What to teach a preschooler?

Your three-year-old is already more advanced than many NCAA athletes. To limit the risk of him being horribly bored when he starts kindergarten (unless you're planning on homeschooling?), I'd just read to him and talk to him about what you're reading. You can make little field trips (parks, nature centers, children's museum, etc.) and spend lots of time talking about the things you saw. He can draw pictures of the stuff that interests him, etc.

 

I agree because most of what he already knows is what they learn in Kindergarten with the exception of learning how to read and write. They also learn basic math and comupter skills. Maybe you could try him on something a little different like learning some words in a different language, doing art projects, field trips (like mentioned above), trying his hand at music or something along those lines.
Now if you are planning on homeschooling him throughout then feel free to go right ahead and teach him whatever you want as long as he is willing. That is the beauty of homeschooling you can go at the child's pace.

 

You can work on his manual dexterity by having him cut out pictures with child safe scissors and coloring and trying to stay in the lines. Blocks are good. Build them high without falling, make tunnels ect.

Play games and help him learn to balance and stand on one foot (change sides)
somersaults.

Throw a ball in a bucket. I used to have ice cream buckets lined up and had a ping pong ball. We would throw it in bucket # 1, then into bucket #2 and so on.
It was a fun cub scouts game too. I would put a piece of candy or prize in each bucket and if they got it in there, they got the prize.

Memorization too. They sell the memory games in most stores or you can make your own.

Musical instruments... I never limited my children or the kids I babysat.

Whatever you want to teach, teach. Even if it isn't age appropriate. If they can't do it try something else

Also, it is good to just plain play. Teaches them to play nice, share, interact with others. Dance alot to help them feel comfortable with themselves. Sing, listen to music, teach them to take pictures...the sky is the limit.

 

anything and everything.
I liked to focus on activities outside of the home, real world learning and people interaction. NO REAL TV time or video games... I didn't even like those kiddy computers and the like. But we DID watch Little Bear together...

Try to teach everything you know, they are a SPONGE for another couple of years, and THEN they hit a hurdle. If it's over his head, dumb it down a little bit but not too much and then remember to go back to that in a couple of months.

I had my DD skip kindergarten.. she was MILES ahead of those kids, reading, writing, and in behavior. Of course it took 3 schools to say no way.. and the 4th to consider it and test her to see where she was at. I didn't take NO for an answer! She'll now graduate a year "early" and be out when she's 17.. which I found to be a very nice idea back then and still do now.

Goooooood Luck!!! BE strong!

 

This sounds a lot like my older son was at that age--he astounded the pre-school teachers at the screening. My younger son wasn't such an eager learner, and started kindergarten this year at around the same level as most of the other kids in his class. As far as math for your son, though, I recommend getting an abacus. My son loved it, and understood addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and fractions by kindergarten. The problem with that is that he really was bored in math class, and still is now that he's in second grade.

 

Quote:My ONLY regret, is that our homeschooling didn't teach her to

1. Sit in one seat for an hour or several hours at a time
2. Walk in a single file line
3. Not to speak out of turn
4. That she wasn't the center of the universe
5. It's rude to question your teacher
6. Follow a schedule whether you like it or not

Basically.. if I had it to do over again... at year 4-5 I would set up a mini school house room and start to teach her the ideas that are necessary to sit in a classroom with 20 other students.

It took her a couple of years to adjust to most of those rules. She's 15 now so hindsight is pretty good.

We're a bilingual household, so I forgot to add that as it's natural here. NOW is the time to teach that too... and if you don't speak another language then find someone who does.. even if it IS Dora.

 

DawnSuiter has some valid points.

Kindergarten will not be a wasted year as that is when kids get their "introduction" to the school they will be attending. They don't just learn academic stuff in kindergarten. They learn the layout of their school, the rules, the staff, and it's a rich social experience. My daughter is in private school, but will be attending public school next year. I wanted to keep her in private school for her kindergarten as well, but after speaking to parents whose kids went through the same program as us all stated they would send their children to kindergarten in their public school because they had adjustment issues when moving into public schooling. Kindergarteners are given more leeway than first graders. First graders are expected to know where things are located, how the day runs, how the cafeteria works, etc.

I would continue to work with your child on things that improve manual dexterity. I don't know if you have ever seen any of the teaching tools used in the Montessori teaching method, but I love them. They disguise learning as play. I cannot rave enough about how much my daughter has learned since she started Montessori at 2.5 years old. I like the method overall, but I am very impressed with the tools. They teach skills that, as a layman, I would have never realized until it was pointed out. I just thought they were interesting toys.

