PARENTS AND SMARTY PANTYS ALIKE! HELP! how can i educate my three year old in a creative way?

Question

my daughter is three and I'm wondering if she is up to par intellectually, I mean knowledge-wise. Does anyone know of a good resource to compare her developmental skills? I do little lessons with her at night, like tracing letters, shapes, colors, ect... We read to her quite a bit with frequent library trips. What more can I do to expend her mind while having fun? I would love more ideas. I want her to love learning and excel in school. Since that was not my youth, I always felt inadequate. Pls. advise me on setting my daughter up for sucess in school yrs.

Answer 1

help her with letters to print her name and teach her the phone number and address,counting and alphebet.she needs this stuff in kindergarten.kind of sing letters and numbers and she will too

Answer 2

Music has a tremendous impact on child development.

http://www.paulborgese.com/report_benefi...

Not only is it vastly entertaining, research has indicated that it also boosts your child's IQ!  That's according to a new study, led by Glenn Schellenberg of the University of Toronto.

http://www.sciencenetlinks.com/sci_updat...

Our great government music resource~it's AWESOME

http://kids.niehs.nih.gov/music.htm

For Assessments & Related Info:

http://www.teachingstrategies.com/page/P...

Art is such a fantastic way to teach academic skills.  The absolute best I've found in 25 years of teaching is this one.  You can search their site forever, so much info!:

http://www.dltk-teach.com/

Another all-time great is a site by nationally renowned educator Victoria Smith :

http://www.kinderkorner.com/

For activities that ALL toddlers adore (Sponge Bob, Dora the Explorer, etc.), Free preK-12 resources to support learning at home and at school

http://pbskids.org/

Great ideas for those all-important gross motor skills, so important for preparation for sports & just general good health!:

http://www.123child.com/UBB/showthread.p...

Science is, perhaps, the area most neglected in public schools.  Give your child the advantage with these:

http://www.first-school.ws/theme/science...

http://www.preschooleducation.com/scienc...

Developed for Special Needs children, this site has some wonderful activities for social development, songs, etc.

http://www.do2learn.com/

I borrowed videos from my local health department to show to my students. They let me borrow hand puppets which went with the videos.

Oh, and use M &M's or Cheerios to count with.

Hope this helps :)

Answer 3

The most important thing you can do for your daughter now is give her a lot of social interaction and play. Her brain is still developing and is not fully grown- It makes connection through experiences. That is how the brian develops and expands at this age. -Sitting and writing letters does not expand the brian.

Answer 4

just try and do creative stuff with her like you do.

Answer 5

When you read to her, read to her 1 sentence at a time and tell her to repeat it back to you. I learned to read at age 3 and also my mom taught me the states and capitals at age 2 with placemats  of the United States and I also learned my Presidents the same way too.

Answer 6

With my Preschool class I would set up direct eye to eye contact and kneel to their level or height when speaking to them. You would place pictures around the home of items and the name of that item written underneath it. Example a picture of brushing your teeth would be a toothbrush and toothpaste. You would place colored cubbies in her room to teach her self-discipline as well as organization for the future. Once you show her respect, responsibility and love she will master anything in life. Keep everything consistent. Don't change from day to day. You keep with the same routine. When you read have her pick out her own book. Allow her to place it back in the same location or bookshelf. This will allow her to learn to follow directions from adults and teaching staff. Allow her to learn to share meaning if you have something she may want to play with like a purse than you ask her if you can play with her doll and while playing with the doll make sure you talk with it with educational feedback. Using consistent words that she will learn as she gets older. For example, you may want to say something like I like it when (your daughter's name) allows me to share with her toys. I like it when (your daughter's name) is being a good citizen or friend. Once she hears this consistently she will understand how to share and problem solve. All this is good for a 3 year old as many will disagree but I am an advocate for early learning. Some feel it's pressure on that child but I rather have my child be safe than in harm's way. I feel a child should know their name, alphabet and numbers so if they get kidnapped they can recognize numbers, their name and who's the person that kidnapped them or even if they get lost in the store they would know how to seek help and know their telephone number and address. In these day and ages, many children are missing due to the lack of parents overprotecting them. I have lost many jobs due to my advocacy of children's early learning. You may want to read many other stuff other than children materials. I mean like religion, sports, history and large print books so she can recognize letters and the words. This way it will provide good grammar and language skills. This way she will have no speech problems like slurring or struttering. Just be consistent. Try everything that you feel comfortable with. Don't over pressure her to a point she may stress out. Yes, even 3 year olds stress this is why they have temper tantrum. Not because they're being spoiled. Many young child cannot speak well or fast enough to tell parents to back off. I know many readers will thumbs down my comments but it's reality. If you notice if a child starts to cry it means they feel scared or uncomfortable in any environment you place them in. Like for example, if you notice you take a child to a movie theater and the minute the lights goes out they start to whine, cry or talk excessively than it means they're afraid not being unreasonable. Many parents don't see that or understand that from their child. It's best to be consistent with body language. Your body speak a lot and face gestures says it all. Imagine a child seeing that everyday so we must educate a child as often as possible. If a parent is stressed than a child will be. Anyways, do the best you feel but don't overdue it. Don't be too aggressive about your child's education. Let them grow slowly and allow them to be children. Allow them to play as well as learn. All this is a learning process and it takes baby steps to see your child achieve in their own style.

