Where to start for a 3 yr old ?

[sayamaahmed]

Hi All,

Please guide me as to where I cant start for the Early Learning for my 3 yr old. There is so much available on net. I feel lost.
Parents who have started EL at the gae of three , please guide.

Thanks and Regards,
Sayama

[Tanikit]

That is quite a hard question - at age three you probably need to find out where your child is first - does he/she know their colours, shapes, the alphabet? What have you been reading to your child? Can your child count and if so up to what number, can he/she count objects to any number? What types of things interest your 3 year old - could you perhaps teach things based on your child's interests?

What is it that you want to teach - I would probably start with only one thing first - you could start for example with reading and teach a few words first until you get into it and then expand to teach math or encyclopediac knowledge or music.

Maybe tell us a little more about how your family runs and what your child knows and what you have done up until now and it would then be easier to suggest certain things.

[sayamaahmed]

Hi Tanikit,

Thanks for your reply. My daughter is three year old. Both of us (parents) are working. We are from India. My daughter goes to a nursery school cum day care. And she is hesitant to wake up early we did not pressurize her to attend school everyday. And we too ignored the importance of Early learning. We use to think that it is too early to burden the kid with studies. She was not regular to school.

Next year onwards she will be going to a school that will be her LKG. Which we will ensure she attends regularly.

Coming to what my baby knows. I have given her board books since she was 1 year. She can identify Vegetables, Fruits, Colors , Shapes , capital letters of English. She is not accurate in identifying Alphabets. I would like to know , now that she knows the alphabets , what should I do to teach her phonics as well as correct recognition.
I want to teach her small letters as well.
Numbers - She can count till 10. but she is not accurate. I would like to teach her numbers as well.
 
We speak English and Hindi at home. Our mother tongue is Hindi. My daughter speaks Hindi fluently since 1.5 yrs. We have never encouraged her to read Hindi. She has started speaking English as well now. Not very fluent in English.

She is interested in coloring exercises.
As far as the question of what I want to teach her - I would like to teach her all that is possible to teach her. Right Brain Training , Reading, Maths, encyclopediac  knowledge, music etc. I am looking forward for a mentor who could guide me .

If time permits , planning to join her for classical Music , which is mostly preferred in India.

One question: At what age should the child be taught to write? Can I ignore the writing activity for few months and concentrate on her reading skills.

I understand I have missed the important 3 years of teaching her. I want to cope up with it.

I am using the trial version of LR and LM. She watches it one lesson a day.  Can I increase the number of lessons per day ? Will that be beneficial ? I have ordered for LR Deluxe and LM. Hope it arrives soon.
I have never read books to her. Wanted to start reading to her. But thought will start when I get simple story books that are suitable for kids. Hope the ones that comes with LR deluxe will help. Any suggestions as to what can be read to kids.

Your guidance in this this regard will be highly appreciated.

Thanks and Regards,
Sayama Ahmed

[Lovelightlaughter]

  I haven't started the free trial package this has been an unusually crazy week...
  I would say however that Leyla knows her colours, shapes, counts to ten and is learning spanish, english and sign language so we didn't push reading on top of all that.
  Now, she does has a big challenge. She has Down Syndrome and we have been told that her speech would improve if shown sight word recognition. We sure hope so.
  Looking forward to start next week.
  Thanks for your stories, they are encouraging!

[Tanikit]

I would probably teach your child the lower case alphabet next and most specifically the sounds that each letter makes as this is the start of phonics. I would also teach her some sight words.

At 3 you should probably be working on one-to-one correspondence with numbers - that is that she can count out a certain number of objects and perhaps also match that number of objects with the correct numeral (but make sure she can count items first)

You can ignore writing for now - rather get her drawing, scribbling and using a pencil/pen a lot first and make sure her grip is right. If you want try to get her to draw straight lines and shapes (circles and squares first as triangles and lines that cross over are much harder for a child to draw)

I would probably stick to one lesson of the curriculum per day and maybe add other categories to LR - either download them or make them yourself so that you can teach her all the other things you said you wanted to teach (encyclopediac knowledge is one you can work on with LR)

More than any other thing though I would start reading to her - any children's books are better than nothing. You are not reading to her to teach her to read though it does help. Reading to a child does a LOT of things - it exposes them to vocabulary, it helps their concentration, it teaches that print has meaning, it creates a close bond between parent and child, it creates a love of reading because of this close bond, it allows them to see how others react to certain events, it creates topics to discuss between parent and child and mostly it is enjoyable.
Google books for 3 year olds or look up some of the books that are used in curricula like Sonlight P3/4 or Before Five in a Row as these are all good stories. Go to a library and ask the librarian for help getting books for your child, go to a book shop and look at the books for children, google free children's books online, you can even use youtube to watch a few stories before buying them as some of them are read really well on there (and some are read terribly)

[seastar]

Hi sayamaahmed,

First things first - don't worry that she's three! Remember, she is starting her education at an earlier age than most children all over the world. Also, she knows so much already so you have don't lots of ground work and she is bilingual - well done!

