Where to start when teaching a pre-schooler?

Question

I have started teaching my 3 year old the alphabet, colours and numbers. We choose one color a week, a number a day and a letter per week that we work on and find in books etc. I was discussing this with someone and they thought you weer "supposed" to start with shapes and colours first. What are your thoughts and ideas on where to begin teaching pre-schoolers?

Answer 1

Wow.. my 3 year old has been saying the alphabet by herself for a long time, can count to 20 and to 10 in spanish, name all basic colors, shapes and color and stay mostly inside lines. We are now working on writing the alphabet. She is also familiar with what all the ABC's look like and can type them in order on a keyboard. She is a few months away from 4 years old now and is even singing along with some childrens songs.

I would suggest that you go over the alphabet like a song, and they get interested pretty easy. They learn it from memory or hearing it and repeating after you about 3 letters at a time. On numbers we worked on 1-5 and worked them till she knew them, then expanded to 10, we done 5 at a time. Letting them watch seseme street and learning cartoons help and is fun time for them. Make it all a fun game to them and they learn so fast without realizing it is learning, to them it's just playing. Just make teaching fun for them and you will be suprised how fast they learn.

I will give you some internet links my daughter loves and they teach them a lot of things

Answer 2

It's not about what you teach them. Take whatever your child is interested in and teach them that. At this age, they don't have to know the name of the color, just be able to match and sort the colors. If you want to work on letters. Try getting them the Leapfrog DVD series. My son had learned all his letters and their base sounds at an early age 3 because of the catchy song. He is now in Kindergarten and reading very well. Coloring and learning to manipulate things with their hands is important. Reading to them often is very important, but I assume you do this.

Think about teaching your kids like watching teachers in school. Kids learn from catchy songs, and fun activities. I didn't worry about letter formation until he was older, but he could easily write all his letters by age 4. They also make stencils that are fun for the kids to practice their letters. My son liked this more than tracing the wipe off boards.

Answer 3

Try your local library for ideas. With my two (2 and 4), we incorporated learning into every day. Point out shapes, colours around the house, in shops. Ask what colour things are, what shapes, how many etc. Point out letters of their name in books, signs.
At this age they are too little and don't have enough of an attention span for sit down learning. Just make it a fun part of stuff you do every day. At my sons preschool, they also label everything with pictres and words - table, chair, door etc, so they can make the link.
My son knows all the colours, counts up to 30, and knows the alphabet to recite, also most of the individual letters if you point them out.
My daugher who is 2, knows most of the colours, counts to 10 and sings the alphabet song.

Answer 4

I dont think there is a "supposed" place to start. Just work in the shapes a long with what you are doing unless he already knows them well. Use different shaped things to work on colors and numbers so you can learn them at the same time.
One thing parents forget to teach their younger ones is patterns- like red red blue red ...? what comes next?

Answer 5

my 3 yr old and my 5 yr old when she was 2 and a half knew how to count to 35 and knew how to say thier abcs what helped me was i went to our dollar store and picked up some abc and 123 flash cards and i pcked up some shapes and math books i also got a tablet of paper that they use for kindergarten with the big letters spaces so i could write the letters or numbers and the kids could copy it i would also try www.nickjr.com or www.noggin.com they are both very good and kids love to play the games and you can also print off htings like coloring pages and work pages to help your kids learn and to encourage them... hope that helps

Answer 6

At that age, the best thing to do is to use "teachable moments". That means that, when you're looking through books, you ask, "What color is Elmo's shirt?", or "How many bananas does the monkey have?". When on car trips, play I Spy to identify colors. Ask what the letter is on a building or billboard. Personally, I prefer that to a "lesson plan" approach - at least until they're a little older.

Answer 7

i've got centred on comparable issues, numbers, alphabet and colorings, comparable age, very almost 2 a million/2. in an attempt to maintain issues relaxing extra desirable than something, i've got taught her some songs. Does she have any favourites? I taught my daughter Elmo's song, Itsy bitsy spider, and dealing on twinkle twinkle little celebrity. We do lots of loose hand drawing and communicate approximately what we are drawing. (We draw a dogs, the place is he going, who's he fiddling with, what shade is he...draw distinctive colored canines.) Then if we see a actual dogs on a walk, she starts off an entire tale on her own, truly facilitates with mind's eye and creativity. you may combine a brilliant style of suggestions this way (counting, colouring, opposites, and so on.) Sesame highway internet site has lots of movies, some video games. The treehouse internet site is large too. you may in basic terms google them. desire this facilitates?