What should a three year old know?

Question

i'm trying to teach him but he wonte sit still and i can't get him to write his letters am i pushing to hard or do i keep trying?

Answer 1

how to use a toilet

Answer 2

youre pushing to hard he will settle down when he goes to school he has got a lot of years of learning ahead of him dont worry

Answer 3

You are pushing him too hard!  That age child cannot do what you are asking him to do for goodness sake!  Neither mentally nor physically can he pull that off for you, as much as he'd love to please you and as smart as he really is, he is not developmentally ready at that age.  Forget it.

At age four 1/2 or five, then he can start trying and will have some more ability to focus.  The teachers in kindergarten will bring him a long way too.

Answer 4

Rather than  working on writing, work on knowing the alphabet, numbers, imaginative play, use play structures (doll houses, farm, castle, etc) - play mobil and Fisher Price Little People have excellent play structures.  He should be playing with blocks and building with them, stacking objects, playing with musical instruments.  Talk about shapes, sort them with the sorting boxes.  play with playdoh and other easy craft projects.  Matching would be good to work on, as would colors.  Gross motor activities, such as jumping, walking sideways/backwards would be good.  Another important thing: socializing with other kids his age.

As for writing - his fine motor skills probably aren't quite up to par - scribbling and coloring and tracing (letters and numbers) will help him better than writing (by himself) at this point.

This is a great source:

http://www.fisher-price.com/fp.aspx?st=6...

How much should a 3-year-old know?

Q:How much should my child know at the age of 3? She loves to write and pretend play by herself. She does not recognize too many colors. Is there anything I can do to encourage her?

— Submitted by LaTonia in Madison

Bettye M. Caldwell, Ph.D.

Professor of Pediatrics in Child Development and Education

A:Sounds as though you’ve already done a lot to encourage her! Your description fits a bright and happy little girl. I don’t think anyone can tell you “just how much” your child should know at 3. But I’ll mention a few important things:

    * She should be talking a great deal, have a vocabulary of more than a thousand words and understand just about everything you say to her.

    * She should be toilet-trained, be able to feed and dress herself and sleep through the night without undue visits to your bed.

    * She should be able to play with other children without too many quarrels and fights over sharing toys.

    * She should be able to give and receive love to important people in her life.

    * She should be reasonably agile and well-coordinated, active with her toys and on a playground.

    * She should love to be read to and to look at books by herself and pretend to read.

How is that for a brief set of “shoulds”? Not least of all, she should have a mother who loves her and is very proud of her!

Answer 5

just the basics. addition subtraction and some nice vocabulary like big, small, huge, enourmous.

Answer 6

give it a break for a bit...then start slowly again, get him to know his colors, and to recognize his numbers....take him swimming and let him be around children his age and a bit older....tell him every night that you love him and read to him....

Answer 7

Hi there - I used to be a 3yr old teacher at a daycare, so let's see . . .

- Be able to recognize thier name

- Knowing their birthday (month, day, year)

- Parent's names

- Colors: red, blue, yellow, green, orange, pink, blue, white, black, brown, purple

- Shapes: circle, square, rectangle, oval, triangle, heart, diamond,

- Numbers: They should be able to use their fingers to count to 10, be able to count to AT LEAST 20 verbally, starting to recognize the number

- Letters: Should know ABC's, starting to recognize and write letters

-----------

Take your time, and be patient is the best advice I can give you. Make it a game - be creative.

Answer 8

A three year old should know his mother and father, and that his mother and father love him.  If you want your child to learn, talk to him, don't treat him like an idiot.  

Don't push the letters -- why should a three year old want to sit still?  There is so much for him to discover!

Answer 9

Sheri, you could be my twin. My 3-year-old won't write for me either, but my mother, who happens to be a retired school teacher says that he's too young.

So, rather than forcing him to write, I encourage him to try and we spend time playing educational games that he does enjoy.

Answer 10

This is what I think you should do with preschoolers:

Cuddle them, talk to them, answer their questions, play games, and read picture books. Let them help bake bread, sort socks, and plant a garden. Make play dough. Sing silly songs. Feed the birds. Scribble with crayons and sidewalk chalks. Experiment with finger paint.

