I need some fresh ideas for teaching my 4 year old reading and math. What are your favorite games, file folder ideas, software, books or any other resources for this age group? She's getting bored with what we have but is eager to learn.

Can you elaborate more on what you are frustrated with ? At that age we did not focus on reading and math specifically. We picked a different animal each 2 weeks and checked out as many books as we could on that animal. My dh and I both would read (vocabulary building and early reading skills) those books over the two weeks (in addition to audio books and songs for memorization skills in the car and at bedtime) and we would play act those animals and habitats. I would google search free coloring pages of those animals and their habits and color, color, color (early handwriting skills). I would sometimes find crafts on the theme, food recipes on the theme and games as well. At the end of the two weeks we would visit our local zoo and visit that animal (I only picked animals to study that our zoo had) and talk to a keeper and all that good stuff. My entire pre-K 'curriculum' cost $98 for the zoo membership for the year and you could do free if you picked animals at your local pet store and animal shelter.

This age (and a bit before) was when I started reading chapter books to my kids at 'quiet time' (which was when my kids were outgrowing naps but would lay down for a long book and fall asleep sometimes). I read books like Charlotte's Web and Runaway Ralph. This was a great time for me to re-live the early readers I expected them to read in the next few years once reading was established, increase their attention span, again help with that all important language aquisition/ vocab building and just a love for learning.

At this age there are so many large muscle skills they need to be focusing on, vocabulary/language aquisition, absorbing family life and how they fit into it (lots of dress up, playing kitchen, helping to cook) and all of that is not only nice but foundational to their reading, writing and math success and comprehension. I would not 'hold a child back' that was inclined to want more formal reading and math instruction but I would not 'hold a child back' either by forgetting the importance of what this stage child should be involved in (at least primarily).

Sarah

I didn't do anything formal with Owen this year (just turned 5). He's just not ready for formal. Perhaps you could do a more relaxed approach?

4 is so young!!! too young to be getting frustrated!

At 4, I'd really suggest letting your child take the lead. Make things available to her like games, paper, colored pencils or crayons, and lots of colorful books, and let her decide what she wants to do. If you push, it becomes work, if she chooses it, it becomes fun. She's learning all the time anyway.

You are all right, it's just that for awhile she was very eager to learn the letter sounds. Now if I even point to a letter and ask her to name it, she gets upset with me. I wasn't pushing it at all. We weren't even doing anything structured, just reading books and talking about letters and their sounds. I really would at least like her to recognize all of the letters, both uppercase and lowercase at this point and she's very resistant to that. She won't play educational games with me anymore.

The day I originally posted, she seemed so eager to learn and since then she's decided she wants nothing to do with learning. So, we are going to just let it go and do our daily things, with no mention of letters, numbers, phonics, etc. I'll wait for her to show some interest, but how do I spark that interest?

With my first I don't remember doing anything at 4 except sometimes working on writing his name, letters, etc. With the 2nd she wanted to do stuff b/c the first was doing school. I just gave her coloring sheets and stuff like that and we got books she liked, but mostly I think she played with playdough:) I've heard great things about letter of the week, but honestly we didn't really do anything at that age. Good luck