4year olds....

This is kinda stemming from another post. My son doesn't go to daycare and since he's turning 4 in a few days, he's not even able to start VPK until next year. Anyway, what should my 4year old know(average) and should he know all of his ABC's? How high should his counting be? He can only really draw a circle. If he sees shapes, he can tell me what they are(just your basic ones, maybe the next few up from your basics).. Thanks ladies.... I want to work with him more if he seems behind...

Some people will say he's behind, but I think he's fine. Work with him anyways, just because it can never hurt to teach him things.

Quoting Kayla [ ]♥:" Some people will say he's behind, but I think he's fine. Work with him anyways, just because it can never hurt to teach him things."

hmm... because he only draws circles?

How high can he count, what ABC's does he know, can he recognize letters, numbers?

DD is 2. She is fluent in 2 languages, knows all her ABC's, what sounds they make, and can name off words in order starting with A-Z starting with that letter. She can count from 1-15, and spell a few words (hat, hi, bye, egg). She also knows all her colors, the colors of the rainbow in order, and circle, square, rectangle, triangle, octagon, and diamond. She also knows most animals and the sound they make.
My friends 5 year old didn't know most of those things until after she started kindergarten, when I asked her why? she said she didn't need to teach her anything because that's what kindergarten was for. Not sure if that's true or not but since I'm a SAHM, I dedicate time throughout the day to teaching my kiddos educational stuff apart from playtime. I don't know if he's behind but I think every child is different.

Quoting katxo:" hmm... because he only draws circles?"

My son doesn't draw... Or, sorry, he didn't until this month   I don't find it a big deal, honestly.

my son will be 4 in a few weeks and he is in preschool.
he is barely learning his ABCs. he is learning how to write. well trace over things

Quoting ღ.ღ.ღ:" How high can he count, what ABC's does he know, can he recognize letters, numbers?"

He can count to 20, He can say all of his ABC's, except sometimes he messes up jkl if he says them too fast. I honestly haven't really tried to see if he recognizes this alphabet  I think he recognizes 1-10... He's really good with numbers and counting and counting backwards. I read to him everynight before bed(if I'm home) I work a lot, but I know my mom and Grandma(the only ones who watch him) work with him.

My 4 yearold doesn't do daycare or preschool.
She knows her shapes, counts to 10 (english, french, spanish), her basic colours (english, french). buuut that's about it. I'm not concerned.

ETA: She is awful at her alphabet.. she can go from A-G.. then she says L,M,N,O,P Now I know my BBCs. lol

Quoting Kimber-lily:" My 4 yearold doesn't do daycare or preschool. She knows her shapes, counts to 10 (english, french, spanish), her basic colours (english, french). buuut that's about it. I'm not concerned. "

I'm not either too much but I just dont want people to think I'm a smurffy mom because he lacks those basic things they should know before kindergarten.... I was thinking about putting him daycare at least twice a week just for those basic things but it's just so dang expensive... Especially here where I live... My brother is deaf so I have been working with him by signing and stuff. He knows way more in sign than he does in other areas

Quoting katxo:" He can count to 20, He can say all of his ABC's, except sometimes he messes up jkl if he says them too ... [snip!] ... him everynight before bed(if I'm home) I work a lot, but I know my mom and Grandma(the only ones who watch him) work with him."

Well depending on who you ask they can say he's behind or right on track, he knows a good bit so just keep working with him on shapes, colors, maybe tracing letters etc.

<blockquote><b>Quoting katxo:</b>" hmm... because he only draws circles?"</blockquote>




With our schooling for kindergarten he would be classified as behind. They need to be able to do patterns, matching, writing and spelling thier own names. That is just some of the things they need to know or will learn.

Quoting ღ.ღ.ღ:" Well depending on who you ask they can say he's behind or right on track, he knows a good bit so just keep working with him on shapes, colors, maybe tracing letters etc."

Yeah, I am waiting til after xmas to buy him an easel(or whatever those things are called) I deff am going to invest in some tracing books(thanks for that idea) He knows all of his colors too and certain days he knows which colors mix with what to make other colors

Quoting Mom of Tristan/Rayah +1:" <blockquote><b>Quoting katxo:</b>" hmm... because he only draws circles?"</blockquote> ... [snip!] ... do patterns, matching, writing and spelling thier own names. That is just some of the things they need to know or will learn."

Yeah. He won't even be able to start kindergarten til 2014 because his birthday is in December. He will definitely know all of that before he starts. I just want to make sure he's not too far behind...

Well luckily you still get a whole nother year til kindergarten. So he has time mama. I get kids that come on knowing nothing. Can't even count to three.

Some things to do is really focus on aging and incorporating pointin stuff out in his environment. Please don't make him do workbooks or flash cards. Thrs boring and you don't want to make him dislike learning.

For letter and number recognition really just point them
Out in his natural environment. So like if you start the microwave let him
Push the number.or count the numbers to find the right one "oh this needs to be on for 3 minutes, let's find three" then point to 1,2 and 3. And say "ok there's the three, push it. Or if he has toys with numbers. A lot of boys have toy cars with numbers on them. Or you can write your own. Umbra on tape and
Put them on the car. Or even letters too. Talk about letter sounds as well. So when he sees a word point out the first letter and say "b-b-ball that's a b" and point to the b.

For fine motor skills such as writin and cutting he can practice them
With pencil and scissors but don't push him at this point to do anything except scribble or cut confetti. If he can cut lines and draw things that's fine but I wouldn't stress him out over it. You can start by having him write his name. I like to start kids out by explaining how to make the letter. So
I'll say "ok make a circle. Now put a little tail
On it" for an a. Make sure he uses proper English language capitalization. Don't do all caps. I he doesn't understand by explaining then I will air draw it on thei paper for a visual. If they still don't understand I will use the descriptive words as I draw the letter and then have them write it where they were writing. I never Have my kids trace unless they have severe fine motor delays.

If he's not into that stuff it's just as Important to build those muscles in the hands. So playing with playdough is the best way to achieve this. We make our own as another means of learning. We always do cooking experiences.

Count everything!!! Count steps to get inside a store, count toys, count how long it takes to run from One end of somewhere to the other. Practice practice. That's all you can do. When you count objects focus on repeating how many you have. "1,2,3,3,5 I have 5 cookies". Then when he counts objects ask him how many he has once he's counted them.

I expect my kids to leave preschool knowing half of their uppercase, lowercase letters, and sounds. I would like them to count to 20 but some
Will count to 10 or about 12 and get Messed up In the teens which is normal.

If you have anymore specific questions I'd be happy to answer them.