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3 year old son - is he at the right level of learning?

Dad2LucasDad2Lucas
in Preschoolers
Wasn't sure how to phrase the title, so please bear with me!



Lucas is 3 years and 2 months old and we are wondering whether he is at the right level or not with his level of undertanding and learning.



He speaks pretty well, most of the time, and can count to 10, anything more and he gets a bit muddled. He can do simple puzzles but when we get to a puzzle that has say 36 pieces, he seems to do it by trial and error rather than looking at the picture and seeing which pieces look similar.



My wife has just tried doing an alphabet snap game with him but he couldn't grasp it at all. he can match pictures, but letters he didn't seem interested in.



Is the about right for is age or should he know more by now? What is the best way to improve his alphabet recognition skills?



I was thinking of getting some alphabet cards and when we do everyday things we use them. For example, we'd start the day with breakfast and I'd show him a B card and say breakfast begins with a B.



His level of drawing is still at the scribble stage - should he be doing more and if so what are good ways to improve that?



Thanks for any suggestions - all feedback is very welcome as we don't really know what is 'the norm' for his age.



Steve

Replies

  • Louise_NLouise_N
    That sounds about right for his learning and development. My daughter will be 4 in September and is pretty advanced in some things that she does. The way that she learned the alphabet was with the help of the internet. I found videos on You Tube that sung the alphabet and made it fun. It didn't take her long to catch up with it. It also helped her recognise the letters as it was a video rather than flashcards.



    In relation to the drawing I think scribbling is fine. It is only recent that my daughter is trying to draw things. She went to playgroup for a year as well and I think that this has really improved her skills and has taught her lots.



    You should also invest in nursery rhym CD's for the car or home. These are fantastic. I have played these in the car for years and my daughter has picked them up really fast and this helped for playgroup as well.
  • BroodyBettyBoopBoopBroodyBettyBoopBoop
    One thing I would say is if you are working on the alphabet work on the letter sounds instead of their names. Children who start school knowing the names but not the sounds always seem to me to struggle because it is the sounds you need to read and word build. It sounds like you're doing all the right things. Be careful about learning ABC songs as most do teach the kids the names and not the sounds. I spent literally all year teaching one 4 year old the sounds as he knew them by name and this has really hindered his reading and all this time spent un-learning what he already knew has meant he was behind his peers who came knowing nothing and he was getting frustrated too.
  • mehubandbubmehubandbub
    Sounds perfect - I am an early years teacher and he sounds he is where he should be. image

    If you want to help him more help him next with counting objects rather then just counting to 10 as sometimes children think 1-10 is a song and don't relate it to number of objects.

    alaphabet I agree with emmie - we teach it alpahabet as name of the letter is the letters as in the alphabet song and the sound the make is. (but all this is advanced for 3 years old so only if you want to and he wants to) most important thing is to make it fun and his concentration at 3 will be very, very short!
  • KittenMitts2KittenMitts2

    I used to write out individual letters really big, say on a whole piece of A4 paper for one letter. I'd use the initial of our names, or 'D for Daddy' and so on. Next we would put around six of them on the kitchen floor and play a game. I'd call out 'find me an E' and my little boy would have to find it and jump on it. Then we would say 'and E says 'Eh''. When my little boy was getting good at a few, we'd add another letter in.

    The same game can be used for numbers - but it it better to wait until the little one has the concept of what numbers are - and also as the child gets older the game can be played with simple 'words'.

    This was great for him as he loved to be running around!

    Reading to the little ones is a great way to have recognise letters and hear the sounds. My little boy love sharing my kindle,especially rhyming picture books we can download onto kindle for PC. The rhyme has a musical element, and little ones really quickly know their favourite stories off by heart. I hold my little boys hand and get him to follow the words with his finger as I'm reading. (not all the time, but if he's in the mood).

    Our 'bestest', ebook at the moment is 'Hairy, Scary Spider?' He loves the pictures and the rhyme is great!

     

     

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