Tell me about your 3.5 year old - don't click here if you don't like this sort of thing

[mynewnickname]

Dreadful comparison thread.....
Ds's preschool is so blardy PC I can't tell how far behind/ ahead of average he is which is a pain as I want to know which areas we should focus on more at home (in our play before anyone flames me)and frankly it'd be nice to know where he's 'doing well'.

Mine cannot write or draw for toffee. You might get a line or something very vaguely resembling the letters of his name. All the other kids at preschool seem to be drawing fab pics. Yikes.

Knows days of week and always knows what day it is. That's impressive right? Or is it just normal?

Knows all letter sounds and names, lower case and upper case
Sight reads maybe 20 words e.g. dog cat the
Sounds out a few when he can be bothered but I don't push it.

Counts to 30 but gets bored after that so refuses to go further - fine by me.

Can do basic adding e.g. if I had three biscuits and I gave you two more how many biscuits would there be?

Can't pedal a bike.

Still parallel plays - kind of attempts to talk to other kids but unless encouraged happily bumbles along.

Mad imaginative play.

How long are their sentences - typically.

don't flame me for asking but I don't want to ask anyone in RL.

Sounds v advanced to me. But, you know, he's THREE. Relax. What he's doing or not doing now is pretty meaningless in terms of his long term potential. Enjoy him, be proud and just let him be.

He's doing well, there that's all you need to know, now please stop comparing and enjoy your 3.5 year old, there is so much more time to worry about letter sounds and drawing.

I'm a nursery teacher btw

DD1 (3.4)

Draws people that are blobs with eyes and legs "writes" her own hieroglyphs and says they are letter. But has no clue about any letters other than the one at the beginning of her name.

Doesn't know days of week. Always thinks "it's tomorrow now"

Can pedal her trike, but generally can't be bothered and wants to be pushed.

Counts to 12ish then wanders off into fantasy land.

Is a chatterbox - long sentences and into imaginative play with her big sister. They play schools a lot.

Can't add - can just about count objects.

Nursery very pleased with her and I know that there will be kids in her reception class who haven't got as far as her. No worries. Am not focussing on anything at home other than making sure she gets time to play and time to run around like a loon

He sounds like he's doing well. My DD can write her name, she can count to 30+, and can pedal a bike. can prob read a few words to but doesn't at home and i don't push it. I won't get her developmental report until the new term. but i get updates every day.

Dreaming and Spud - I do totally see your point and am not stressing about it - I am curious about it though.

I never ever push him into stuff and want him to play at nursery not learn loads. I confess I do have this thing where I like to know where he's at though!

Dd is 3.2yrs....

Drawing - she can draw round her hand and colour it in, she is getting quite good at colouring in neatly but isn't really drawing things yet infact she will insist on my drawing something for her to colour in which is ok with me.

Knows days of week and always knows what day it is. That's impressive right? I'd say impressive dd knows there are different days but that's about it.

Dd can't read at all and doesn't know her letters although I've brought some things for xmas that should help her with this.

Dd can reliably count to 10

She can't do maths at all apart from counting.

Dd Can pedal a bike.

Plays well with other children and also shows younger children how to play and gives them toys and cuddles which is very cute

Dd does imaginative play.

How long are their sentences - typically. Sentences I don't really know, as long as she needs them to be I guess, she's very good at talking and understanding.

Sounds to me like your ds is doing really well for his age but honestly it all evens out in the end anyway I think.

No flaming here.

OK - here goes ...

Neither of my dd's could draw, neither had the patience for drawing. Dd2 could write her name at around 2.5/3 yo.

Dd1 didn't know her days of the week till she was 6!! I'm not kidding - it just didn't click till then.
Dd2 was prob around 4.

Dd1 knew all her letter sounds but not names by the time she started primary (4.5yo)
Dd2 knew her letter sounds but not names by time she was around 3.5yo. She could sight read simple words (mainly ones like 'Asda' )
Neither could sound out words.

Both could count very well at this age.

Both could do add up.

Dd1 learned to pedal at around the age of 4, dd2 was riding a bike without stabilizers at around the age of 4.

Both could play very well with their peers from around 2.5.

Dd2 played very imaginatively - dd1 much less so ...

Both could speak really well - dd1 was much much clearer than dd2, but the content of both was excellent.

Your ds sounds as though he is doing excellently, you should be very proud

Okay, my DS 3y10m
Can't write, can trace his name, drawing still pretty vague, can do sun, mountains simple stuff

The girls in preschool with him can all write their names etc, don't know about the other boys

Doesn't know days of the week. Dunno if he can sight read anything apart from his name.

Counts to 15ish.
Only just learning to pedal.

Talking we are behind on so can't help with what's average

Blimey if we're comparing, yours is "ahead" of mine.

Can't write or draw really except the vaguest shapes (loves to do art but it's all abstract). Can do a X for a kiss.

Can recognise about 4 or 5 letters, no numbers. Hasn't progressed with this at all since about a year ago really - just isn't very interested, we do bring it up but hold back from pushing it.

Counts to somewhere in the teens.

Adding - can work out addition up to about 4, when dealing with actual objects but we haven't tried "sums".

Can't pedal a bike but has a no-pedals "like a bike" thing that he can zoom along on.

Defenitely like to bumble along and play on his own, will play well one-to-one with another child but backs off from group situations.

Imaginative play off the scale, like yours. Constantly making up vast scenarios and complex songs, asking endless philosophical questions and blethering about every topic there is. Quite lot of loooong, in fact open-ended, meandering sentences but not fully grammatically structured.

I do also know a lot of his contemporaries are writing letters and drawing a full range of objects etc. Nursery have remarked (in a nice way) on him having problems putting his own coat on and that he got very frustrated because everyone else could do it (though he has now learned that). But I'm not really worried - even though I'm very academic myself and could read before I was 3 - because the way he talks suggests he hasn't got any actual difficulties or delay. If he wants to do something, he can - eg DP has recently been teaching him to use a computer mouse and he's really taken to it.

I do understand the urge to compare, and in fact I don't think comparing (as long as he's not aware of it) means you aren't enjoying him or aren't proud of him etc. You just do notice other children doing stuff and think "shite! Am I supposed to have been teaching him that? Is he meant to be able to do that?" But it's very true that at this age there are vast differences between them and they can be very good at one thing and not even got started on another.