Others stated that now is the perfect time to introduce a second language and it IS the perfect time. We are learning Italian at the dinner table using the Rosetta Stone series. Our daughter is picking it up way faster than my husband and I. Your child is at that magical age where language is being learned at an astonishing rate. Take advantage of that.

 

Go to the library and get yourself some books on homeschooling and early education and it will give you a ton of ideas. There are also children's books on crafts, building snacks or meals, doing science experiments... and you can easily pick out ones that are age appropriate. Such as...anyone can fill a glass of water and put it in a window sill and place a white paper on the floor and make a rainbow (on a bright sunny day of course)...and then talk about rainbows.

While you're at it... get some books for your child too. It's always a fun adventure and a weekly thing at our house.

--I always chose to do things and talk about things that were going on in our world...like the changing leaves and why squirrels are busy now nut hunting and animals with antlers... and weather reports are always fun to track your weather. Make a rain gauge and do some measuring. Is it cloudy, sunny? Warm, cold? Is there frost on the grass? We have made a felt calendar of sorts and keep a journal.

---- You can do counting things, like apple orchards/ pumpkin patches...you make a list that is kid friendly (draw 4 caramel apples and 2 pumpkins) and say that is your list...then you can count all of it as a total...you need 6 things from the pumpkin patch. What are some other things you can count there? The animals in the petting zoo...they have 5 goats, 2 turkeys, 3 chickens, and 1 llama. I see 4 tractors....2 green tractors, 1 red tractor, and 1 blue tractor.
do some subtraction games... you give him 3 beans and ask child to count and to give you 1 bean...NOW how many beans do you have left?

Look for the book: 10 little lady bugs... it starts teaching the concept counting backwards...fun and rhymes.

--Work on concept BEFORE and AFTER by taking small hand held objects.... 1 plastic yellow easter egg, 1 green dinosaur, 1 plastic orange easter egg, 1 matchbox car and put them in a line with a little bit of space in between... hand child 1 blue ball and ask him to put the ball BEFORE the green dinosaur.... now hand child a coin and tell him to put the coin BEFORE the car... until he learns what before is... NOW give him a matchbox tractor and tell him, now you want to talk about the word AFTER...after comes after something and give example....the car is AFTER the orange egg...now say, I want you to put the tractor AFTER the car....

--Patterns... at one of the stores in the next town over which caters to teachers... (there's the 3 R's, Learn It....stores like that) you can find great tools as well.... I bought a BIG tub of plastic or hard rubber dinosaurs.... they come in different colors and different breeds of dino's.

then set up a pattern.... 1 red t-rex, 1 green stego, 1 yellow long neck, 1 green t-rex

then have your child pick through the bucket and set out the same pattern....
plus the bucket of dino's came with a sheet on multiple games and activities you can do.

---Work on adjectives: get a box and cut a "feeling hole" in it and have child reach through hole and you on the other side have a brown paper bag that you have your stash of stuff in and keep changing things out.... have a fluffy teddy bear...what are some words your child can come up with to describe it?
waded up tinfoil
something rubbery...a ball?
an icecube
a water noodle
a piece of fabric that is wooly
cold spaghetti noodles...

--Is your child using the proper names correctly? Example: My 3 year old sometimes will say, "Mommy, play with she." (referring to dollhouse dolls) and I will ask my little girl, "Do you want me to play with HER?" Not making a huge deal of it but showing her the proper way to say things. And then I will play with her and say, "SHE is knocking on the door. Can you let HER in?"

--There's a fun magnetic fishing match game out there my speech teacher has. Matching is fun and it teaches turn taking when you play games.

---Do simple puzzles together and see if he can do one by himself.

---work on shoe tying.

--take old magazines and ask your child to cut out "RED" things and glue them on paper.... or to cut out things you might find in the kitchen...the family room...dining room.... this gets your child used to the rooms in your home having specific names.

--play catch with a big ball... say, you are going to play a game about things that live in the sea...you will start and you say, whale...throw ball to child and now it's their turn to think of a word...they say, shark...you say tuna...they say, turtle....
version 2: think of vegetables....you say, broccoli...they say carrots...tomato...celery... version 3: things people ride: bike, car, plane, skateboard.... and try to think fairly quickly.

---get a ziploc bag and go for a nature walk...collect 5 things to talk about, 1 rock, 1 acorn, 1 pine cone, 2 different leaves. Then come in and talk about them and have child draw them on a piece of paper and talk about their shape, size, color, if any are used as food and for who? the leaves came from 2 different trees and they are different because....the color, size, shape...what is hard? what is soft?

ok...that's all I've got for now.

Most importantly...make it fun!

me,
g