I was surfing today looking for preschool sites and came cross this:
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Forest/2468/skillslistage3.html#1

I couldn't believe the skills they expected a 3 year old to do. This is stuff we do in Kindergarten/Grade One.

What do you think?

By Trina on Tuesday, September 9, 2003 - 06:02 pm:

WOW! That was similar to the Kindergarten curriculum I used when teaching K in a parochial school. I agree, too much to expect from a preschooler. They list these as objectives for 2,3 & 4 yr. olds?! Yea, right! LOL! Bright Fours, *maybe* but certainly not 2 and 3 yr. olds. What do they mean by K2??

By Dawnk777 on Tuesday, September 9, 2003 - 06:02 pm:

I think my 11yo could do most of that stuff when she was three. She started doodling letter shapes when she was about 3-1/2, so I taught her how to write her name. Of course, for a while, she mixed up 2 of the letters, but she got it right eventually.

She learned how to use a mouse when she was about 2-1/2, because that was when we got a cd-rom installed on our computer. She could go through a Broderbund Living Book all by herself.

I really don't remember what she knew about hot/cold and some of that stuff, but she definitely could draw and color and stuff like that. Of course, to this day, she is quite the artist.

By Dawnk777 on Tuesday, September 9, 2003 - 06:03 pm:

Oh, for standing in church and stuff like that. She barely does that now, at 11! LOL! She was good in church at 3 and we rarely took her to the nursery.

By Mommyathome on Tuesday, September 9, 2003 - 06:07 pm:

When you first look at the list it looks really long and detailed, but if you read each item individually a lot of it is basic stuff.

My DD started kindergarten a few weeks ago and she knew everything on that list before she went. (with the exception of the Bible/religion category) BUT, she didn't know all of that when she was 3. If she didn't know that stuff before she started kindergarten, she would have been placed in the slower kids group in her class.

When I went to kindergarten that is where I learned to identify the alphabet and to have snack time. It is unreal when you see what the kids do no in kindergarten.

By Trina~moderator on Tuesday, September 9, 2003 - 07:22 pm:

As a former teacher/current mom these are the areas that concerned me. Most *normal* Kindergarteners can not do the things in red, at least not at the beginning of the year.


Phonics/reading
Mastery of all K2 skills in addition to:
Recognizes upper and lower case letters as well as knowing the sounds of all the letters, (short vowel sounds).
"Reads" picture books and makes up a story to go along with it.
Memorizes longer pieces of poetry.


Writing/penmanship
Mastery of all K2 skills in addition to:
Can trace letters using a crayon, markers and a large preschool pencil.


Arithmetic
Mastery of all K2 skills in addition to:
Can count out loud to 50.
Recognizes written numbers to 20.
Understands comparisons; big, bigger, biggest etc.
Understands spatial relationships; on top of, next to, underneath, behind etc.
Recognizes the different coins, using the words quarter, dime etc. not 25 cents, 10 cents etc.
Tells time on the whole hour.

By Sunny on Tuesday, September 9, 2003 - 07:56 pm:

I think that whoever wrote this expects way too much!

Should remember to wash/dry hands after using the bathroom without reminding. I know a few adults who still have trouble mastering this one!

Covers mouth when coughing, sneezing and yawning.
Blows nose without assistance.

Ah come on! They're 2 and 3 for goodness' sake! LOL

By Paulas on Tuesday, September 9, 2003 - 08:03 pm:

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks this is somewhat extreme.

Last year as part of the grade ONE curriculum in British Columbia we cover coin recognition, letter/sound recogniton (also done in K) and telling time. I can't believe someone thinks a child the age of 3 should be able to do this!

By Dawnk777 on Tuesday, September 9, 2003 - 11:53 pm:

What I didn't understand was "homeschooling" preschool. We put dd11 in preschool so she could spend more time with other kids because she was kind of shy. Homeschool preschool would have defeated that purpose. She loved preschool, too!

