Hey my son who is almost 3 already knows all letters and the sounds they make and can recognize and count up to 20. Now I'm not sure where to go next. I was thinking blends like ph, th, sh etc but he just reads each letter separately and I'm not sure how to get him to understand they go together. He does not write and hates to try so I'm not sure what to do about that either, not a big fan of coloring either. He also knows all his shapes and colors. I just feel like weve reached a learning plateau and not sure what to do next! thanks for any advice =) -Ashley
I am in the same spot, she just turned 3 a couple weeks ago. We only know about half the letter sounds though. She also refuses to try to write, but is getting where she will trace. I have some preschool dry-erase books that she can practice tracing letters or wiggly lines.
Can he spell his name? What about starting sight words? What about critical thinking preschool worksheet activities like the biggest/smallest and "which is differnt" ones?
I was in your shoes about 6 months ago...
I started having my 3 year old read. Find short and simple little books, and try having him sound them out one by one. I bought a few Dick and Janes on a clearance rack for $1 each, and I taught my stepdaughter to read with those. However, it didn't work at all with my son. He just turned 3, and he doesn't have the attention span to do many 4 letter words, so we're working on the free side of starfall.com. I really think any simple book that you can get him excited about reading will work. Personally, I worry about the ph, th, sh sounds as they come up in the books. TH is definately the first, you can't get by without "the" :)
Starfall.com and look under parents, there are books with simple words you can print out (or read online) for free, as well as print outs for the kids to trace. This site has been such a blessing for my 3 year old. He loves doing anything on the computer, and getting him to read the computer books is a piece of cake.
As far as writing, because I looked it up... it goes along with reading. Apparently kids need the motor connection to help with learning the words. I got one of those mark and wipe books, you can try different colored markers to make it more fun. At first, my 3 year old didn't like it at all. After a week of practicing with my help, encouragement and some sucesses at it, he now loves it. I also print out words that he is learning in his books to trace. After he does tracing he tends to want to finger paint. It's good incentive to practice, and it's unstructured.
There is also a game for the Leapfrog Leapster that has letters you can trace, and they make you do it over and over until it's right. My son had a ton of fun playing with it at a friends home... but I'm still on the fence as to whether or not to buy one also, since he seems to be doing fine with the write and wipe...
As far as numbers we're working on basic addition using objects, with numbers attached. It's a work in progress....
I have an almost 4 year old. She loves the books in the Usborne First Reading Series. Basically it is fifteen books that progressively get harder. They are, in the beginning, books that you read one page and the children attempts to read 3 to 4 word sentences of words no more than 3-4 letters each. Each book works on common words. Here is a link to explain more: http://www.veryfirstreading.com/
We have been using for the last couple of weeks (we got it for her at Christmas but she wasn't interested until recently on sounding out things) and she pretty good with the first book and we are about to move on to the 2nd.
Blends are always good. So are spelling words.
Like this: http://randomosityblog.com/2011/08/homeschooling-project-spinning-letters.html
Honestly he mostly started teaching himself and I just encouraged it. He watches more educational TV than I'd like to admit, and that taught him a lot. He just seems to have really good visual recognition. It only took it seems like 5 minutes to teach him shapes and colors. It's like he just KNOWS it. I didn't do anything special. But the shows that he watches most are: mickey mouse clubhouse, super why, word world, and the leapfrog shows on netflix instant. HTH!
Have you tried the Preschool Prep Company? They have DVDs, workbooks, etc for the four basics (alphabet, numbers, colors, shapes), but they also have them for phonics and sight words.
http://www.preschoolprepco.com/h/i/index.php
In a nutshell, I am....a hippie-dippie; music craving; picture painting; story writing; kitchen loving; nature loving; vegetarian meal diggin'; OCD having; semi co-sleeping; non-spanking; big family wanting; homemaking; wife of a soldier; and SAHM to Lucy Rose.
My daughter also knew her letters when she was 3 thanks mostly in part to Sesame Street. Then we moved over to World Word where she learned all her letter sounds. I actual had her reading small words by sounding out the letters when she was 3. I guess she was 3 years and 4 months in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZvoXC4IKxA then I didn't work with her much and she lost some of it but I was worried about her going to school and being behind, but I have since decided to homeschool. Now she is 4 and can finally write all her upper and lower case letters. I moved onto numbers. Because she just started writing them all I am working on reading again and writing neatly. There are a few games you can get to help them learn reading, one I like was this one called Silly Sentences which helped understand sentence concepts: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4xUMiiDD_o
How long is your preschool day?
- JadensMommy820
on Aug. 3, 2011 at 8:49 PM