didn't really know how to word my question but here goes I have asked a few questions about teaching my daughter preschool and lessons per say don't work with her she can't seem to sit still long enough for them so what in your opinion do kids need to know when they are starting Kindergarten?? She can say her ABC's we are working on recognizing them, she can count to 20 also working on recognizing, she knows most of her shapes and the other names of diamond and oval, she knows her full name birthday with year and phone number, she knows most of her colors, she can dress herself for the most part and she goes to the potty by herself, we are working on sitting still for a whole book (we do go to story time at the library when the weather is good I take my daycare kiddos also) So how do I get her to do one worksheet a day (working on writing her letters and numbers etc.)? What all do you do? Thank you so much for your help I am just stumped here!
she's only 4! i wasn't interested in worksheets and flashcards then and most littles aren't either. it's great that you have taught her so much already. focus more on keeping her interest in learning alive. find teaching opportunities throughout a busy day rather than trying to get her to sit still and do worksheets. she has YEARS to get sick of that type of learning. don't rush it.
khairete
S.
Your daughter knows a lot already! Kids that young learn better through play, not worksheets. She will have many years of worksheets so toss them out for now =-)
How about teaching her with finger paints or sidewalk chalk? Do a letter of the week starting with the letters of her name. Finger paint the letter and make it fun! Melissa & Doug make cute wooden letter and number puzzles you can get her too.
I've heard the LeapFrog videos are a great tool for teaching letter sounds.
S.,
I think your little one is doing great for her age. Keep teaching her BY PLAYING and focus on basic social skills like following directions, carry a tray, pick up after herself, things like that. The time will come and she will be OK; kids learn a LOT before attending kindergarten. Some are more mature than others and some have a longer attention span than her peers; however you can help her to improve by playing just minutes "at school". Ex. let her have her lunch in a small tray and put her meal on the tray. If you have a little table and chair, have her play and draw or paint or color on that play set, it is going to be fun for her, give her simple instructions like pick up her things after playing, choose a book and read it together, count little toys and say the colors, etc.....things like that. Do it a couple of times a day at the same hours. Make it fun. Kindergarten IS fun. Do not OVERDUE, little by little and with patience. She will be fine when she gets there. Life is learning and there will be lots of learning on her own at school later. It is part of life. Read, read, read to her, share time with her. She won't be seated a "whole book", sometimes yes and sometimes no, but she will learn eventually.
Good luck!
They are expecting so much more from kids entering kindergarten these days then they were when we were kids. Or even a few years ago. One of my children is in 3rd grade and another is in a pre-k program right now (we attend Kids R Kids Las Colinas) and my four year old knows colors, shapes, weather, days of the week, months of the year, rote counting to 30, ordinal numbers, how to write her first and last name, and other things I can't even count. Our school also does assessment programs and works with the local schools to find out new expectations.
Hope this is helpful!
O.
You need to find out what floats her boat. Most of my kids have been totally into the computer and leapster games and anything technology. But some kids respond better to doing things like, rolling out play dough and shaping the playdough strings into words. You can do some phonics lessons that way.
Are you having her trace letters or do regular worksheets? I've never been happy with worksheets I can go out and buy. I just do a phonics lesson with the kids, choose some words that mean something to them from the day you are having now, something relavent to her, write it in one color, teach her to trace that in another color. Use regular child like writing and block letters etc.
You can have her help you make flashcards. Take magazines, have her cut out Letters and pictures. Match the pictures with letters and glue stick them to the cards. Then have her help you use clear shelf lining paper to cover front and back and cut close to the paper. Now it's water proof and she can play with them, carry them around etc. We don't even use our flash cards hardly EVER. It's the doing of them and then letting her play with them that's enough.
Mix food coloring into shaving cream and spread out on a plastic table top if you have one or line the table with contact paper or something big enought o put the shaving cream on. It will wash off. Then write in the shaving cream with your finger.
Make learning fun. Use your imagination. I agree with the other mom that she already knows quite a bit.
Here's a checklist of "Kindergarten Readiness":
http://school.familyeducation.com/kindergarten/school-rea...
Don't stress. let your child lead as far as what she's interested in learning. Sing in the car, look for simple words on signs, look for the ABCs on signs or car plates, etc.
You can pull the kindergarten curriculum from the website at the school - it should be posted. If not, call them and you can go pick it up - it's basically a checklist of what THAT kindergarten will expect them to know. It can vary by school and district so make sure you get the curriculum for wherever your daughter will attend.
Kindergarten is MUCH more about some non-academic but social structure skills than it used to be, so if she's at home with just you make sure you can get her these skills in another way - perhaps a music or gymnastics class? She should be able to:
*Follow direction given from another adult, directly to her
*Follow direction given from another adult to an entire group of kids
*Stand quietly in line with other children (who may or may not be listening) and listen for direction
*use social skills in a group of large children doing group activities and free-play (ie - a play date they can take turns with the doll, in kindergarten they will have to rotate which is more conceptual).
