional help they can give her an IEP... a plan designed for her.
I would think by now she could say her ABC, count to 10, and know basic colors, shapes.

Answer 10

The general premise of a Montessori school is that the child learns at his/her own pace...

I don't mean to bust your bubble, but a LOT of kids just aren't interested in or developmentally ready to learn EVERYTHING that everyone thinks they should know...some kids may not learn their letters until they're six or seven. Some will learn them at three. Some kids may count to 100 before they hit four years old, others won't until they're in first grade. As long as she continues to progress in some areas, don't worry about it too much.

Studies have actually shown that children who don't receive "formal" schooling until age six or seven start out "behind" in the early primary grades, but catch up to and surpass early "advanced" kids by the later elementary grades, barring a diagnosed learning disability and/or other mitigating factors.

Keep in mind that fifty years ago, children in the US performed at or beyond the level of the rest of the world and VERY few children went to preschool or even kindergarten at that age. Nowadays, children face enormous pressure to perform before they're ready for it, and they don't "learn" the material taught to them. They memorize it in the short term, but don't fully grasp it, which is why, later on, they often have difficulty with more complex tasks and concepts. Hence our declining scores on a global scale.

As an elementary school teacher, I can tell you that, actually, your daughter is much further along than many children who came through my first grade. Some arrive knowing NONE of their letters or numbers. I can tell you right now that the greatest indicator of whether an early elementary school child will "succeed" is whether her parents read to her at home on a daily (or nearly so - we're not all saints ;-)) basis. Pre-school doesn't matter, fancy tutors don't matter....reading at home is what predicts success, as it's tied to MANY of the reading readiness cues we as teachers would love to see our students come to school with (recognizing that letters form words, you read from left to right, etc.).

Please don't try to push your daughter too hard. With many children, you'll find they learn in spurts....your daughter already obviously has a concept that the little squiggles on the page are more than just a design, and that they have a meaning. She will probably generalize that very soon, and thrill at learning new symbols. All in good time.

Good luck!