Three to Four

Flowering Baby, LLC

Three to Four

At the age of three our curriculum changes somewhat. We now have two parts, a daily general education guide and the theme studies. The general guide includes math, language, science, physical, self-help and such. The theme guides are twenty-four specific theme (mini unit studies) that you incorporate throughout the year. We suggest you select two themes each month. There are approximately six days of activities for each theme.

The general guide is where your child will work on recognizing letters and their sounds, counting by one's and two's and in Spanish, shapes, colors, and patterns. Your child will learn about community helpers, safety issues, expand his self-help abilities, read, sing and listen to music. Children this age are very active so we have included many physical activities to get him moving. He will discover many new things: magnets, cooking and nutrition, playing more advanced games, and additional social skills. And you will read countless books to your child, many of these books you will discuss further by casually using the questions included in the guide.

The idea behind the theme guides is that at this age your child wants to discover more about specific topics and enjoys delving into things in more detail and for an extended period of time. The themes range from holidays, to seasons, animals to sports and more. There are books and activities included for each theme. The idea is to have fun and learn about topics that are of interest to your child and important in his world.

Below is an example of our curriculum. You will see that each day there are multiple activities covering a variety of educational topics from language to math, science and beyond. The second section is an example of one of the theme units - Rocks and Minerals.

Our activities are designed to use household items, typical children's toys and standard supplies. We recycle and use many household items and focus on educational value and fun, not expensive name brand items.

Within each year we list all books, music and supplies necessary to complete each of the activities.

A typical day:

Day 6:

ABC’s: Using a book your child knows well read it again today. Skip a page or leave out something important. Does he notice? Does he know what was missing?

Math: Select two objects that are similar in at least one respect but different in another. Example: an orange and a basketball are both round and orange but not the same size and used for different purposes. Discuss with your child what is similar and what is different about the objects. Then select two different objects and have your child explain the similarities and differences to you.

Discrimination: Gather a variety of objects from around the house. Ask your child to identify them based on appearance, color, shape, or physical characteristics. Some examples are: apple, ball, stuffed animal, shoe, book and plate.

Physical: Today’s physical activity is fun – it is all about laughing. Laughter is so wonderful for our emotional state, relaxes us and increases learning function. Sometimes in life we get so focused, so busy, we forget to just be silly. Today is about being silly. Make funny faces, tell jokes, play fun games or sports that you enjoy (we like balloon ball where we hit a balloon around the house), look at funny pictures. Use your imagination and laugh today.

Social: Discuss emotions and the value of feelings today. I discuss a variety of emotions (happy, sad, angry, and surprised) and give examples of each. Children learn better when there are emotions attached to what they are learning.

Self help: Let your child dress himself today and observe if he knows to get the proper items of clothing (underwear, pants, shirt, etc) and if he can dress himself correctly (shirt facing forward, socks on correctly).

Composer of the month: Mozart. Listen to music composed by Mozart, don’t expect your child to sit and listen to this, just play it in the background while he plays or while you are in the car.

A few days of the Rocks and Minerals Theme Unit:

Day 1:

Read a book on rocks and minerals.

Go rock hunting. Take a walk and collect rocks of different types, shapes, sizes, colors. Then wash them off and compare each. You can use a magnifying glass to get a better look. Save the rocks for tomorrow. Discuss the characteristics of each.

Day 2:

Read a book on rocks and minerals.

Using the rocks you collected yesterday, ask your child which is his favorite. Then try to determine what type of rock it is. Draw a picture of your favorite rock. Remind your child to notice the slight differences of color and line in the rocks.

Day 3:

Read a book on rocks and minerals.

Research and determine a few different types of rock that are common where you live. Try and determine if you have found any when you went rock hunting or find a picture in a book or on-line. Tell your child a few characteristics and the name of at least two of the common rocks.

Day 4:

Read a book on rocks and minerals.

Using the rocks you found and some tools have fun breaking them up to see if they look different inside. This can be messy so you might want to do this task outside on the sidewalk. Wear goggles to protect your eyes and depending on the type of rock this is likely a job for the adult.

For a sample of a full month: Click here

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