What Else Should I Be Teaching?

STOP with the teaching! You are making her left hemisphere develop much faster and quicker then her right thus giving her deficits for later on instead of helping her! People are making their kids "disconnected" so they have poor social skills, comprehension, sensory issues, emotional instability, gross and fine motor problems. Children learn through their bodies until they are about 6 and then they are ready for higher order skills! Don't put the cart before the horse or you will regret it later on with a possible LD/sensory processing/executive function/motor planning issues. Give her only right brained activities like music, art, dance, creative movement, gymnastics, ANYTHING physical!

Kim C. listed some good ideas. These are the things that are done in most preschools. I would add things about food - where different foods come from (ground, trees, animals... and you can reinforce with colors.)

I would suggest that you be sure you are working on her gross motor skills and her fine motor skills. Be sure that she is doing puzzles, coloring, doing crafts, etc., and also that she has outdoor play.

When teaching weather, make a chart of different symbols for cloudy, rainy, sunny, windy, etc. Be sure she goes outside to observe and measure (breezy, very windy, warm, hot, very cold, etc.). Tie that to appropriate attire.

For foods, take her to the store or the farmers' market or an orchard to tie the foods to their sources.

It's important to tie these lessons to their real-world equivalents so it's not just the recitation of facts or memorization in a vacuum.

As a former teacher, I have to advise you to work on her socialization and participation skills more than anything. She should be striving to focus on one task at a time for maybe 10-15 minutes, then be able to transition to the next thing. The key things when they go to school are NOT whether they know their letters or colors beforehand, but whether they can sit in a group, negotiate their own space using words (vs. hitting or screaming!), follow directions, and transition to the next activity.

Parts of the body, the 5 senses, months of the year, days of the week, the date and year, weather, patterns, letter sounds more than reading, MESSY fun crafts that go along with holidays! Have fun, school is not fun when they get there, make sure she has fun now. With my 2 1/2 year old we are using Mother Goose Time (with 4 other friends that will all be the same grade level), We are only on the second month, but we are having a blast! She loves "school"!

She doesn't NEED any of this it's just suggestions if she wants to learn :)

Well, at home, do things like paint on large letters or make letters out of blocks. Consider 1 color, 1 letter and 1 shape or number per week. Do things associated with that color/number/shape/letter. Each month, do a project or two associated with something that month. October - fall, Halloween, pumpkins, hayrides, scarecrows...

Or get out and take a walk. You can talk about colors and street sign shapes and letters. Pick up leaves and twigs to make a project at home. Kids learn a lot by doing. Let her get down and inspect the ant, the dirt, the worm, the eggshell. Let her climb a playground structure and count stairs or push her on the swing and count pushes. Ask her if she wants big or little ones. Take her to the library for their storytime to hear stories, dance and socialize with other kids. Visit a zoo or nature center and check out the animals. If the zoo or center has a "please touch" area, get your hands on the stuff. Take her to the grocery store to talk about food, color, counting. Consider being involved in a playgroup so she has consistent little friends and you have people to join your adventures. That should help you pad out the lessons and apply them to things for her.

We also listen to things like Choo Choo Soul or Fresh Beat Band and do the dances (Freeze Dance is a favorite - they both have one.) Pandora is great for finding kid music. Hokey Pokey teaches body parts. Head, shoulders, Knees and Toes, too. If You're Happy and You Know It can be changed to different activities. Ours includes "act like a gorilla".

Her full name, your full name, her address and phone number.

I would let her paint, play with Play Doh, cut with kids scissors, and glue, to work on small motor skills. My 3 year old loves arts and crafts. Take "field trips" to learn about nature and the world. Read to her a lot- both fiction and non-fiction books. Puzzles and games are also great learning tools. Have fun being your child's first teacher!

O. good idea might be to google "kindergarten readiness" and work toward that.

Hi! They are teaching science in my son's kindergarten class! That would be fun! :)

Sounds like you've done alot =)
I would follow her lead -- topics that she shows interest in, then you discuss, "research", "investigate", plan more trips around it. We had annual passes for the zoo, and my 1st daughter loves animals -- easy topic since there are so many.
I think at this age, you want to foster and encourage curiousity and interest in learning (which comes naturally!)
You've started reading, you can also continue on her gross motor and fine motor, coordination -- going to playground, gymnastics for coordination and balance, you want her to also continue being an active person. Build on healthy habits, not only the academics =)
You're doing a great job.

Teach her math concepts of long medium and short, sorting colors, sorting shapes by size. Do science projects of mixing colors with paint, talk about primary colors, leaf rubbings with chalk or crayons. 5 senses and using different textures, smells, tastes, etc.
Cutting is a super important skill. Make fringes at first, then lines, then curves and finally make shapes.
Other math concepts include in-out-over-under-around, sorting rocks/shells/acorns with its right number (2 in the number 2 cup).
Puzzles, play dough and art are great. Talk about weather and the calendar, what lives in the garden, on the farm etc.
Have fun! Everyday is a learning experience. :)

I remember spending a whole summer, the year my daughter turned 4, doing almost everything in a kid's arts/craft book I had. I dreaded all the glitter (but did glitter anyway), and she made a bunch of stuff that helped her fine motor skills; she loved making stuff with me.

Teach her a skill like knitting or crocheting. We learned them growing up as something to keep our minds busy when we got snowed in in the winter. Basic skills we grew up with are not taught in schools like they used to. These skills will be with us forever. Don't hesitate teaching her math and reading while she wants to learn as they learn quick at that age and may make school more interesting when they start attending.

The book stores sell a workbook for kids called Brain Quest. They have different grade levels starting at pre-k. I have used these with my daughter and she loves them. I think they also have different games too.

A little garden with either vegetables or flowers. let her plant them, water them and watch them grow. At 3 hands on is a lot better for them.

Start on spelling her name and learning your phone #. I did like you and through play taught both my kids colors, shapes, letters, numbers etc. Kids are like sponges, and my kids love to learn, even at an early age. I think it makes the world make sense to them. Anyway, both my kids could spell their names and recite my cell phone # by their 4th birthdays (the phone number is something they should know just in case they get lost when we’re out). They also knew how to print their names, and that just came from doodling on paper. I’d print their names on the top of the paper and they copied it. It was just a fun time with unbeknownst learning.