Where are your 4 year olds academically?

CantWait wrote: What do they know now? Letters, numbers, how high, how much??

I'm trying my best with Anthony, but it's so hard. We can't afford preschool, and he doesn't start school till next year.

Jamison'smama replied: Many school systems have kindergarten readiness lists that give a good general idea of what to work towards. All kids are different but in general in our system they should recognize all letters upper and lower case. Letter sounds, count up to 30, recognize numbers 0-10, able to write and recognize their name, know colors, rhyming, opposites, turn taking, communicating needs effectively. Teach sorting, grouping, beginning reading skills like---a book is read from left to right--top to bottom and some beginning word sounds. It's helpful if they can button and zip and maybe even tie their own shoes. Look at your school system website and see if something is posted there.

My3LilMonkeys replied: Brooke will be 4 on the 23rd. We can't afford preschool either. Brooke can (when she wants to) count to 20 and can identify most of the numbers from 1-10 on sight. She's recently figured out counting backwards from 5. She can recognize almost all of the alphabet on sight but shows no interest at all in learning the alphabet song. We're starting to draw shapes and I'm hoping to start writing the alphabet very soon. We had her birthday party yesterday and I was very impressed that her friend who is 3 1/2 (and also does not attend preschool) can write her name already - made me feel like we should step it up a bit.

Other than that, she knows quite a few songs/nursery rhymes and the plots to all of her favorite books. She loves to "read" to me and has large parts of Go Dog Go and other simple books memorized word for word.

kit_kats_mom replied: K knows all of her letters, their sounds and how to write them. Not well, but they are recongizable I attribute most of that to doing the abeka animal friends flash cards with the music cd and the leapfrog toys. you can get the flash cards from abecka online. They aren't cheap but the kids love them.

She's able to sound out small words and can read short books before losing interest.

She can count to 100 but she often gets excited and leaves out the 50's 60's and 70's.

suzykrul replied: My daughter by 4 knew the alphabet....her numbers to 50..and could read alittle.
Shes now 6 and can read at a 2nd grade level....my son just turned 4. He barely knows his shapes and colors. Neither went to preschool. I think that it depends on the child. There are certain children that just develop differently.

luvmykids replied: Macie will be 4 in January. She recognizes and is learning to draw shapes, draws some objects really well (the sun, rainbows, people)...recognizes most letters, can write her name if I help her with what order the letters go in, counts to about 17. Sometimes I don't feel like she's where she should be based on how she speaks, she's very well spoken for her age and "gets" a lot of concepts that suprise me, but then again she's not even four so I'm not worried.

A&A'smommy replied: Alyssa will be 4 in exactly a month...she knows her letters, some letter sounds, and can write most of them without having to see what they look like, she can write or point out any shape you ask for, she can also write her name, knows all colors including different shades, she can count to 30 (sometimes skipping a few or mixing them up a little bit) she can write and recognize her number up to 20 and were still working on the getting the concept for the rest she is starting to be able to tell time a little bit.. I think thats the majority of it

You should be able to get a list of what he needs to know before going to k5 from the schools...

I know its hard, we have had a REALLY hard time with letters at least until we turned it into a game, made writing them together fun and worked on writing in between the lines later. We have those fridge letters.. all except for the ones that make words, she will get that this year and hopefully we will be able to read by next summer (before the new baby gets here...maybe)

Boo&BugsMom replied: Marie, if you want some preschool planning websites let me know. Tanner never went to preschool, although I had the preschool/daycare at home, but nonetheless he was taught everything at home and went into K knowing more than he needs to know. Let me know if you want some sites, that is the majority of what I used to plan my lessons.

CantWait replied:
That would be very helpful.

Boo&BugsMom replied:
I'm PM you a bunch.

mummy2girls replied: Jenna can count to 20. she knows most of her numbers( only the ones 10 and under) but she knows the number 20. She knows all colors. and all her letters as well. She can spell her name, and even spell all the dayhome kids names by heart. She still does the J backwards and confuses d and b. She knows all her shapes and can draw almost all of them.

the only things she is behind is her gross and fine motor skills. and her speech as well.

What got Jenna learning her letters and writing them is i got her a bunch of letters where you have to trace them over and over again and then eventually after a week she could do it on her own. she is working on her numbers now. she can point them out just not draw them yet.

Boo&BugsMom replied: Marie, I forgot to mention also that I highly recommend the Leap Frog videos. The Letter Factory, Math Circus, Talking Words Factory, and the other few they have. They are great. I had a little girl who was really struggling with learning her letters and after watching the videos a couple times it's like the knew them overnight. They are great!

MommyToAshley replied:
I was going to suggest starting with the LeapFrog Letter Factory video too. It's great for learning letter sounds-- the first step to learning to read.

I think it is great that you want to give him a head start for kindergarten, but I always try to remember to make it fun. I never sat down and did "school" work with Ashley. We would make it a game... like "I spy" for colors, or "I am thinking of something that starts with the letter...", setting up a "grocery store" for math skills, etc. For example, set up a pretend store and have him buy 3 red apples and two yellow lemons. Ashley's learning to count and add money now, and one of her favorite things to do is to set up a store with her Polly Pocket stuff. She sets out all the clothes and has the dolls go in shopping where she has to add up all the costs and make change herself. So, you can adjust the game to any level. Or, for a boy, maybe use hotwheel cars to make a pattern... one red car, one blue car, one red car, what color comes next? Or lets see how many blocks we can stack before it falls over, and count each one as you put it on the stack. Then, try to beat your record the next time (again counting as you put each one on).

I also try to read to Ashley every night. Sometimes it is fiction, and sometimes it is non-fiction. I am sure you can find a fun book at the library on just about any subject you want to work on... you'd be surprised what they pick up just from hearing you read about it.

And, on a final note... I can understand that you want to give him a little head start, nothing wrong with that, but don't stress over it. I have seen first hand that all kids enter Kindergarten at different levels. Ashely's teacher said that some are really advanced while others need more help, but it all equals out about mid-year. I am sure Anthony will be fine.

AlexsPajamaMama replied: Alex is 3 1/2...he does not go to pre-school and will start K in the Fall of '09

He sings the ABCs and can recognize some letters when you ask what letter is this
He can count to 20
Writes his name not perfectly but he knows how to spell it and we have worked on tracing and writing the letters that spell Alex
He knows his right from left
Shapes by site and name and can draw circles squares and sometimes triangles
I got alot of learning stuff from dltk-teach.com & kidzone.ws/prek

Scissor practice...pre-printing practice:tracing lines...tracing letters and shapes and numbers

If you have a printer this will be such a great site to visit I love it!
It also has really fun themed crafts for holidays and seasons

CantWait replied:
We have the Letter Factory, Anthony LOVES it. He watches like twice a day no kidding. So he knows what most of the sounds are no problem, even if he doesn't quite no the letter.
Thanks for the other names, I've had a hard time finding other LeapFrog videos.

ZandersMama replied:
Could you please pm them to me too?

kit_kats_mom replied: Another thing we have are some stuffed letters. We got the whole set off of Amazon. The girls love to throw them on the floor and race to see who can find the letter I call out. I also have had them find the letter, run an obstacile course and tell me the letter name and sound. Katherine is now arranging them into words.

My3LilMonkeys replied:
me too please!

luvmykids replied:
This reminded me too....they did A LOT of cutting in preK before they started working on writing and drawing, cutting helps develop the same skills needed to write well. I really like this site because you can customize the worksheets to say their names or whatever words you want to work on.