letters, numbers, colours and shapes - what does yr just turned 3 year old know?

[mummytotwinsss]

just curious really as i have twin boys aged 3.1 and the gap between what they know and how quickly they learn is becoming really obvious

i know all children develop and learn at different paces and times and you shouldnt compare, but its hard not to compare twins when you are raising two children exactly the same age at the same time!!

i suppose what i am looking for is a bit of reassurance that the one who is 'behind' (very poor choice of word) is still withing the range of normal / average

He can count to 10 by memory and knows his colours and basic shapes and he knows maybe 6 or 7 letters by sight. he knows 's' and 'z' for example and will point at a 'z' and say z for zebra. He doesnt know any numbers by sight though and doesnt seem to have any concept of counting objects yet.

His brainy brother knows 90% of his alphabet by sight and all his numbers 1-10. he can count to 20 and can count objects, so will look at say 6 apples and point to each in turn and count correctly to 6. He just picks things up so quickly, he is really sharp.

Am not a pushy parent btw, just a first time mum who doesnt really have a clue how much my lo's should typically know at this age. they are both good little talkers and talk equally well

oh and also how much time per day / week do you devote to this kind of learning? i try to do 5 to 15 minutes a day, maybe just get an alphabet jigsaw puzzle out or try to work it into ordinary day to day stuff like counting the apples as they go into the bag at the supermarket. but sometimes (especially in the summer) will go a week or more without doing anything as we are out and about alot. also can go days without picking up a book lately again cos its summer time, yet in the winter when we were home a lot more we used to look at more than 10 books a day sometimes.........

Don't devote any time and day to any particular sort of learning. The best way for any child to learn is to follow what he or she in interested in and explore the world in their own way, building on their own understanding and practising the skills they enjoy.

Your twins clearly have different interests and no doubt have different strengths. Forget letters and numbers until they bring them to you and ask about them. If the twin who you see as more advances really wants to explore text and shapes, etc then follow his lead and discover these things alongside him. How he sees it all will be fascinating if you watch and listen really closely and ask questions which encourage him to think and explore.

Your other twin will have other interests which can support his learning just as much. He'll learn letters and numbers, etc when he's interested in then. Have a think about what drives him to explore and give him resources which will spur him on. If he likes taking things to pieces find him old clocks or similar to pull apart. If he likes playing with water give him different sized containers, pieces of hose and drain pipes to experiment with.

Forget about formal learning. He'll be far more successful at school if he's allowed to leave all that until he's older.

DS (3.1) can do the basic numbers and count to 20, he can recognise his own (short) name but that's it. We don't do any specific "time" devoted to it, just whenever it comes up, counting steps, picking up crayons, tidying toys "hand me the blue one etc". He loves a programme called Team Umizoomi which is on Nick jr at 7.30am, all about shapes and numbers and things.

Dd is 3 today, doesn't know colours, shapes (except circle), numbers or letters! She's only 3 plenty time for learning at school

Thanks guys, i think i may need to relax a little more! We love Team Umizoomi, i have a few episodes taped on Sky Plus they have watched the shape bandit episode god know how many times they love it!

Ds (3.2) can count to 15 by rote and can count up to six objects accurately. Can do a bit of if I add one more / take one away now many now with numbers up to five.
He knows all colours and 2d shapes and some 3d shapes. He recognises numbers to 15 and knows nearly all letter sounds and some letter names. He can write his name and a few other letters, but his name is only three letters long. He is not very interested in drawing or writing really but will paint. He is just beginning to hear sounds in words and will spell out loud some Cvc words but can't write them. Will have a go at reading them sometimes with varying degrees of success.
We do about ten mins in the morning and ten in the afternoon just practicing letters and numbers - often on the iPad. Ds has learnt most of what he knows from the iPad!

On the other hand my bugbear is that he is useless at jigsaws. Other children his age are apparently doing jigsaws of up to 50 pieces. My ds can do six piece ones and even that is a push. I think he just hates them!

Ds is 3.3 and can count a bit above 20, recognise 1-10, recognise all letters, read up to 3 letter words, add and take away up to 10 ( he's very interested in this ATM), write his name, draw people ( but nothing else), recognise 2d shapes ( never tried 3d), sort and classify objects Ermm can't think of what else. we do learning as and when the situation arises and try to follow his interests ( numbers at the moment, he's list interest in reading). He's also learn plenty from his I pod touch!

Sorry you said colours too, yes he knows his colours.

Ds is 4 and due to start reception in september. He can recognise his name and some other letters, but certainly not the whole alphabet. I have talked to some teachers and they are very much of the mindset that you should be led by the child. One of my close friends told me she doesn't like parents that push letters as they generally use a different method to the school and it is hard to unteach 4 year olds.
Dd is 2y6m and through ds using ipad apps she had started recognising letters too.
Both of them know lots of numbers and can name shapes and colours and know what colours to mix to make others

DD is 3.3, she can count to 15, recognise most colours, knows some basic shapes but doesn't know things like octogan, hexagon etc, she can recognise and count quantities upto 10, she doesn't particularly recognise any letters except A for Apple. I am not concerned, she learns through play and each child learns at a different pace. oh and she can sort of write her name but is more interested in drawing.

