Pre-school lessons

Can I ask what your kids are learning at pre-school? I've just got back from a friends who has a daughter the same age as Zach and she has been learning how to use computers, to write, learning letters and numbers among other things.

I can't see that Zach really has learnt anything from pre-school except nursery ryhmes. We have taught him everything he knows to do with numbers, letters and writing as I thought they didn't really do much at pre-school - thought it was more like a nursery with lots of playing but am starting to wonder. I'm just worried that he will get to school and be behind the other children. Zach never seems to bring any work home though I sometimes see other kids with paintings. He does love playing with his friends but surely they should be encouraging him to sit down and do some of the learning stuff too? At home he loves painting and drawing and even doing his learning to write books.

What should children know for when they reach school?

I'm going to go and have a chat to them soon but just thought I'd see what other kids the same age are up to.

Playschool here is all about playing and learning through play. Children might know colours, shapes, numbers, letters before starting reception class at 4/5, but they're not really expected to know much more, if that at all.

Im not sure how old Zach is but Megan was 3 last november and goes to a private nursery and is in the pre-school room...

She seems to be learning~
IT stuff...she comes home with pics done on the computer, numbers...they do number actiities like counting all the children in the class, colours, shapes, lots of creative (playdoh, painting, sticking, cutting etc) planting seeds, learning about animals etc

At the nursery where I used to work we covered all that that i posted above in the pre-school room as well as number and letter of the week...if the number was 3 then we would get the children to help us find 3 spoons, 3 cups, 3 teddies etc and they would go on display with a picture of the number, we had just started a reading scheme when i left on mat leave and each child gets one book per week etc

Playschool here is all about playing and learning through play. Children might know colours, shapes, numbers, letters before starting reception class at 4/5, but they're not really expected to know much more, if that at all.

WSS
The school that my 2 boys go to did not expect them to know their letters, numbers etc before they started in reception.
Tadhg`s teacher said its better for her to start to teach the class the basics in a certain way that will be followed through, rather than all the kids being at diferent levels.
Young children have such a short attention span,esp my 2 boys , that trying anything formal may be counterproductive, they have many years of schooling ahead of them, they will get there.

My Zach is at nursery now and starts reception in September.

He mostly plays. We had a 'stay and play' day and he just wanted to play outside, they have different activities around the the room (painting, glueing etc) but the children are encouraged to do there own thing. I believe that from this term he will be doing some phonics works etc and there is a short structured bit at the beginning and end of the each session where they talk about something in particular. Its more to get them familiar with it than to teach anything I think, they won't push any of it at this age.

Once in reception I think they start to be more structured with literacy and numeracy work so I don't think there is anything unusual about what you Zach is doing.

By school age there will be quite a mixed group of children I would think. Some will have been to nursery for a few years if they go to private nursery while mum/dad work. Some will have gone to the free sessions for a year previous and some won't have done any kind of nursery work as there is no legal requirement to educate until 5 (I think). It must be quite normal to have lots of different levels of ability at reception age and I don't think any child would be considered behind or in front IYSWIM.

Zach doesn't have any interest in writing or anything like that and his teacher said this is perfectly normal at his age. He knows numbers colours etc but more from home than nursery.

xxx

Phew!

My friend's daughter must just be a lot more advanced or their school is.

Sounds like all your pre-schools are much the same as ours and it's good to hear that they don't need to be writing and such for school.

Connor's preschool is learn through play too. So although there are learning outcomes set down by the government the children aren't aware that they're learning iykwim. For example sand and water play is for learning shapes, movement, volume of containers, etc. but for the children they're just building sandcastles and pouring water from different shaped jugs. If children are interested in writing then they are encouraged to write their own names on their paintings, but aren't taught as such. My friend's mum is a Reception class teacher and says all that is expected is for children to be able to count up to ten by the time they start school, and not all can do that. I wouldn't worry about lack of formal teaching, there's plenty of time for that in the years ahead.

All children in nursery/pre-school should be learning through play, it is the law (google Early Years Foundation Stage) Different children learn at different paces and in their own way so there will always be some that are 'ahead' of others but structured lessons shouldn't be happening until they are at school. Even in reception it should still be predominantly play based.

tbh Isabelle isn't really learning anything we don't do at home already...
Numbers, letters, ideas, IT stuff, allsorts really!

She probably does more 'craft' stuff at nursery than at home but they have more resources than I do