How do you interest a 4 yr old in learning?

Question

I have a granddaughter that is over 4 yrs old and still does not know the alphabet, and can barely count to 5. She is a very bright child but has ADD or ADHD (not diagnosed yet). She has learned the letter A and can write it in upper case. She is very proud of that accomplishment but when I try to move on to B, she just continues to make As. The alphabet song "annoys" her, she won't even try to sing it with me. She does like Dora but Sesame Street doesn't interest her. In another year she'll be in school and she is not ready.

Suggestions need to be things that can be done at home and are free (or nearly free).

Thanks for the help!

Answer 1

My son is 4 as well and we are homeschooling him, he also has ADHD, so what we do is practice letters with him and numbers. Also we have very good channels KUED and KBYU the local channels from our Universities in Utah that they have kids shows where they teach the letters and numbers.

Go to pbskids.org// pbskidsgo.org and see there all the programs, they have games with letters, shapes, etc. It is very good for the kids because in that way they also learn how to use the computer.

Try that, I worked very well with my son.

Good luck!!!

Answer 2

I am a former preschool teacher, homeschooler, elementary teacher and college instructor. I also spent years tutoring various ages of children who struggled with academics. I am also raising one of the top honor students at the local high school. I homeschooled him until age twelve and then put him straight into honors programs. He has earned scholarships to summer programs at elite universities. But, our local school system had wanted to put him in special ed. What I did worked!

First, all students are different. So, what works for one child will not necessarily be most effective for another. Having said that, the best thing you can do for this granddaughter is to give her no television or other electronic entertainment other than listening to truly high quality music. The studies bear this out. Television changes the brains of small children, and I have observed various negative effects on kids, particularly related to ADHD issues. Studies bear this out as well.

The second thing you can do is to take care of her health, as in making sure she goes to bed early, gets plenty of outdoor exercise, and eats very natural food and very little sugar, transfats, caffiene, fried foods, etc.

Now, you're ready to stimulate her. Talk to her as though she were an adult, except that you don't expose her to things she is not mature enough for of course. Don't use babytalk, and don't talk down to her. Spend a lot of time exploring nature, the community, museums, the library, etc.

Fill your home with books. Read to her daily. Show her simple words and tell her how they are similar to other simple words. Cat and hat are similar but have a different starting sound.

But, be patient. Until her brain is ready to associate sounds with letters, she will not be able to do it, period. Your job is to stimulate her and make sure it's available to her when her brain is ready.

Also, you can introduce various geometric shapes, colors, numbers, etc. throughout the day. Bake with her and tell her about the chemical reactions in the leavening. Ask her why the tree stump is decomposing, and then tell her after she tells you.

Get books about how things work from the library and show them to her and then show her in real life.

Get her started playing a musical instrument. This has been proven to help with academics, whether or not it was the child's choice to start. Try Suzuki methods as they do not require the students to read music at first.

But, turning off the TV and keeping it off, getting rid of video games, computer games and so on are the first steps to opening up her mind to active learning rather than passive molding.

All the best!

Answer 3

shes learning now ,.the brain is like a sponge . it will absorb information ,digest it and return it when it can realize its function ,not unlike a jigsaw puzzle piece here there ,all of a sudden its whole be patient ,time line to follow learning has no time line to follow .at some point you will see results of your efforts be patient she will learn to use these tools. as you did learning to use your computer.as for the song she may find it boring.

Answer 4

It sounds as if she may be resisting because she's a bit overwhelmed.  My daughter resisted reading until I REALLY broke it down.

Do like preschools and Sesame Street do, and concentrate on one letter only, in upper case, for at least a day.   For example, draw a big "B" in construction paper and have her cut it out.  Give her a paper with a big B on it, and have her cover the letter only with macaroni, coins, stones, hair clips, anything that fits.  Make her lunch a sandwich and cut it out into the shape of "B", or arrange the vegetables on her plate that way, or draw it on her plate in peanut butter.  

Some days bribery is very effective.  Get a glass jar (glass is best because they can see progress) and say you'll put a penny (or m&m, or skittle, or special craft item, whatever) in it every time she gives you a "B" she has cut out, or for every 3 things she can think of that start with the "B" sound.  She doesn't get what's in the jar until it's full.  Don't make the jar too big, or she'll get discouraged, and make a pretty big deal of it when you let her have what's in it.  Also, give her the entire jar of stuff at once.  It's a confidence builder when she sees all that she was able to do.

