I am looking for some fun and creative ways to teach my son who turned 3 in August at home. With my older son I would sit with him a at a specified time of the day and do workbooks with him, i.e. practice drawing lines, letters, numbers etc. And my older son loved it. My younger son however just doesn't have the attention span for this, he has a different learning style than my other son and I am struggling a little with more exciting ways of teaching him. What do you do with your 3 year olds? What should a 3 year old be working on this year?
He does go to a community preschool 2 days a week for 2 1/2 hours, but its mostly crafts and play which he loves.
Thanks
He is learning every day. For now, read to him, allow him to color/scribble, sing to him, and practice rolling balls back and forth.
He needs coordination development and the ball rolling, skipping and jumping, and coloring will help teach him.
Read to him.
Read with him.
Surround him with books about things that interest him.
At 3, his job is to play and explore.
Read street signs, look for all letters of the alphabet when you're out & about.
Rhyme words.
At the fist sign of boredom/frustration...stop.
Sing, sing the ABC's while you wash your hands, sing your numbers while you help him clean up. My daughter loves the computer, educational games, PBS and other online education sites. She could spend hours playing and learning.
Crafts and play are how he learns. Your library will have lots of books on this subject. Writing lines and letters is much more fun when you do it in sand or in shaving cream or with your finger in paint or learning how to hold a paint brush is more fun than holding a pencil (they are held the same). Look for ideas on pintrest. Use playdoh to excercise his fingers so they increase in dexterity. Read lots of books with good illustrations and use descriptive words about the pictures. Count steps as you go up and down them. A chalk board is fun for them. Do you have a "teachers Tools" store around with lots of fun educational games and experiments? Think arts and science not workbooks. You want him excited about learning without knowing he is learning. Cook with him. Measure flour. Write in the flour. Play candy land. Have fun!
Your answer is in your question. He doesn't like workbooks, but he loves crafts and playing.
Your child is normal.
He does not need to learn his letters at age 3! He will learn them in kindergarten with all the other kids whose parents didn't push them academically.
He needs to have his curiosity piqued. He needs to do things that develop gross motor and fine motor skills, but that means PLAYING PLAYING PLAYING. Doing puzzles fosters fine motor skills and visualization, going outside fosters gross motor skills, reading fosters vocabulary and sequencing, coloring fosters the ability to hold a pencil, going to museums fosters intellectual development, hiking fosters an appreciation of nature, play gropus foster social skills.....on and on. My advice is to go to the library for FREE books (a nearly endless supply), get free passes (again from your library) to area museums (so if he gets tired in a hour, you can go home and not feel you wasted your money), get outdoors in your own neighborhood or in local nature areas (many local groups as well as state/national parks and organizations like Audubon sponsor/maintain them), play imagination games in the car (I spy, etc.), join a play group or reading group through the library or recreation center. And sing sing sing!
What YOU think is exciting is not what benefits your child. Everyday life is so educational!
Ask any good teacher - they would MUCH MUCH rather have an interested and curious child who doesn't know an A from a B in kindergarten, but who can negotiate his own space, work well with others, sit in a circle, follow instructions, and work independently and creatively. No school system requires an academically-prepared child!
Teaching preschoolers doesn't feel like teaching at all, I miss it!
Math/spatial skills: sorting, counting, measuring and building. This happens with blocks, puzzles, duplos/legos and cooking, and in every day life, please put three plates on the table, please sort the coins in my jar, etc.
Social skills: dress up/pretend play, house, kitchen, dolls, little people, etc.
Pre-writing/fine motor skills: markers, paint, play doh, beading, lacing, all that good stuff that builds up the muscles and coordination in their little hands.
Science: nature walks, collecting rocks and bugs, watching the weather, planting in the yard or on the kitchen counter, and again, cooking.
Reading: read, read, read to your child several times a day. Talk about the story as you go along, why do you think the bird did that? what do you think will happen next? This gets them thinking, VERY important for reading comprehension later on.
Basically expose him to everything a quality preschool program provides, and HAVE FUN :)
He learns every day by playing. Read books with him and point to where you are. Point out the colors of everything you see - 'look, the leaves on that tree are turning orange, orange starts with ..... o'. Color with him, cut up paper and glue it - its fun and develops fine motor skills. Play catch (more likely roll the ball). Run around outside. Count all the things you see. Play with play doh (or home made dough). Start cooking with him. Three year olds can peel bananas, pour liquids and solids and measure. They can cut soft things with a plastic salad knife. They can taste and smell ingredients. My son could crack eggs at that age (he loved it). Get some big floor puzzles and do them together. Threes can sort by size and color (stuffed animals, lego, really anything. Being three is about playing - not working.
