Nearly four year old who just can't concentrate.

[Nimnom93]

My son's going to be four in April. When we try and do numbers colours or even learning to spell or write his name he has no interest what's so ever and he's always right. He now's up to 12 and most of his colours. Is this normal.. I don't want him to be behind. What age should they start wanting to learn all this ?. I'm worried when he goes to school in September he won't be able to do what others can. And yeah I'm aware all children learn at different stages.

[Chels976]

He probably just gets bored, they need it to be entertaining for them at that age, prehaps rewarding him might help for when he gets them correct, have a chart or something x

[Nimnom93 in reply to Chels976]

He can hardly sit still lol.. I do reward for good things he Just gets fed up really quick.. they haven't mentioned at nursery that he's behind or with the child minder. I'm sure they would both say if they're didn't think he was achieving what he should be. Maybe it's just at home he can't be bothered to try .. definitely think I'm going to have to make more of a game of it. 😁

[Chels976 in reply to Nimnom93]

My step son is the exact same, I think it’s just their age they get bored and distracted easily. But we found that games help definitely worth a shot. And they would have said if they were worried about him. I’m sure his doing really well! Xxx

[Tezzabell86]

Try and bring colours through stuff he enjoys xxx

[Nimnom93 in reply to Tezzabell86]

He will tell me what colours he cars are if I ask and he has a game when in the bath about what colours are in the room a bit like eye spy.. it's just getting him to sit still to be able to concentrate on writting and so on. X

[Tezzabell86 in reply to Nimnom93]

What messy play does he like? Try writing in sand play, shaving foam, gloop, chalks.

[Lyndsaytw79]

Write in sand or alphabet paint printers etc, he sounds very active and I’d just follow his lead at the moment, if he feels pressured it may make him reject it. School will have seen it lots before and will have strategies and will hopefully share them with you so you can continue them at home xx

[Kate91]

most kids cant do that all when they go to nursery my son couldnt do half of that at 4 and now at 8 hes one of the smartest in his year, no need to push them they learn at whatever pace they learn at. Maybe he just doesnt connect home with focusing on work my eldest doesnt he wont sit still and work at home but he speeds through stuff at school.

[roxannacar]

Why not have a chat with the nursery staff? My nursery do a summative meeting every few months and discuss if there are any concerns... they know what children his age are like (he's sounds normal to me tho) as they have a whole lot of them!! Can he sit watching his favourite cartoon?

[Hidden]

Sounds like he’s perfectly normal 3 year old boy. Don’t push him, the more you push the more he’ll not want to do it. My daughter wanted to sit down and ‘learn’ and I did loads of activities with her, she could write her own name at 3.5 years old. My son is 4 at the end of this month (March), he recognises his own name, names colours and can count (sometimes in the right order up to 20), but writing, he is not interested. I’m not pushing him because I’ve seen the difference of ability in my daughter’s class, my daughter found reception quite boring, but is loving the challenges set by her year 1 teacher.

We push our kids so young in the UK. Most countries don’t start formal learning until children are 7 years old. Let him be a kid and learn through play. Let him learn people skills, kindness, role play real life with him, enjoy being little.

Before they can write letters they need to learn to draw shapes, can he copy you doing a straight line with a stick in some mud? A circle? A wiggly line? A zigzag line? If not you need to do those before he’ll be able to form letters. Encourage gross motor skills, climbing on the climbing frame, riding a bike/scooter, jumping, pushing cars around. Develop fine motor skills and hand strength by playing with play dough, squeezing glue out of squeezable tubes, threading activities (make your own car shaped ones with card and a hole punch before buying any and use wool with a bit of sellotape wrapped round the end to make it easier), do baking together and talk about the numbers on the scales, give him the dough to knead and roll out.

Make sure he can dress and undress himself, put his own socks and shoes that’s important skills for school! Don’t worry or stress about it, they all do it in their own time. Xxx