Important -- don't do it in long stretches of time.  It's better to do it in bursts throughout the day.   Do it without any distractions -- no TV or radio on -- but stop before you see her getting restless.

This worked for us.... it seemed like a lot of work for the first few letters, then it got better pretty quickly.  My daughter's nine now and reading chapter books, and I had dispaired of her ever reading.  Just don't give up!

Answer 5

I am a bit concerned that you feel she has ADD/ADHD but has not been diagnosed. Has she had any type of evaluation? Lots of people think children have this and they are off base.

Children are naturally curious. What are her interests. Learning games can be made out of ANYTHING! If she loves dogs, do a dog puzzle together, (teaches spatial relationships and problem solving.) Count dogs, draw dogs, sing songs about dogs, do dramatic play with dogs, etc. You can do developmentally appropriate activities with just about any topic there is. I would not be extremely worried about her writing the alphabet just yet. It will come.

I would get her into a program a couple days a week to get her socially acclamated to school enviromements and routines. This is very important to academic success. It will also increase her attention span. If $$ are an issue, look into Head Start programs, they are free, and developmentally appropriate, and also are familiar with children with special needs and may be able to help you should she need to be evaluated.

Answer 6

do it in a way she can be interested in example if she likes barney get her barney singing the alphabet

Answer 7

Sure! Why don't you try rewarding her when she does something right? Then, tell her that you will reward her again if she continues to do so! That sure worked for me when I was little, and I was really hyper, too.

Answer 8

make learning interesting for your granddaughter i know where you are coming from my oldest granddaughter is 6 she cannot sit still always busy.try coloring books and make the learning fun.

Answer 9

You will have to try to making learning more like a game.

Answer 10

Happy New Year

IF she is suffering throught medical conditions ADD or ADHD I seriously cannot help!

Answer 11

By interacting with them in play, by reading to them, attend the library story hours, by letting them help around the house, and in the kitchen; kids love to bake cookies, by giving them chores to do according to their abilities, by making them feel capable, and giving them a purpose.... just be grandma.

And if the child is not "ready" emotionally that is, whats the harm in waiting another year?

Academically children catch up in no time once they are ready.

Book suggestion:

Better Late Than Early by Dr. Raymond Moore, and Dorothy Moore.

http://www.planetcdrom.com/discount-soft...

http://www.educationallearninggames.com/...

Children learn much by watching, and doing; board games, and computers can be a real help.

Answer 12

well my sister is the same, shes five and my mom got her into cheerleading, and when she got gome she made the alphabet into a cheer, and she made other things into a cheer, she seemed to enjoy that, it took a little bit of time, but it worked

Answer 13

maybe you can play fashion designer then

make her play monery then add it up together?

Or make a recipe

Answer 14

That's great that your concerned but one ? are you her primary care provider? If not what part is her parents taking in her learning skills? All of us learn diffrently  so it just may not be her time to grasp what she need to know, but surprisingly she may already know and not letting on children know more that we precive them to know. There is one way you can get her attention is to limit everything else that she likes and when she figure out I can't do this until I do that then she will get on the right track be patient with her and first and for most pray about it ask god for the guidence you will need to help his child learn the basics of what she need to know.  You could also get a take and have her record her voice on it and she will be able to her her self whe she lay down to sleep put it on for her to listen to with consitancy ane repition we all learn something whether we want to or not. Good Luck

Answer 15

give her toys, sweets and choco;ate kids love that kind of stuff. take her out places like park a fun learning centre.

Answer 16

Play-Doh. She can be playing with it and you can make the letters and talk about it.

Answer 17

The focus is too much on rote memorization.  The alphabet song is nothing more than learning the letter names.  

Some ideas that may help her:

--Teach her Cooking:  In cooking, you are going to be using a lot of different skills.  She will need to count out a certain amount of something (I need 6 carrots).  Reading will play a role.  I know she cannot read yet, but reading to her and pointing the words out as you go will begin to get her started in reading.  This will also help because she'll be interested in learning how to read for an activity she enjoys doing.

--Teach her lower case cursive writing. It is not as widely used as the print lower case letters (should start with lower case anyway since that makes up the majority of our writing).  It is, however, easier to learn since it all has the same starting point.  Get a hilighter and write out a few of them on paper that can be traced with a pencil.  Show her how to do it, then leave it somewhere that she has access to when she wants.  This has worked for me to get students more interested in their letter sounds.  They feel less threatened by the highlighter since there's more room for error than if I used dotted letters.  I think they also like the way the marker looks on the paper with the pencil drawn in it, but never really had anyone say that to me.

