Question:
Early School Education: My son is about to be 3 years old - what is the best online resource...?
anonymous
2010-02-01 04:46:16 UTC
...to find out how to teach
Early School Education: My son is about to be 3 years old - what is the best online resource to find out how to teach him at this age. What kind of activities we can get him into at home or outside for this? Any online website(s) for us to browse for him or have him play with - any specific book or games we should play with him. Can I make it fun and teach him basics of science and maths?
Four answers:
anonymous
2010-02-02 23:44:18 UTC
The best thing--THE VERY BEST THING--you can be doing for your son, right now, is very simple. Spend time with him--quality time--reading to him, playing kid-games with him, and paying attention to him--while letting him safely explore the world around him.



Go on walks together--at his speed--and talk about the things he sees. He'll ask questions, and go from there with them--follow what interests him, and it'll take you both in great directions.



Stay away from electronic gadgetry. This is the best time for lap-sitting with stories, for kitchen-work--learning how to make sugar cookies, for going to the nearest park every day and talking to the local kids and their parents.



If you help him explore the world around him, you'll end up teaching him some of the most valuable lessons of all--the curiosity in and love of learning for its own sake. You're fortunate to have this time with him. Don't make the mistake of "teaching" him, now--he's learning, amazing amounts, every day, as it is. Any math or science should come organically with what he's doing.
?
2010-02-02 03:33:04 UTC
Three year olds learn so quickly, and seemingly without effort. But what they learn at this age is not academics. To teach him science, take him outside and let him play and get dirty. He’ll find out that wet dirt sticks together better than dry; that bugs are everywhere, and some of them fly; that it is harder to walk uphill than down; that worms live under the grass; and lots of other things. Inside, get out some Legos, gears, wooden blocks, or toy cars and play with them yourself. Have fun. He’ll want to join in, and learn that some things stack better than others, and different materials make different noises, and about friction.



For math, at this age, you can practice counting to 20 with him, just by doing it yourself and letting him hear you. If he asks for something countable (my daughter likes Tic-Tacs and M&Ms), you can say something like, "I’ll give you 1 Tic-Tac." Soon he’ll start asking for 2, 3, and eventually 20. You can say no, of course, and teach bargaining at the same time. You can also sing the "Inchworm" song to him, since it is a great little kids’ song, and he’ll learn the words.



To teach him scientific vocabulary, use long words and interesting facts. "Gravity makes that roll down," "Butterflies are insects, just like ants," "The earth is round like a ball, and the moon goes around it," "Look how your bathwater makes a vortex! Can you catch the vortex?" These are all real examples from my daily interaction with my daughter, who can correctly pluralize vortices.



To me, math and science are a big part of the wonder of the world, and sharing that with your son should be a great joy for both of you. If you have fun with it, he will too. You already know so much that you can teach him about science. You don’t need any books, just your imagination and excitement.
Audrey
2010-02-01 14:22:36 UTC
I have a 6, 4, and 3 year old. The websites I've enjoyed using during their preschool years are http://www.first-school.ws/ and their sister site http://dltk-teach.com/. The have free printables, craft ideas, songs and much more. The best educational computer software I've found is Jump Start. You can find it at Target, Toys R Us and WalMart. Their software starts with Preschool and goes up to 3rd Grade. I personally wouldn't buy any other computer software. It is definitely the best I've seen. For DVD's I love Leap Frog. They have a number of DVD's to include Letter Factory, Talking Words Factory 2, Code Word Caper and Math Circus. The sell for around $10 at Target. My favorite Teacher Resource is Letter Works-Building Early Literacy Skills by Teacher Created Material, Inc. I also love Kumon's wipe-off cards. These aren't as easy to find, but well worth the investment to find them. They have wipe-off cards for capital and lowercase letters and numbers. My kids have used these a lot. Lastly, I've purchased some of Hap Palmer cd's and one of his DVD's. The cd's I have are Getting to know Myself and Early Childhood Classics and the DVD is Baby Songs. We've enjoyed all of them. You can definitely make math and science fun. The Mailbox has a Seasonal Science PreK-K book I love to use with my kids. Also, the Letter Works resource book I mentioned early has math and science activites. I hope some of these ideas work for you. Good luck and remember to keep it lighthearted and fun!!
jawrope
2010-02-02 17:12:02 UTC
but, I have 4 children. The first two I really pushed the early education. Both ended up bored through the 2nd grade. The last two (although one is only two years old so we'll have to see) I just really enjoyed reading and singing to them. They did progress more slowly - especially in language, but they enjoy learning so much more. Just my two cents, but please enjoy your children it goes fast and they will learn the three R's at school.


This content was originally posted on Y! Answers, a Q&A website that shut down in 2021.
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