Just watch, and pretty soon they'll learn to count to ten, absorb the names of shapes and colors, memorize nursery rhymes, the words to "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star," and the alphabet, and figure out how to pedal a tricycle, and turn a somersault. And then of course they'll go on to learn how to disassemble the toilet, crib, and clock radio, operate the telephone, answering machine, coffee grinder, and computer, write their names (both backwards and forwards) on the wallpaper, and drop the entire contents of the silverware drawer down the radiator, lol.

They need the freedom to explore (to the limits of safety and sanity, of course.) They'll learn more in an afternoon spent making mud pies in the sand than they will from the best-designed curriculum.

By the time they are four, they should know the alphabet, how to share with friends and siblings, get dressed by themselves, recite simple rhymes, songs and fingerplays, follow one or two step directions, and have enough hand-eye coordination to build block towers and string big beads. They should learn the names of the colors, and shapes and be able to catch and bounce a big ball. It should come naturally.

Just point out the letters on stop signs, count the spoons on the breakfast table and let him learn on his own accord. Hold hands and giggle, and feed the ducks some bread. Cherish him while he's still innocent and young. He'll grow up fast enough.

Answer 11

At three he is not ready to write his letters, not only does he not care but he also sees letters as art, not as things to write words with.  

You shouldn't make him sit still, make the activities you do fun, try making shapes of letters in dough, like pretzel dough and then bake them and eat them.  Or try putting shaving cream down and practicing letters in the shaving cream.  Start getting him to recognize his own name in print, you can even add some easy site words to recognize (he won't understand how the letters form the words, but it will give him an idea how letters make words.)

You are pushing to hard if he refuses to do it because it's not fun.  Kids at this age should enjoy the learning they are doing, not be bored with it.

Answer 12

id start with trig, maybe calculus if hes smart. then teach him some table manners and how to potty

Answer 13

a three year old should know how to be a three year old - and that's all

Answer 14

try to take things slower and only try to get him to memorize a few things a day he's only 3

Answer 15

how to do trig and algebra. Try not to go heavy with the trig, u kno there only 3

also try and teach all the  countries in the world in alphabetical order, thats what i taught my son, albert

((((einstein for all the idiots out there))))

Answer 16

You are definitely not pushing him too hard. Make learning fun for him. Writing his letters and name are not a far stretch for his age. Now, some children may not be ready for the challenge just yet but go forward and make sure in the mean time that he is learning other essentials. He should be learning about his family, how to be social, manners, potty training (if not already), respect for elders and others in general.

I would say give him a little push but don't push him into thinking that school = boring. That's the last thing anyone wants! School = fun! (ok, not always... or ever but he should at least be taught that it can be if you make it that way)

Good luck!

Answer 17

in my opinion, just let the kid do wat he wants and run around, but dont forget to disipline. hes too young to be having to learn so much, teach him colors and shapes!

Answer 18

abcs own name letters

Answer 19

Writing is a difficult task for most three year olds because they do not have the fine motor skill necessary to make the samll movements required in writing.  You need to start of slowly, with left to right activities.  For example, give a a piece of paper and have him draw a straight line from one side to the other.  You can move up from there to tracing circles or zig zag lines.  Once he has learned how to properly hold and control the writing the utensil, you can move him uo to tracing letters that are already written, just make sure that they are larger letters.  Then you can move up to writing letters free hand.  It is a long process, but if you work at it every day he will catch on quickly.  It is important that you praise all of his efforts or he will begin to see it as a bad thing and won't want to participate.  My son is 3 1/2 and, by following these steps M-F since he  was 2 1/2, he can now write all of his letters, both lower case and capital, and can spell his first and last name.  Good luck and don't expect him to know everything at once, it is a process.

Answer 20

I think a 3 year old should know how to say:

Please

Thank-You

Yes

No

And should be able to recognize Mom,Dad ,Brother,Sister.

Potty Train

Answer 21

Three year olds have very short attention spans and an inordinate amount of energy so trying to get him to sit still for formal lessons is probably fruitless. If you do, limit the lessons to 3-5 minutes and make it fun. You could gradually increase the time. You could make interactive games to teach him. For example, show him a flash card with the letter A. Ask him what it is. If he gets it right he gets a prize that start with A, like an apple. Later you could have him go and get things that begin with A. You could do the same with colors. He could also get rewards for every A he shows you in a storybook. Add 2-3 letters per week.