--Teach her the letter sound rather than the name of the letter, as this will get her reading more quickly.  Be careful, however, to say them correctly.  For example, "b" is not "buh."  I cannot tell you how hard it is to retrain children.  There is no "uh" sound at the end.  (Do we say "buh-ay-buh-ee" or "b-ay-bee?")  If anything, add an "i" sound if you have trouble cutting it off.  

--Count everything and anything.  I don't care if you're bored with it, just do it.  And out loud too.  Before you play with her 10 piece puzzle (example), count the pieces.  If she repeats it, great.  If not, she's absorbing it still to some degree.

--After you teach her some letter sounds, ask her to point them out to you when you read to her.  Read a page and say, "I see 4 /a/ sounds in here.  Can you find them?"  As she points them out, count them with her.

Just a few ideas off the top of my head.  Hope some of them work out.

Answer 18

Leap Frog! It's really fun for little kids! Also...try to do something that is fun for them and teaches them. Like for the letter B say like "If you write the letter B 5 times then you will get a Banana [or another snack that iterests her that starts with a B]" Give her awards for what she does. That will egg hr on to do more. Or everytime she learns a new letter, number, ect. then put a sticker on a piece of paper. When she gets 10 stickers make her count to ten and then give her a award [perhaps a cookie or icepop]. Also it doesn't matter if she can "sing" the alphabet, as long as she can write it down or say it. Never tell her she is not writing "neat" enough. When i was little my mom would always say "you write so messy" and i would get so offended! Well hope it helped!♥

Answer 19

Bravo for all of tr hardwork! First of all, Dora has a huge key role. Try to pinpoint her the letters on Dora's name. THEn you could play with "educational" games. Like, cooking. When ut counting how many apples for apple pie, let her count. THen, play with clay so she can make shapes.  

Good Luck!

Answer 20

Okay, print some Letters on the computer Large and then play some games with them make it fun,...Play pick a card she picks one and shows to you you tell her what it is, she tells you. Then she can show them to other people. Make a match game 2 cards with the same letter.

Introduce some letters and then relate them to the 5 senses, Taste, hear, smell, feel, see. That is the best way to learn.

Take "B" Bears, have a teddy Bear tea party where you serve B sandwiches and B cookies while eating Blueberries and looking for Bees. Or have a Bee Day where you eat Honey and dress up like Bees make a bee hive from recycled things.

This is the same thing we do in our classrooms.

Counting...Just start counting everything. Fruit loops, cookies, the doors or houses on your street.

Go to yahoo search and ask for preschool ideas and then just start incorporating them into your day.

Life is more than just the ABC song. you will see when you open up this world of early chilhood learning...

See fine motor skills to help with writing as well

Answer 21

all kids have ADHD at that age, children are not even suppose to know the alphabet until kindergarten, I didn't learn it until 1st and I ended up having a 139 IQ and a college reading lvl at 5th grade.

Answer 22

She needs to go to pre-school.  It has helped my daughter with the same problems.

Answer 23

you have to make it fun...you have to use something that will grab his/her attention

Answer 24

Encourage learning play.  I like some of the answers people have already given -- the money-exchange play, for example.  Might have to be simplified a bit for a 4-year-old, but the design is good.  Also, cooking with her is a good way to learn basic measurement and counting, especially when the product is something she likes.  Chocolate chip cookies are great, because she can count the chips to add to the batter, and start identifying in her head what different measurements look like. Good luck!

Answer 25

Every child is eager to learn. You just have different ideas on what is interesting and important. Let her lead. maybe she's like to tell you Dora stories she has made up while you write them down. Maybe she's interested in animals or princesses or trucks or rocks or any of the other topics that interest kids.

Don't worry about the writing. It's so much easier to learn at 5 than at 4. Buy her funny alphabet books and read them with her. Paint a door in her room with blackboard paint and give her fat chalk so she can practice using the muscles she'll need for writing. The more you try and force her to do tasks that do not interest her or are too hard the more you are setting her up for failure.

Answer 26

By no means bribe her then she will learn that  the only reason to do something educational is if you get soething in return And the cost will go up as she get's older. Children learn at different rates. Kindergarden is supposed to help learn the ABCs and numbers.

Answer 27

I would sing the ABC song frequently during the day, like when you are doing dishes or some other chore and she is around.  Find time to count things to five and 10.  Don't force her to do it, just do it yourself.  Exposure will help her.