What are 3 year olds taught?

amother

Yellow

Sun, Sep 18 2016, 11:55 am

My 3yr old is in a special ed school this year since she need special therapy. Shes not learning any jewish subjects there which I feel very bad about but I feel its important for her to get the help she needs. I'd like to teach her a little on her own so that she'll know a little what to expect on y't, will have something to hang up in the sukkah like her cosines.... Shes a smart kid and hopefully will get the help she needs this year and be in a regular kindergarten for next year.

Shes my oldest so I have no idea what 3 year olds are taught -
what do they daven? How much are they taught about rosh hashana and succos? They learn the whole aleph bais this year? Brachos? (anything not religious she's being taught in school)

Is there a some sort of book that I can follow that has this information? And/or has some ideas on arts & crafts I can do with her?

seeker

Sun, Sep 18 2016, 12:41 pm

With 3s it's just about experience and exposure. So I wouldn't worry about what she needs to know to start a regular kindergarten next year, they really aren't expected to come in with any particular knowledge level. An incoming 4-year-old is expected to have some familiarity with counting, colors, and shapes, but even that doesn't have to be perfect, they'll go over it in kindergarten anyway.

My 3-year-old last year "learned" most of the alef-bais but even though she's a bright kid she doesn't remember any of it and isn't expected to. They learn alef-bais in kindergarten. It was more about exposing them to it and having some kind of learning experience, without the goal of knowledge acquisition. Brachos are a nice idea - again, the kids aren't expected to know all the brachos, but the concept of saying a bracha before you eat shouldn't be something they never heard of before. If you say a bracha with her before everything she eats at home that will be enough.

For yom tov you teach them enough to have something to get excited about and to have a general idea of what to expect. Rosh Hashanah - shofar, apple and honey, new year (which doesn't mean anything to little kids but that's what you say it is) any special traditions your family has. Succos - do some pictures of what a sukkah looks like, lulav and esrog, that's about it.

You can either just buy a couple of coloring books (an alef-bais one and a Jewish holidays one, and maybe a general mitzvah one too) and talk about the pictures, or you can pick and choose from the websites trixx suggested (I use the same ones. I really like waldereducation.org) The websites are great but there's a lot there, a coloring book might be simpler to just buy and use.

Projects at this age really don't need to be complicated. A sukkah decoration can just be a picture, colored, glue onto a larger/hard paper as a frame, and decorate with some glitter. For Rosh Hashana you can make a honey mat (you put the honey dish/container on it so it doesn't get all over the table) again by having the kid color in a rosh hashanah picture and then you laminate it (with tape or contact paper if you don't have access to laminating machine).

Most of these lessons at this age are more about keeping the kids occupied with developmentally appropriate activities, and generally fostering positive feelings toward school and judaism, than actually teaching them.

naomi2

Sun, Sep 18 2016, 5:37 pm

you can say brachos out loud, play some yom tov and midos tapes around the house, and make one project for each yom tov. say modeh ani and shema with her.

don't stress too much because they learn the same things for 3 years in a row in nursery and kindergarten pretty much.

also, I don't know your child but you mentioned only keeping her one year in the special ed program. if there is the tiniest chance she may benefit from another year there, don't deny it to her, sometimes you can't tell the extent of the issues when the children are that young and you can never get that year of special ed back. please please don't take that option off the table. and don't worry about the yiddishkeit aspect. they don't really remember it anyway but the skills remain with them for life.

amother

Azure

Mon, Sep 19 2016, 1:36 pm

My daughter is taught about the chagim, about the parsha (basic stories), and sometimes general basics about mitzvot (shabbos, kibud av v'em, kosher,etc). They will be taught alef bet this year, but I don't think that it's necessary to know it for kindergarten next year.

They learned all their brachot. They do daven in the morning - modeh ani and following psukim (torah tziva lanu moshe and some others), shema, and maybe some other psukim from davening scattered throughout. They also do an abridged version of bentching after eating.

But don't worry too much - most 3-4 year olds don't remember all the details of what they learn, and they can catch up quickly the following year. Just talk about what you normally would and they'll get familiar with the words and concepts, and that should be enough.

amother

Yellow

Mon, Sep 19 2016, 11:00 pm

I found those websites posted very helpful, thanks.

To all those who shared what their kids learned that age - it really helped me get a good picture what to do with dd.

naomi2 wrote:

.
also, I don't know your child but you mentioned only keeping her one year in the special ed program. if there is the tiniest chance she may benefit from another year there, don't deny it to her, sometimes you can't tell the extent of the issues when the children are that young and you can never get that year of special ed back. please please don't take that option off the table. and don't worry about the yiddishkeit aspect. they don't really remember it anyway but the skills remain with them for life.

I agree with you, but schools full up so fast here, that I'm afraid that if I don't get her into a regular kindergarten, there will be no spots left by the next year and then I'm going to have to send her to a school that's has different hashkafos then ours. As it is I'm afraid I wont get her into a regular school next year because she's in a special ed school this year (there's a good chance she'll be totally ready, but since their so many applicants I'm afraid the schools will say no just by seeing that).

Leaving her back isn't really such an option bec she's really on her age level, plus her birthday is not around the cutoff date, so I'd rather avoid doing that.

right now I'm just hoping she'll be ready so I wont have to make that choice...