What should a 4.5 year old know ?

Hi friends ,

My son is 4.5 year old and he never been to any preschool or daycare , he just started his school 1.5 months back . He knows alphabets , numbers , shapes , colors , and some simple maths . He still cant write yet , but we are working on it . I feel he is little behind kids of his age . Last week his school teacher was telling me he dont recognise his name when they showed to him , i didnt know that we need to teach that before they go to school , is there anything else he needs to know . We are new to this country , came here 2 years ago . I really need a good advice .

Thank you .

Hi, if he can identify the letters, shapes, colors, that is usually the required basics for children that leave pre-kindergarten. I would read to him more, and would begin pointing to the words as you read them. This allows a child to see that the alphabet makes up words, and says something. Prek is a time of exploration and wonderment of learning. I wouldn’t fixate on mechanics of writing sentences or how advanced he is in accordance to others. If he knows the basics, which they learn in prek, then the rest will come to him. Every child is different. Encouraging him to read, question his environment and experimenting with different variables is fundamental at this age. I also, wouldn’t begin with him learning his name by making him write it out. You can get letter blocks, and tell him that you’re going to play a game together. For example, if your sons name is Tim. You can ask him to find the letter T, I, M and show him that when you put the letters like this TIM they spell his name. Also, make the sound of the letters as your pointing them out. Or take shaving cream and put it on the table and let him draw the letters on the shaving cream. He can spell his name like this, and you can point out the letters and their sounds spelling out his name. The more he sees his name written down, the clearer the point becomes that these string of letters mean something. You seem to be doing a really great job.