Answer 7

My very best advice to you is "don't compare her with other children"...Let me tell you what "happened to me".  I visited another mother who had two children the exact ages of my two.  They were really ahead academically...I was DEPRESSED!!!

Next thing I know it's school time...and guess what one of her children flunked the first grade and the other was in special education.  WOW...mine were in "gifted and Talented"...I think a relaxed atmosphere is the key...make learning fun.  Sing, study nature,  and have fun!~

One of my children's favorite memories was when we found a cocoon one day on the fence  in the back yard.  I put it in a jar...and we watched, and watched and watched...Then one morning sure enough, it opened.  It struggled....and we had to let it struggle, so it would become strong enough to fly.  It flew all over the house and we had a blast!!!  We all learned a lot that day...

So, relax and enjoy!

Answer 8

Let her watch TV.

I learned the words insipid, constricting, larynx, entrepreneurs, etc. all from Spongebob.

Answer 9

This should really help:

http://www.infotoday.com/MMSchools/may02...

Also as a side note, try not to push your child too much. Pressure in child today is a big problem which can handicap them in later grades.

Hope this Helps!

Answer 10

There are no predictions on how well a child is going to do in school.  Child may or may not excel in school.  Don't set yourself up for possible let down, because she doesn't come home with all A+++.

What you're doing now is quite enough for a 3 year old to handle.  Reading to your daughter right before bed time, is the best thing you can do for her.

If you push too much she's going to back off.  If she enjoys doing letters, shapes, colors that's fine.  You better be sure that she's actually enjoying these exercises.

Just because you "didn't" love learning, that doesn't mean she's not.  Remember, she's only 3 yrs. old.  She also needs other children her own age to play with and "learn" how to socialize with her own age group.  It's important that children learn to socialize with each other.  

Teaching your daughter to learn her A B C's before going to school is not important.  They will learn that when they go to school, as the experts have pointed out.

Children learn at their own pace, so take your daughter for walks so she can look and see this great big world and what it has to offer.  Let her watch the birds, squirrels, butterflyes.  She will have enough questions for you to answers.  It's not all about book work.

Keep reading to your daughter.  That's the key to children's wanting to continue to read.  They'll learn their letters and numbers and still have the chance to hear another wonderful story.

Call me what you may, just don't think that you're going to give you daughter something you think you never got.  

That's it, I'm done with my book now.  Carry on.....

Answer 11

go to this site it might help you. www.pbskidsgo.org

Answer 12

What are her interests? My daughter was interested in space so we learned about all the planets. Then she got interested in numbers so we worked on number recognition. Her current interest is making things so we bought her all sorts of art supplies. The key to helping your daughter learn to love learning is to explore her interests and not push other learning. If she enjoys tracing letters, great, but if she doesn't don't do it. She will learn at her own speed and when she is ready. You can also sneak academics into her interests. For example, when my daughter was interested in space we talked about what letter each planet starts with. Please keep in mind that knowledge alone will not help your daughter excel in school. She needs to be able to think critically and creatively. Ask her lots of open ended (why) questions, make up stories and songs, give her the opportunity to create things, ask her about her opinions and ask her why she feels that way, discuss age-appropriate current events and how she feels about them, and give her the opportunity to solve simple everyday problems on her own.

Answer 13

First of all don't pressure her !!   =)    learning is fun when you make it about them..  Also all children are different and learn at their own pace and develop at their own rate.  Does not mean they are behind.  Find out what she is interested in emergent curriculum is one of the best ways for children to retain the information since it's what interests them.  If you are on a walk and see a lady bug and she in interested in it then do some research and make it fun.  Make sure you are giving her opportunities to develop other areas besides academics such as fine and gross motor skills (cutting, drawing etc.) and give her opportunities to explore without fear of doing something wrong or breaking something.  There are so many fun creative ways to learn and the internet has millions of ideas.

Answer 14

enroll your child in a good quality licensed preschool - while she is at home, let her explore the outdoors with you and read read read to her. Let her see you reading too.  A love of reading will open up all kinds of doors for her.  She's lucky to have such a concerned and loving mother - good luck.