Is this too much for a 3 year old?

DD is 3 (turned 3 in Sept), she goes to full time day care (has been there for almost 1 year). She has never had any behavior issues in the past, until this week.

I know she is only 3, and 3 is well, worse than 2! I just wanted others thoughts/opinions/insight, b/c DS (who is 8) was NOT like this at all.

Monday and Tuesday, at pick up, the teacher told me that DD had been off - was not listening, was walking away from the class/teacher, crawling on the floor (at inappropriate times), telling the teacher "no", etc.

I'm also concerned that too much pressure is on her- I know that sounds nuts, but is this too much to ask of a 3 year old:
This is an excerpt from Tuesday's daily report
Our letter of the week is Nn. We are working on the sound, how to write the uppercase and lowercase Nn, and our word wall words from the N song: Nathaniel, never, Nannabelle, naughty, nibbled, and name. Please practice these at home....by the end of the week we will be able to recognize these words.

I'm all for practicing handwriting and such, but at 3?!?! To write and recognize these words??

I have plans to put her in Pre-K next fall, but that's still 9 mos away!

Message edited 12/2/2015 9:05:38 AM.

Re: Is this too much for a 3 year old?

I do not agree with children having to write that young. They should be learning how to trace....lines,squares, circles. As for things that begins with the letter sound, it is great to introduce, but a child that young should not be expected to know what sound words begin with.

My 4 year old knows what sounds most of the letters make, but he still does not always get the initial consonant sound correct.

In my opinion, if they expect her to master all of the things they asked, it is not age appropriate.

Eta: wait, they want her to recognize all those words...as in they will say the word, and she has to point to which one it is. Absolutely insane. First off, they are not even sight words. Second, at three, they are just learning that an isolated letter has a name and makes a sound....by no means should they need to know those words. I'm actually so disturbed by this. In my opinion, this is not good practice (I am a reading teacher!)

Message edited 12/2/2015 9:15:52 AM.

Is this too much for a 3 year old?

Yeah it seems crazy for a 3 year old to be able to recognize such long words. Hailey loves to write but she cant write letters or words yet. She will be 3 in Feb, and as smart as i think she is lol even 2, 4, 6 mos from now id be surprised if any of her scribbles even resembled letters.

Re: Is this too much for a 3 year old?

Also wanted to add that she was sent home with a paper - it was lined paper that the teacher dashed the capital and lowercase N, which DD was to trace in class, but all she did was trace a few, then scribbled on the front and back of the paper.

To me, that's a sign of it's too much for her.

I'm going to talk with the Director today.

Re: Is this too much for a 3 year old?

Re: Is this too much for a 3 year old?

Honestly 3 is too young for that.
DD didn't start with that stuff until Pre K- 4 years old.
And now in K they are doing the same kind of thing on a higher level.

I really think their curriculum is a bit age inappropriate

Is this too much for a 3 year old?

It sounds like too much. My DD is 3 and she only goes to preschool one morning a week, but at home she loves learning the letters and the sounds they make. She's known them for a while, but I would not expect her to able to write them at this point, nor would I expect her to be able to recognize such long words. She might be acting out at school because she is feeling stressed out and/or bored because She would rather be playing. At that age play is so important, in my opinion, more important than learning to write letters.

Is this too much for a 3 year old?

IMO no its not too young. They are just giving suggesting on working on it at home....its not like they fail if they don't know the words.

My DS is in daycare 5 days a week 10hrs a day. I pay for them to teach not just watch and play with him. My DS started a journal in his 3 yo room (he was only 2.5 at the time) and its great to see the progression they make. Now he is in the PreK room and he can write and is working on reading (very basic).

IMO its never to young to start this. As for the behavior its normal. All kids have off days. My DS's teacher told me he had bad listening weeks etc. I would just talk to him and remind him of behavior things.

Is this too much for a 3 year old?