By Joan on Wednesday, September 10, 2003 - 09:52 am:

What bothers me is the things Trina has listed in red. She feels that "most" kindergarten kids have trouble with recognizing upper and lower case letters, as well as the sounds that they make. My ds was kept in kindergarten again this year because he did'nt know how to do this with all his letters! He knows about 80-85% of them but there was a few he did'nt know so he had to repeat kindergarten!
I agree with Trina! I think it is a lot to learn for a little one! I guess some of the schools in my area disagree, although I wish they did'nt.

Mara

By Brandy on Wednesday, September 10, 2003 - 10:05 am:

Mara my son passed kindergarten and he only recognized ALEX and alex his name now that is pretty bad i think.Some schools teach kids the states and capitals and presidents names and such my boy's school doesn't do that. Like my nieces they learned all of them in 1st Grade i was amazed heck i don't even know them lol..

By Feona on Thursday, September 11, 2003 - 07:03 am:

Warning! Mommy brag alert!

DS is visually talented so he is doing really well recognizing symbols. He enjoy learning about symbols and that makes it very easy. His friend can not identify any of the abcs and he is almost 5. His mom works with him a 1/2 an hour a day on it too.

Shapes (yes)
Colors (yes)

Ds is 3 1/2. He can name 20 out of 26 letters. We are working on all the capital letters this year.

Recognizing his name in capital letters and small letters.

Counting.. He can almost count to 20. Good enough for this year.

He is learning to trace a dotty line that I draw.

He is learning to cut on a dotted line.

Ds got home work the other day from the speech teacher. It was ending sounds. It was so hard, I could bearly do it. Actually I don't think I got it right.

Understands comparisons; big, bigger, biggest etc. (Speech teacher working on this with ds. I think he is doing okay with it.)

Understands spatial relationships; on top of, next to, underneath, behind etc. Speech teacher is working on this. I think he knows it.

By Feona on Thursday, September 11, 2003 - 07:04 am:

I think you start the clock at 4 years old?

By Jtw on Thursday, September 11, 2003 - 09:41 am:

I think this is way too much to expect. While ds can do a lot of these things, there are some things that I never have even thought of letting him try. Such as cutting a straight line. Does anyone think a two or three year old is too young to be using scissors? Recognizing coins, sorry, but I don't let them play with coins. Choking hazard, remember? Telling time? I don't think we learned that until somewhere between first and third grade. I know it wasn't kindergarten. Why can't we just let kids do what they do best and be kids? Is it really going to benefit them all that much if they can tell time by age three? No! But it will benefit them if they can have the freedom to play and learn the way kids were designed, and to know mommy and daddy love them for who they are, and not what they can accomplish. JMO!!!!

By Kaye on Thursday, September 11, 2003 - 10:31 am:

Between my three kids they had these skills at age three. My daughter had the abc ones, my middle kid had the math ones, and my youngest the art/writing/cutting ones. I think that the curriculm is mostly written for things you should expose them to. I fully agree that kids need to play, but I also am a teacher at heart, if I can find a fun toy that teaches them too, I am all over it. My middle child loved clocks and calculators, so he was always asking what does this mean or do. So my age 3 1/2 he could tell time to the half hour (that way he knows what time his shows came on..lol), and he could show you how to mulitply with his legos (he called them he "3 bys"). Same kid didn't know any letters starting kinder. They teach educators to always set high expectations of your children, if you don't expect much chances are they won't do much. As far as homeschooling preschool. Again, it is important that your children play with other kids, get out and see things etc. But it is also developmentally important to sit down with them and let them do school activities like color, cut, tape, glue, trace, etc. Quite a few moms really save that stuff for school, but those fine motor skills effect everything from posture to speech. Just like if you hold an infant all the time and they don't hang out on the floor, chances are it will slow down their walking. I do let my kids play with coins, they need to know what money is about, I don't give them a handful and say have fun, but we sat down at the table and talked about how they looked different and why. We would sort pennies, line different coins up by size, make up stories etc. They loved this. Play can be educational and learning can be fun.