Thank you all for the ideas! I’m in nursing school but on vacation so will be putting all my energy into this kiddo & learning new things. It’s hard because he really just started talking a couple of months ago.. he will be in speech therapy soon. Praying that with better communication comes better learning too 🙌

Ahh there are mixed opinions about what kids should learn and know at this age. There is a lot of pressure from other parents as well. I feel like playing and interacting with your child offers so many benefits that a super structured lesson isn’t as effective! Pinterest is my go to for activities and I will usually look things up depending on when my daughter is interested. Its helps to keep her engaged when we work as a team to learn together. It makes it more fun for me too. Also look around in the community events at your local libraries, colleges, and schools there are a lot of guided events for kids this age to help them prep for school. I think prepping them by encouraging them to sit still for a story and listen and respond in group setting is going to be the best prep you can do for them. This is coming from a mom who has a 3.5 year old and I’m a nanny for another 3.5 year old too. The only structured lessons I have given to my daughter at this point have been reading and that’s only because my daughter loves books and asked to learn how to read. I had a hard time finding a reading lesson plan that wasn’t super structured. But now that she has finished the lessons we just co read a book or two each day to help strengthen skills. She doesn’t even consider it a “lesson” anymore.

For my 3.5yr old son...I try to do an hour or 2 of ‘school time’ each day. I bought traceable letter & number books...colored shape flash cards/matching games....& kids scissors & things like that off amazon.
I let him pick a number or a letter to work on each day. We’ve made it through the whole alphabet & up to 25 in numbers...he writes his whole name on his own. Knows all his colors & what colors to mix to make other colors. Knows all his shapes (including what a parallelogram & rhombus are) & what the traffic light colors mean (random impromptu car ride fun lol) & he knows mine & his dads full names & my phone number...& now we’re starting to work on word recognition & ‘sight words’ & reading short stories together. And basic math with pieces of candy usually. LOL

That’s just some of the stuff I found to be easy to do at home & fun to do together. I hope it helps.
And don’t be so hard on yourself, momma. Like the previous comment says, kids are sponges & learn so quickly. It’s never too late for them to learn something new!! You’re doing a great job.

I know how you feel. Children should come with an instructional book! Lol Its hard to know where they should be at developmentally. I took my daughter to a preschool screening the other day and while she did wonderful in some areas, other areas she didn’t. The good thing is that they pick up things quickly. They are such sponges. It too am curious what suggestions the other moms will have because I’ve been wanting to set up weekly plans for teaching her new things.