*have access to items like water and the bathroom at structured times (will it cause anxiety if she is thirsty but break time isn't for another 20 minutes?)
*be able to put on and take off her own... coat (zippers & Buttons), hat, gloves, mittens etc with no help (suiting up 20 kids can take the entire recess period sometimes).
*open, assemble and eat within a specified period of time her snack & lunch - even if other kids are talking. This is a biggie. I've known TONS of my friends kids who weren't eating lunch or snack until they figured out how not to be distracted.
I have found that where many parents ARE great teachers for their children this was a relationship that either she nor I wanted to have. We are better being mom & daughter and leaving all the other roles to others. So, for me to get my daughter to do a worksheet would have been just insane. However, we did do some 'homework' in preschool that was 'given' by Miss Jan at daycare. I was able to monitor and help her, but the directive did not come from me and she didn't turn it in to me. So, if you have another adult you can enlist that might help you bunches as far as getting her comfortable with that process.
Hope that helps!
B.
By the beginning of K she should be able to listen to a story and discuss it afterwards, zip her coat, switch from boots to shoes. She should be able to sit and finish a picture and draw a person with several body parts. If she's really good at drawing and can make circles, lines and triangles, she will learn to write easily next year. Going to the library for story time is excellent preparation, if she can sit and listen to a story while surrounded by other children she is ready!
I was thinking about this last year too....thinking gosh is our son ready too. We have put our son into preschool just for the pure fact of the social aspect of it all. I personally wouldn't put to much pressure on yourself on getting her to sit to write her letters for a long period of time. If it's just 5 mins to trace a few letters that's great - it's 5 mins that you are spending with her on the learning and practicing of writing. When my son brings home his activities from preschool it's mostly glued items that they have colored and/or traced on a piece of paper. I don't know what to expect when he goes into Kindergarten next year....I would assume that's when they will really start sitting them down with writing and tracing letters and numbers. And I would imagine if he's seeing his peers doing it....he will want to do it too.
What I do to teach the letters is that when we are out and about I will point a letter out and ask him what is that letter and what does it sound like. I just incorporate "learning activities" in everything that I do with him, whether it would be driving in the car and pointing out a sign, the lights (what color is it now and what does that mean), in a store what the letters are or numbers, or when you are making something to eat - you say "what is this? They'll say it's an Egg - "yes that is an Egg - did you know that Egg starts with the letter "E"?", also we have the magnet letters on the fridge (sometimes he'll make some random set of words and put them together and have me try to pronounce what it says) - to him it's all a game.....but what he doesn't know is that he is actually learning and it's fun for him.
I try to make it fun for him and he's always asking questions and I just answer them the best I know how...if not we go and look it up. We just have constant conversations all day long about random things and I just ask him questions along with his questions.....Your conversations with your kiddo is worth more than you know.....it's awesome to see them pull some random word and use it in their sentence correctly. His latest is Hilarious. Good luck and have fun - I hope that this helps.
Make it fun. Get games that promote learning and she will learn while she plays.
To start kindergarten the requirements vary some by state and district so check locally but it would be a good idea for her to be able to write the alphabet, her name, etc. Playing w/ finger paints and playdough can help w/ the fine motor skills/dexterity that writing requires.
It sounds like she knows a lot for her age! For the recognition or ABC's and numbers you may want to get books with those concepts and read them to her and play games based on them. Although K is chock full of worksheets these days, it is really not developmentally appropriate! Work on the letter she would find personally meaningful (first letter of her name and those she knows maybe) Computer games in moderation can be fun--try starfall.com for letters. It is good to keep extending her attention span for stories though! Instead of doing a worksheet you could try getting dry erase markers or chalk and work on some concepts and then have her transfer it to a workbook if you really want to get her used to that. Sigh--makes me sad but such is the way education is going!
It sounds like she can do a lot already. I dont know the kindergarten requirements, but my daughter is 4 1/2 and goes to full time preschool. Right now she can write all of her ABC in capital letters and working on lower case, she can do most but not all. She can also write her name and her sisters name. She is also working on writting numbers 1-10. They also do a lot of cutting and glueing at school, cutting out shapes and learning to follow a line while cutting.
My first thought for you when you mentioned "how to get her to do one worksheet a day?" If you can't get her to "sit", I would get her an easel, both my kids Love our easel (ages 2 & 4). She could pratices her letters and numbers while standing and writing on the easel. Ours has one side that is a dry erase board and one side is a chalk board. She won't have to "sit" and she might think of it as more fun then work! I think someone already mentioned this, but our pre-K teacher does 1 letter a week. I think thats a great start, don't overwhealm her, do only 1 letter all week long.