I am quite new to this early learning also. The best advice I was given was to start with reading and get a handle on this before introducing anything else.

Read DadDude's essay for ideas. For what it's worth, here's a summary of what I am doing:

For teaching letters:
Starfall - 1 or 2 letters a day http://www.starfall.com/n/level-k/index/load.htm?f
LeapFrog Letter Factory dvd or Preschool Prep Meet the Letters dvd
Letter jigsaws
LeapFrog Fridge Phonics http://www.amazon.com/LeapFrog-Fridge-Phonics-Magnetic-Alphabet/dp/B000096QNK
 (I will be adding LeapFrog Phonics Builder once it arrives http://www.amazon.com/Fridge-Words-Magnetic-Word-Builder/dp/B0002SC7CE/ref=pd_sim_t_2)
Lots of discussion around letter sounds
I am about to order LR so I will be doing that over breakfast from next week on

For teaching reading:
Your Baby Can Read dvd once a day
Your Baby Can Read flashcards if we have time
DadDude's flashcards
Reading Bear

For vocabulary development:
Reading many many books aloud while running my finger under the text - I think this is the most important of all our daily activities!
Baby Sign Time dvds

I try to keep it fun, fun, fun at all times. If she shows any sign of losing interest, I ask her if she wants to stop.

Good luck!

[sayamaahmed]

Hi Seastar and Tanikit,

Thanks a  lot for your kind advice. I am happy to have good experts in early learning here.

Few quesions:
1) What are these sight words? Could you please mention an example. How should I go about teaching sight words.
2) Can I cover more lessons a day from LR to finish the course faster.

Thanks and Regards,
Sayama Ahmed

[Tanikit]

http://www.eyeonthesky.org/pdfs/HighFrequencyWords.pdf

That lists the first 100 high frequency words which children should probably know as sight words. The Dolch word lists also cover most of these words as well as some extra. Many of them cannot be sounded out with conventional phonics which is why it is better the child just recognises them - also because they are such common words. Apparently 12 words make up 1/4 of what we read so knowing these would mean you could read 1/4 of anything just by knowing a few words.

[Kerileanne99]

Hi Sayama Ahmed!
Please don't feel badly or guilty about starting when she is three! You are getting a very early start. One thing that might be a bit comforting if you really are concerned: I started YBCR with my daughter when she was under three months old, BUT it was long months and months before she could really demonstrate that she was getting anything out of it. (other than enjoyment and Mommy's time!!). Your daughter, at three, will very, very quickly absorb anything you throw at her!!!
Since you both working, I thought I would give you a couple of quick, easy to implement ideas that you can try. These are things that you can do whilst carrying on every day activities, with little or no planning.
Label EVERYTHING in your house! You can handprint on cards, print out LR, or do them on your computer if you really wanted to, but it is far easier to quickly write on a card! We had labels, at kid height, on everything from the table to doors to toilets. It can become a fun game for them...we actually labeled things in three languages eventually...
Take a magnetic writing pad with you everywhere. If she seems interested, write the word for things she sees. We found that this was a nice way to keep her occupied if we had to wait anywhere. Plus, I found that it reminded me as well.
Use the fridge magnets or letter tiles in the kitchen! We seem to spend a huge amount of time in there, and it is so easy to get in a couple of minutes of 'letter play' while you are occupied with cooking or whatever..
When I went into hospital for a minor surgery, I recorded books for her to listen to while I was away...she loved to follow along in the book, or at a minimum look at the book, while mommy 'read'.   You could maybe adapt this for while you are at work if you have a caregiver willing to help...
Hope this helps a bit!

[sayamaahmed]

Thank you all for all your kind reviews.

This definitely gives me confidence to start off with my daughters learning activities.

Thanks again for your kind guidance.

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