How do I get my 4.5 year old ready for Kindergarten ~Recognizing letters and sounds?
My 4.5 year old daughter was in a head start program for one year and a state preschool for about 6 Months then we moved and all the programs in the town I moved to are all full. I’m unable to get her into a preschool and I’m just so frustrated I don’t want her to be behind when she starts Kindergarten.
She knows all her shapes and colors but she doesn’t recognize all her letters or the sounds. She does know some letters and can tell you the sound that goes with some of her letters and she also recognizes her name and her sister’s name. Does anyone know of a way that I can teach my daughter to learn?
I work full time and when I get home I just don’t have the time. I try to sit with her every night and have her trace letters and also go through flash cards with her. But I also have a 5 year old that is doing her homework at the same time and a 2 year old that wants my attention. What should I do??????
cyclops2009-03-07T09:04:13Z
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You knew what need to be done, but seemed the problem is not your daughter but your busy schedule to spend time with her. Solution: Either you should balance your time, hire someone to tutor, or let her sibling help her with one of those self-learning product. I have a 4.5 y.o. and the only reason she knows her number, alphabet, math, etc is because i sit with her for at least an hour of study time (almost) everyday.Just like anything else, they need to practice practice practice. My sister made a playful aplhabet cards and stick them around the house. For example put letter "C" on chair, and "T" for table. I thought that was a smart idea!
There are so many ways you can help her. I know we all must read books to children and I do that a lot. To have them Trace their letters is bit harder and I want to congratulate you that you have started that already. Keep doing that. I have experienced that just a little bit of writing develops a great deal of interest in reading. There is an amazing cassette ‘Letter Factory by Leap Frog’ try if you can rent it from Public Library. She will learn letters and sounds from this in no time. Also , keep showing her a 5 year old class-work. If possible redo some easy work. That will also prepare her for school. When 5 year old is doing homework, You can sit with your 4.5 and 2 year old and read them a book. Try to involve your 2 year old and it will become easy. Usually Public schools provides a list of things they need to know in Kindergarten. And/Or what they are going to learn in KG. You can get it from website or at the time of Kindergarten Orientation.
Why would you think she is autistic? Being unable to recognise letters has nothing to do with being autistic - many autistic kids are extremely advanced at reading. If she can recognise B then that's something. If I were you I'd back off a bit. Stop waving a whole alphabet at her, and see if you can teach her _one_ new letter - how about a, since it's the next letter in her name? Or take a look at what she does write - if it is what you say, she seems to have the idea that her name contains i, l and y. That's a lot better than nothing. Average five year olds can recognise more than one letter. However, half of all kids are below average intellectually. I know it's not PC to say so, but maybe your daughter is simply not very gifted academically. There were certainly 5 year olds in my kids' classes who didn't know all their letters and couldn't write their names.
It's so nice to see someone who wants to work on that stuff with there kid. A lot of parents feel that it's the teachers responsibility and they are so behind when they start school. Just buy a video games, u know the ones that hook up to the tv like v tech, leap frog, etc.
If she starts kindergarten knowing shapes, colors,numbers to 10, how to write her name, can draw a picture of herself including her body, knows most of her letters and sounds she should be fine. It sounds like ur doing a good job with her with the flash cards and tracing letters. Sounds like she will have good control of her pencil when she starts. Have the 5 year old help :)