I don't do any of this day to day, except incidentally.
DD knows all colours, shapes, can count to 20 and recognise numbers to 12 an count backwards from 10-0. She can count objects or pictures She knows 95% of her alphabet in upper and lower case.

What I would say is, she's actually been able to do the numerical stuff since she was under 2 but has shown absolutely no interest in furthering it, so I'm probably a rubbish parent as she hasn't learnt anything else since and everyone else has pretty much caught up!
With letters she just wasn't interested until recently so has started to learn them now.
I suppose what I'm trying to do is reassure you that they all learn it but at different times. Already DS is way behind DD language wise and with all those skills but he'll get there in his own time. I guess it's hard because you have a direct comparison with your other DS but I guarantee there are things he is better at, they just mightn't be 'academic'.

don't do anything like this - mainly because dd is not interested (she is 3.7). She knows quite a few letters, I think and maybe a couple of numbers. She can count by rote to about 20, and can count objects up to about 10 if she's in the mood can see the point. She can do basic addition and subtraction with objects (e.g. dividing a cake into the right number of slices, or adding extra place settings for visitors). She is simply more interested in imaginative play, messing around with water, 'cooking', drawing, all bugs, flowers, plants, trees, birds etc than in letters and numbers which she currently can't see the point of. I do periodically point things out to her, but will worry about it once she's at school. She loves stories, makes up her own narratives, has a great vocabulary, reasons things out, is very observant etc.

The key thing (to me) you've raised in your post is how to handle the fact that your twins have very different competencies - one of which you recognize and is generally valued, the other(s) of which are less obvious. Your choice of vocabulary will be important, as will ensuring that reading twin does things that his brother finds easy, and he finds difficult. Tough one with no age gap to help with the differences

DS is 3.3. He is fluent in three languages (multi-cultural family living abroad). He knows pretty much all letters and can write about half of them. He knows colors, shapes (triangle, oval, square, etc) and counts to at least 30 in all three of his languages.

He counts objects and has recently started saying things like "8 is a big number but 10 is bigger than 8".

My just turned 3 DS knows shapes and colours, numbers up to 10 and some letters. My niece isn't as good at the letters and numbers but is frigging awesome at jigsaws and can dress herself. My DS is hopeless at jigsaws and struggles with clothes. So he's better at the academic stuff, she's better at the motor skills. It'll all come good in the end.

If my DS showed as much interest in letters as he does in Octonauts (he can name all manner of marine life) then he'd be reading Harry Potter by now.
No point in forcing him, that's what school's for.

I've also heard that you shouldn't do too much formal "teaching" of all this stuff at this age as it can really switch them off later on. Last summer my Ds (3.2) could barely talk (late starter!), but now he's caught up with that and is getting better with his minority language too (though nowhere near Cote d'Azur's trilingual child!). I can't believe the difference in him so just shows how they develop at different rates.

For the record he can count beyond 20 and recognise numbers at least up to that (we count house numbers when out, keeps him going!), knows all his letter from watching Alphablocks, can sort of add and takeaway on an iphone app, but the app is quite suggestive so I'm not sure he can totally do it in real life; mostly recognises own first name written down; knows 2d shapes etc. However he can't write anything and isn't that into drawing either (prefers messy art, sticking, painting etc. though he did sort of draw a dinosaur recently.). Nowhere with jigsaws either! Like Rhetorician's child he's really into imaginative play at the moment too.

Yes ds also does a lot of imaginative play and makes up his own stories. They aren't too bad, for 3.

hmm, this is interesting; my dd is older than most of yours, but in the terms that you are describing, able to do somewhat (in some cases) and considerably (in others) less. She is, for example, unable to focus on the rules of a game like snakes and ladders. We'll wait and see, but there is a strong history of dyslexia on her father's side, and it does seem strange to me that an otherwise perfectly intelligent child is seemingly unable to grasp letters and numbers. But she is probably normal and will just do it in her own good time (like everything else - she is very stubborn!)

My just 3 year old knows her colours and can recognise some numbers. She understands 0 1 and 2. No interest in letters yet. Way behind all the other kids mentioned here! She is very, very, very good at making her family do what she wants though. Adored much youngest child syndrome, I think.

One of my twin boys was quite noticeably ahead of the other one at 3 years, mummytotwinsss. He did miles better up till the end of infants. But by the end of primary the other twin had leapfrogged him in all subjects. And now aged 13 they seem to be converging again. Very interesting- don't assume that the twin looking like a genius at 3 will run off with all the prizes!