Yes, definitely too much imo. Mainly the recognizing words part. Dd is 3 and in prek 2 days a week. They are working on recognizing and writing one letter a week, learning the sound and being able to tell a few words that start with that letter. That is enough imo. It's enough for them to recognize one letter in both upper and lower case so to distinguish a while word is beyond them. Not to mention, those are no where near the sight words you would even start with. Saying they should be able to recognize that they start with n would be great, being able to recognize the word is nuts.

Re: Is this too much for a 3 year old?

I'd be surprised if a 3 year old has the motor skills to write.

As for the word recognition... It's strange. I'm a fan of phonics at an early age, but "Nannabelle" is not a word I recognize.

Kids in a preschool that feeds could write their name in K... But not read. That's more of a "trick" IMO.

I find that 3 is a decent age to start reading & tracing... Due to attention span. But my 5 year old wouldn't know how to read "naughty".

If I were you, I'd investigate other places to send her.

Is this too much for a 3 year old?

The words are probably a list the kids put together and Nannabelle and Nathaniel are probably kids names in the class. And its not about necessarily recognize the names but the letter N.

My DS would do this all the time after learning H. His buddy's name was Hunter to every time he saw an H he would say look Hunter's name.

Re: Is this too much for a 3 year old?

I think it's too young. These are concepts generally taught in pre-k at age 4. I agree with other posters that this is quite aggressive.

Are there older kids in her class?

Is this too much for a 3 year old?

It sounds like a bit much.

DS2 is 3 3/4 and in daycare full time. They are doing a letter a week in his class but, they do things like arts and crafts about things that start with the letter (for H he brought home a hippo and some other things) and they work on tracing/writing the letter along with the teacher. He knows what letters his classmates names start with as well but, wouldn't be able to recognize the names/words.

Re: Is this too much for a 3 year old?

Too much. It's not developmentally appropriate for 3 year olds to be writing. If they want to play around with it, fine. But they should not be having formal instruction in it yet.

Is this too much for a 3 year old?

I personally don't think it's too much, but it depends on the child. At 3, my DD was able to write letters and words if I spelled them out loud for her. She knew letter sounds and could recognize her classmates names. Sounds like your school is very academic based. And that they want you to work on what they're learning in the classroom at home.

Re: Is this too much for a 3 year old?

I would expect them to learn to draw a circle, square, and triangle by the time they are done with a threes class. A basic person (no hands, basic face), know the alphabet song and at letters have sounds. I would not expect them to be able to fully draw the letters. To me that is a four year old skill. I would expect them to recognize their own name and try to write their own name. The words chosen for n are too advanced. The names may be classmates names and are ok. I would expect n words like no, not, nose, nice. Nothing with more than 4 letters for a word wall word. I would expect them to practice November, but not for spelling purposes.

Message edited 12/2/2015 2:15:04 PM.

Re: Is this too much for a 3 year old?

Re: Is this too much for a 3 year old?

Re: Is this too much for a 3 year old?

Is this too much for a 3 year old?

way too much IMO kids at 3 should be socializing and playing, singing laughing

Re: Is this too much for a 3 year old?

I think it sounds like they are going overboard for 3 years old. It also sounds like a lot to ask of busy working parents of TODDLERS!

Re: Is this too much for a 3 year old?

Message edited 12/2/2015 7:25:32 PM.

Re: Is this too much for a 3 year old?

I have a degree in early child dev. that curriculum is not dev. age appropriate. When I went to look for preschool for my dd I had to search high and low to find one that actually had developmental appropriate curriculum. So many school are common core aligned or they are ditto focused. Children should not being doing hand writing at age 3. I think its way too much for a 3 year old.

Re: Is this too much for a 3 year old?

Re: Is this too much for a 3 year old?

Seems crazy. Dd is turning 3 this month, and they have a letter of the week and they just paint a prepared cut-out of it, learn a simple simple word for each letter (ie a is for apple) and do a craft and activity with that word.