My son is 6-1/2 and we still have NEVER done work books - we have no plans to.
a childs work is play. at 3 he doesn't "need" to be doing anything other than playing. if your determined to "teach" him them do it through modeling. pick up toys and say heres the red ball, lets put the blue blocks in the basket. line up the balls on this line etc. outside do things like walking on a crack to work on coordination, draw dotted lines for him to copy circles etc. count everything. but the more you push the harder it will be for him in school as he will hate it. but at 3 he is really to young for any sit down and teach things except for reading to him. you can read and run your finger along the words.
He may not be ready for the whole work book routine yet. They say that at this age, unstructured play is the best way to develop their brain.
You might want to get a black board on an easel and have him stand up and draw on it, then work on letters and numbers while he is standing and working on the board.
We definitely read books together. I'm not sure whether I taught him his colors or Mickey Mouse did.
Preschool twice a week is great! Really! At 3 years they learn through play and exploration. Take him to the park, go to museums, explore your community. Arts and crafts are great, if he's into that. Mine weren't at that age.
I wouldn't worry too much about "working" on anything. At this age they really just learn through experience. As he gets a little older, he will be more interested in learning through workbooks.
For now, I would just let me play.
A three year old doesn't need to be working on anything. He will learn a lot in school. Are you at FCNS? My son went to ICNS (irvine) and he was beyond ready for kinder without any real work at home. I know the two schools have similar philosophies, styles, programs, etc.
If you want some great education toys, check out my Discovery Toys page. We have dozens of toys, games, books and CDs that let kids learn through play. Some of them are excellent for preschoolers and will prepare your kids for kinder without them ever feeling like they are doing real work.
Check out my toys at http://www.discoverytoyslink.com/karenchao Some of my favorites for preschoolers are Playful Patterns, Motor Works, Tub Stick Ups and Geomino. We also have several new toys that just came out on our site! If you're interested in getting toys for free, sign up to host a party!
starfall.com is a great website for little ones... abcya.com is good but he might be too young.
do playdoh, blocks, color read... puzzles.. cook .. make a cake muffins jello.. let him pour and measure... sort socks..
you can start teaching him to write his name.
All kids are different. Don't force him if he's not enjoying it or not interested. At this age, your most important role with him is CHARACTER BUILDING AND GUIDANCE (sorry not shouting there, just emphasizing that).
Enjoy this time with no pressure, the serious stuff come way too soon anyway.
Read, read, read, go places, explore, answer questions, give him one on one time. Do crafts at home too if that's what he loves to do.
When my son was that age, and even now that he has turned 4, we would check out books in the children's section on trucks, flowers, dinosaurs, whatever he was interested in at the moment. I have workbooks, and we will do a page every month or so (neither of them really likes them), but basically I don't push anything. We work on numbers by counting items in books or nature, or around the house, we play with magnet letters and chalk, we go on nature walks, etc. My son also really likes to build (legos, blocks, magnets), so he does that a lot, which I think is great for learning all kinds of skills. I don't really think that kids need organized learning until they are closer to kindergarten, maybe even until they are in it, they can pick so much up on their own, and we can help them by doing fun things with them that they also enjoy.
www.enchantedlearning.com and it's only $20/year. LOVE the worksheets.
We also have a lot of paper and markers, glue and a bin of craft stuff our daughter loves to glue. We listen to CDs in Spanish. Our DD was able to tell time on the clock at 3 years old. We bought a foam clock with moving hands and made it into a game. Once they know their numbers, you can teach them to read a clock to the hour.
We homeschool an all of our kids have different learning styles. My oldest loves literature-based curriculum. He is an avid reader. He's 9, in the 6th grade and read all of the Harry Potter books in 3 weeks. Our 6 year old is totally into learning Latin. Our 4 year old is all about the math and Spanish.
We do a lot of child-led learning. Whatever they are into, we jump into it and teach them. the grocery store is a great place to teach kids. Have him find as many letter Bs, etc. We buy sunflower seed butter and it runs $3.99. We work on rounding up and then multiplying that by how many jars we get to get the total. I let the kids pay and figure out how much change we should get back. They learn the value of a dollar rather than putting everything on a credit card, so they don't get the concept.