Answer 22

I taught a lady's three year old to use the butcher knife to cut fresh bread...  A week later we have a nurse visiting for tea..  and the kid walks into the kitchen asking for a sandwich...  I tells him to get the bread and knife, and do it himself...  So there he is at the kitchen table right beside the nurse, with the sharpest longest butcher knife we had...  He's saying just like I taught him, "Fingers far away from the knife"..  Hold the knife hard and strong"..  "Cut, Cut, Cut"..  as he saws of a piece of frsh baked bread...  then sets the knife down, blade away from him..  just like I taught him...  All the while the nurse is peaked and freaking, seeing a baby using a huge wicked knife...

"Did you forget something?"  says I...  He looks around..  "Oh.. The knife in the sink, and put the bread away.."   then off he goes with his sandwich...

Maybe you should just forget about the knife... It's just that I have a special way of teaching kids, that very few others can even begin to grasp...  I treat them as my equal...

Then I taught him how to light a campfire with matches...

Then I taught him how to pickup black widow spiders and snakes without them biting him...

I live in a different world than most...  To you and the masses it might be extremely frightening...  To us it's just fun living...

Thing is.. this culture maintains kids as babies till they reach 18..  then shoves them out in the world, naked, stupid, fearful, mindless, numb and dumb, expecting them to make a life... Something is seriously wrong with how we treat and educate our young..  is why this human race makes wars, and is going extinct very fast...

Answer 23

At age three they have a mind of their own and are discovering alot of things they dont have time to set still and learn letters or numbers he will have so much time in school to learn my grand daughter became interested in letters and numbers when she was four but she was still really not that interested until she strarted school then she figured out that if you put the letters together u can spell words let him see you writing and see if he comes to you and then work with him a little bit but let him explore this wonderful world right now he will have all that time to learn in school

Answer 24

Sheri, as long as he knows all the words to Brass Monkey, he won't need to write for 2 more years.

Answer 25

you need to make things fun for him... like make it a game and stuff... at 3 years old he could learn his letters but he doesn't need to... encourage him to learn but don't push him... make everything he does something he can learn from and it will just come to him.

Answer 26

At three years old, teach him to count to 5, maybe know the letter names, put on his own jacket, drink out of a open cup,

teach him to color not necessarily in the lines just see if he holds the crayon correctly. One way to do that is to use broken crayons about an inch long that helps to teach proper grip using only three fingers. Don't try teaching him to write his letter just yet

teach him other basics first get him interested in anything listed above everything else will be much easier.

Answer 27

Should be able to communicate in simple sentences and have a firm grasp on the whole potty training bit. Besides that don't worry, Einstein didn't even talk until he was almost three.

Answer 28

At three, I used what was fun to help my kids learn more about the things they enjoyed.  Swimming, the sacrifice that Jesus made for them....abc's they picked up just playing wheel of fortune on the computer, they liked that and they liked reader rabbit.  don't push, play.

learning works best when its fun ...i'll find that quote from Leo Buscalea if I can and give it to yu.

chill.  don't worry, be happy.  BUY Bob Books...four stars.

Answer 29

Keep trying, they seem to know things one day and then forget them the next. My kids (twins) could count to 17 on Monday, Tuesday and not on Wednesday or Thursday, suddenly Friday they knew how again (atleast in order) and then on Saturday, not. I think it is just a matter of patience and perserverence. They are never to young to hear things like numbers and alphabet, writing and drawing, but important, just let them be and do not make issues.

Answer 30

yes keep trying :) eventually they'll pull around and start to listen to you.well if i remmeber staright,when i was 3 years old i knew a few abcs,colors,and like the first 4 letters of my colors,shapes,letters,and things(like bus,cat,dog,clock etc.)but remember,kids that age and up have short attention spans,so that means one minute he could be writing a letter name!(lolz) but i think you should try teaching basic then the next he could be trying to tell you a color!:) oh yea,you could read to him and ask him what a picture is,like you could point to something like a dog and ask him what is it!that would make it funner i would say  but dont give up!(but dont push him to hard either....)