what else to teach a 3.5 year old so he is ready for kindergarten?

The best thing you can do is have him socially/emotionally ready (playdates are great). Sounds like he's off to a great start

Help him to love the idea of books and learning---read him stories, take him to the library and let him pick out books, kid museums are great too.

A lot of learning at a young age is done through the value of play. Many toys also help kids learn through cognitive thinking, fine motor, experimenting, spatial/logical thinking, etc.

Fine motor development is often overlooked but very important. Activities like drawing and painting, legos, playing with playdough, lacing, cutting or tearing paper (doesn't have to be anything specific...young kids create things out of scrap paper, etc) help strengthen hands and help build up the motor skills needed for writing.

Other good activities are puzzles (helps with logical/spatial skills as well as fine motor), building with legos/blocks, tangrams, geoboards and many other toys.

As far as workbooks and coloring in the lines, don't worry about those. Many 4 or 5 year olds don't always color in the lines. I personally don't believe in the power of coloring pages. Many young kids don't always recognize that there is a picture on a coloring page (it's developmental). The best is blank paper where he can color/experiment and make his own pictures (they may not always be pictures and thats okay)

As far as workbooks are concerned...when they are young (even as young as Kindergarten) there isn't much value in workbooks...its not real learning. When kids are young, there often isn't a connection between workbooks and real life experiences (i.e counting balloons on a page versus counting real objects. Workbooks are already used too much in the early years of school...no need to stress them now. Same with tracing his name. Those will come in time.

Some alternate activities can be finding the letters he knows on cereal boxes, in the store, etc. Counting various objects like having him help count out three cans of sauce at the grocery store or finding two cars to play with helps build up one-to-one corresponce (a very important early math skill)

Good luck to you!

Well I first of all suggest to not take him to preschool since he seems like he's doing right already! I didn't take preschool and I knew more than most haha. I suggest teaching: Some stuff about outer space, maybe go up to 20 or so in numbers, dinosaurs are a huge plus, animals are also great! A few reading skills, don't go too far though because then it get confusing and kids should learn the skill in kinder anyways. Alphabet is a major must. Spanish is always and extra plus and a good show off. Even drawing is a good idea or memerizing songs. The memerzing helps develop study skills and drawing some better art skills though it might not be all his passion. Keep up the colors, especially more different ones. Manners and names of food can come in handy too! He seems great! I suggest just to keep up teaching him at home to save some money and get him smarter. Also, Sesame Street and educational TV shows teach more than expected. Hope this helps! Good luck!

It isn't just about what he knows. He need to be able to socialize. Listen to directions from someone other than his parents. Let others have a turn. Wait his turn. Wait in line. And he has 1.5 to get there.

any kind of class is good for him right now. Sunday school, AWANAS, local art, or dance class. check out your park district for classes for his age

go to a major book store and get some pre-K workbooks.

alphabets magnets for the fridge is a good idea.

Work on craffts with him. let him paint. get him to color inside the lines (still too young now)

First I want to say, being a preschool teacher it is sadly not often that you see a parent as involved as you are and as concerned as you! Great job!

Some things that we like to have our preschoolers know before enrolling in kindergarten are as follows

- Knows alphabet and able to recognize upper and lower case letters

- count to 20

- sit and listen for 30 min. (reading books, counting on the calender, learning days of the week, talk about rhyming, looking at the weather, learning about an animal of the week, things like that)

- tyeing shoes, doing buttons, doing zippers, putting on coat and shoes with no help, walking up stairs while alternating feet, skipping, standing on one foot

- knowing colors

- knowing shapes

- writing name

one thing you could do is ask a preschool or a friend of yours who has kids in preschool to see their report cards then mark off the things that your child can do and work on the things they still need.

Once again GREAT JOB!!! I am sure your child will do great!

Colors: He needs to know more than 5 colors. Aim for all the basic colors; red, blue, yellow, orange, green, purple, black, white, and brown. You could even add in pink. If he is having trouble with his colors, try to associate colors with objects. Examples are red with apple, yellow with banana, purple with grapes, etc.

Numbers: Try to teach him to count as high as possible. I think I learned to count to 100 in Kindergarten. Its also not just about being able to count that high, but being able to recognize the numbers as well. He needs to know what the number 2 looks like or the number 10, etc. Write out the numbers in order and let him tell you them, while looking at them. Then randomly write the numbers down and point to them and see if he knows its a 5 when you point to the 5 or a 3 when you point to a 3.

Alphabet: He should know his full alphabet as well as being able tor recognize the letters, just like his numbers. Do the same exercise for his letters as I suggested for his numbers. If he is having problems with this, do what I suggested for the colors. Associate basic items with the letters. A for apple, B for ball, C for car, D for dog, etc. You could also show him pictures of each items if this helps or make a hand movement for each letter. Also try different methods of learning. Some students learn better by writing the letters down themselves, others might learn better with flash cards.

Everyday skills: It's important that he knows how to do everyday skills, like going to the bathroom on his own, being able to wipe his own butt, buttoning and zipping his pants, tying his own shoes, etc. These are all basic skills that a teacher wants her students to be able to do on their own by the time they start school. I mean, look at it this way. The teacher is there to teach them, not to baby-sit them and button their pants or tie their shoe.

Social skills: make sure your son is sociable. If he doesn't interact with the other children it may be hard for him to learn or to make friends later on in life. A lot of teachers will even request the parent to hold back the child if they aren't interacting socially like they should. Take your son to the park or enroll him in a daycare program to get him used to children his age who aren't related or familiar to him.

he must socialize with other kids around him. let him have some fun. encourage it.

make him so some puzzles of alphabets...and the objects associated with the letters......

u cud also make him recognize animals and new born by telling him stories by yourself including the sounds of the various animals in the story.narrate lots of stories to him if he likes it. it will help him in his vocabulary later. repeat the stories once in a while checking his memory.

encourage drawing.that is if he likes it.

--Alphabet

--Counting to 20

--Read to him as much as possible. Kids who are exposed to books early and learn to love them become readers, and more successful students. Read to him about whatever things he likes: vehicles, animals, dinosaurs, whatever. Feed his interests and he will become a learner.

Sounds like he is already off to a great start.

practice using scissors and glue.

Any fine motor (hands and finger) excersises.

i.e. playdough, tearing and crumpling paper (art projects)

pointing to the number as he says it

secondary colors - green orange purple

having fun!