What should a 4 year old know i.e. milestones?

Question

What should a 4 year old know i.e. milestones, ABC, Numbers,Colors,etc,reading,writting ....what /how much exactly?

Answer 1

How to take a c**p and a nap.

Answer 2

If you have a dollar store near you check out the books they have for helping to teach your child.   My daughter is a little older than your child, her teacher had me teaching her these sight words:

I, see, the, like, in, yes, no, my, am, it, to, and, on, said, at, can, you, go, a, did, me, do, is, are, up, red, yellow, blue, green orange, brown, purple, black

(thats what their wanting Graduating Kindergarten to know for 1st grade)

Writing his/her name:

I taught my daughter how to write her name; first and last.   And Phone number.   This is one way to start them memorizing those letters & numbers.   Have them recite them as they write them.  

(Her teacher is constantly complimenting her writing ability, for being neat, I started when she was 3)

ABC:

What I suggest doing, and it worked well for my girl is buy some cheap A,B,C magnets, put them in a bag, take your child to the park or outside and start having them recite which one you pull out of the bag.   If they get it wrong, tell them the letter, put it back in the bag, and they should get it next pull..   Make a list of ones they really have difficulty with, so you pay more attention to those once they have mastered the rest.  And their reward is they get to play afterwards.  Do this at least 3 times a week.  

Colors:

Color with your child and ask them what the colors are (that is if they don't have their colors down yet).

Numbers:

Have you child count with you 1-5 to start, be very repetitious with them count everything crayola's, pencils, pennies, washcothes as you fold, books, leaves, etc....Once they've mastered 1-5 add 6-10, etc....

Just make it a fun game.

Shapes:  

Square, circle, rectangle, octagon, star, heart, oval.

Get creative with these circle =smiley face, stop sign = octagon,  oval = face or egg, rectangle = match box or cereal box or drawer, heart = valentine, star = wand w/star shape on the end.  

Make a game out of this to put them all into a pile and have your child pull the one that you request from the pile, then you child has you pull one.  

Art:

Teacher your child how to draw simple figures of bugs, stick figures (my girl & I played hang man to learn the stick figure and abc's and numbers) I had her draw a stick figure to show what we were playing then I put in the blanks for the word, had her count the blanks (of course using a word that matched what she could count to)

Show her how to draw a ladybug, flower, butterfly, etc....

Days of the week:

My daughter learnt the days by this little diddy, put it to the sound of the Adam's Family and

Days of the week

2 claps

Days of the week

2 claps

There's Sunday and there's Monday

Tuesday and there's Wednesday

Thursday and there's Friday

And then there's Saturday

Days of the week

2 claps

Months:

There's a diddy for the months also:

January, February, March and April

June, July, and August

September, October, November, December

These are the months of the year.

Weather:

There's a diddy for this as well that the teacher uses a weather chart (made out of a circle where she points to Sunny, cloudy, windy, rainy, and foggy as they sing that part of the song) and have them do hand motions to the song for Sunny= arms in circle over head, cloudy= both hands like visors over eyes, windy= waving hands back & forth, rainy= both hands mimicking rain w/hands going up & down, nothing for foggy:

What's the weather?

What's the weather ?

What's the weather out today?

Tell us (Your childs name) whats the weather, whats the weather out today?

Is it Sunny, is it cloudy, is it windy out today?

Whats the weather?

Whats the weather?

Whats the weather out today?

is it Sunny, is it cloudy, is it windy out today?

Money:

Teaching your child about money.   Show them real currency explain what each are, not the value, just what their names are; nickel, dime, quarter, penny, dollar, five dollars, 10 dollars, etc....

Just to get them use to seeing them.   You can also get a little play till at the dollar store with play currency in it.  

Have them get can goods out of the cabinet, toys, books, and play check out.    

Tie their shoe:

Teach your child to tie their own shoe and how to tell if their ont their on the wrong feet.   By how the shoe's look when their on the wrong side.

Left from right:

By using the sides of the vehicle, your ears, hands, feet, etc....

Up and down:

Sky is up and ground is down.

Close & Far:

The different, have them explain

Empty and full:

Filling up a cup, bowl, pail with either water, sand, or pebbles.   And dump them out, have the child explain what each is.

Same/ different:

Put pictures together a couple that are exactly the same, some that are different.  Have you child pick the same pictures and explain why their the same.   And the same thing for different.

These are just a few things....

Also P.E.:

To get them use to exercise have your child do

Jumping Jack

Jump rope

Hula Hoop (My daughter loved this)

jogging

Do them with your child, they'll really learn to enjoy it.

Hope all these idea's help.   Good luck to you both!

Answer 3

The things that you mentioned are things that can be learned now, but will eventually be learned in pre-school and kindergarten. What's the hurry? There are no rules or given amounts. Some 4 year olds are interested in these things, some are not. It does not relate to their academic ability.

When teaching to write letters and numerals early, many times the child is not also being taught how to form the letters correctly or how to hold the pencil in the correct position.

I suggest instead to play games, sing songs, make music, count Cheerios to 5, read poems and clap to music. Memorizing letters and numerals that they've yet to understand and put to use doesn't always equate to good learning.More importantly children should be taught respect, when to question, to cover their mouth when they cough or sneeze, and to look both ways when crossing the street.