Help needed to get my 4 yr old son ready for school. "Letter recognition writing and reading!"?

Question

Grant my son will not be going to school until Aug. 08 due to his b-day being in Sept. but I am trying to keep him interested in school. He attends a preschool right now, and can count to 50 with no help as well as say his alphabet recongnize all colors and knows months of the year and days of the week. BUT letter recongnition reading and writting are another story... Am I pushing him to hard?? Anytime we start to work on it.. all he says is "I don't know..." His father had problems in school and grammer and language arts are not my strong suit. I am just trying to prevent him from having any problems with them in school and needing to go to remedial reading etc.

We are in a rural area in Missouri so.. tutoring is not an option and the local school district will do nothing until he is in kindergarden. Any suggestions???

Answer 1

This will all be covered when he goes to school, however, my son could read and write his name upon starting school - with no prompting from me!

He was addicted to Sesame Street, and believe it or not, that programme alone was enough for him to learn letter sounds and phonics!!

Answer 2

BRAIN QUEST, IT'S QUESTION AND ANSWERS FOR ALL SCHOOL AGE CHILDREN THEY ARE GREAT AND THEY WILL TEACH YOUR CHILD SO MUCH. IT'S SO MUCH FUN LEARNING WITH THESE. MY BOYS 3 AND 4 YEARS OLD LOVE THEM

Answer 3

As a preschool teacher, I would also suggest the Leapfrog Letter Factory.  It is a awesome tool to begin with.  

Whatever you do try to make it fun.

Answer 4

Most four year olds do not have the fine motor development that is necessary for writing skills and, obviously, he has to learn to recognize the letters and their sounds before reading.  I suggest that you go to an education supply store and look for Zoo Phonics.  Each letter is represented by an animal and each animal has a sound and movement that helps the child to remember the alphabet.  Some children are auditory learners, some learn easier visually, some are kinetic (or physical) learners.  Zoo Phonics combines a little of each.  It''s worth a try! Oh, and also...Zoo Phonics seems to be FUN for kids and they have more interest.  ( NO...I'm not a salesperson...just a preschool teacher!)

Answer 5

We are in Missouri too(Near Springfield). The school here only requires that the child recognize there own name. Sad, I know. The best thing I can suggest though is LeapFrog Letter Factory. It is a dvd, my kids love it. Both girls knew all their letters, sounds and recognition by 18 months. Other kids I know have had wonderful results with it.

Good luck!

Edit: I can't believe I used the wrong their/there. I corrected it though. Now my skin can stop crawling.

Answer 6

Take out some shaving cream, and let him write with his fingers.  Even the most active boys love getting a little messy, and it holds their attention.  Practice the abcs with it. Also, you can make letters with playdoh rolled into long strips, and shape letters with it.  When he wants to buy a new toy, and wants to know what kind of cool things it says or does, help him sound it out on the box, and tell him, this is why we need to learn how to read. Or when you're at a drive through, tell him how could you order food if you can't read the menu.  This gives reading more of a purpose and a reason for him to learn.  At the same time, if he gets tired of an activity, just say "ok!" enthusiastically, and ask later if he's in the mood to do whatever.  Play rhyming games in the car.  Say "I'm gonna say three words, you guess what doesn't belong, cat, rat, tree"  They love these rhyming games, and gets them ready to read.  I disagree that this is happening too early, as long as learning is not forced when he's not in the mood.  This is a critical learning period and I'm glad you're exploring all options!

Answer 7

When my son was 4 I went to Walmart and bought those preschool skillbuilder workbooks.  They had lots of activites and helped with letters and phonics.  They have different activities including coloring and using scissors to cut out pictures and paste them.

When we got through with the preschool books, we moved up to the kindergarten books.  When he started kindergarten, the school wanted to move him up to first grade!  I did not move him up however because he needed to build the social skills that kindergarten provided.

Answer 8

I wouldn't push it at four.  A lot of boys aren't quite ready to read yet-- or they can read, but aren't ready to demonstrate.

Read with your son as much as you can.  It doesn't have to be phonics books; in fact, reading books that catch his interest is far more likely to encourage independent reading.  Thomas the Tank Engine, Bob the Builder, Tonka books (although those are not always well-written), or other short books are best at holding interest at this age.

We also made use of the computer.  The website for Starfall

(www.starfall.com) was instrumental in both of my older boys learning to read.

Keep at it.  :)  He will get it eventually.

Answer 9

It sounds like you are pushing too hard. He is not interested because why should he be? It's boring stuff to him! Keep learning fun by reading to him and playing games. Kindergarten teachers want their students to have good social skills. They want him to be able to get along with his classmates, know how to solve conflicts, and have good listening skills.

Since his birthday is in September, he will automatically be younger than most his classmates.  Think about waiting a year before sending him to kindergarten. Putting him in kindewrgarten next year puts him at a disadvantange with the others in his class. This puts even more stress on him to do work that he is not ready for. The other children could be as much as 1 year older than him! Also He will be only 17 when he starts into college.

My son has a Sept. birthday and i gave him an extra year of kindergarten. He was really ready at that point and now in high school ,he is a leader among his friends, because he has confidence and maturity that can only come from age.

Good luck! I will say that pushing only makes your child hate academics- it has to come from them being interested.

Answer 10

I don't think it is neccessary for you to "teach" your child.  That is what teachers are for.  I'd work on his phone #, address, tieing his shoes, and being able to recognize his name, but the other stuff will come.  There is a website that has the alphabets and their letter sounds on it that he can do on his own.  My daughter will be 3 in July and we'd get on the website off and on for 3 weeks and she had all the letters and their sounds to a tee.  Try not to pressure him, as it may backfire and he'll hate learning.