[ELH05]

I have a couple of queries:

1. When describing something he has done, he seems to always say "we went to xx yesterday" - he gets the place/activity right but when he says yesterday it generally hasnt happened yesterday it happened days or weeks ago lol ! I dont know how to correct it - I say that wasnt yesterday that was on Friday for example.
Is this a normal thing ?

2. Tracing - when should they be able to trace or copy things ? He likes us to write his name or our names on paper and I say "can you write your name like that ? he trys but its nothing like it (not even close). Just wondering by what age he should be able to do this and what things I can do to help ?

Thanks!

[Carmen02]

cant help to much because my 3 have special needs so far behind but have to comment on the day thing lol my 8yr old still does that! i think its totally normal

[Kay1]

Very normal. DS2 is 4.5 and still uses "yesterday" for anything in the past. I just gently correct him with a simple version "the day before yesterday" "last week" "a long time ago" etc.

With the drawing I would not expect a 2.9 year old to be able to copy well although some can. Try drawing his name in dots and teach him to connect the dots.

[greenrainbow]

I think totally normal. In my 3.2yr son's mind, unless is was today, everything we've done or anywhere we've been was "last night"! And he shows no interest in tracing or copying his name or anything. I think my DD was interested and able to do this at around 3.5yrs.

[tazcan]

Completely normal - even kids in first year of school get mixed up with yesterday, a few days ago, last week etc. And some kids starting school are still struggling to write/ trace their names - although of course some start writing their names much earlier.

[jenchristo]

I think that's normal. DD1 is 3.75yo and everything from the past is 'the other day'. I just say '2 days ago' or 'last Friday' etc. She's only now showing interest in writing. She asks me to write her name, then she tries. It's not even close, lol.

[cinnabubble]

Very normal in our house. The past is always yesterday. Tracing is pretty ambitious for a not-yet-three year old in my books.

[kpingitquiet]

Long-term memory is extremely limited before 3. To them, it really can seem like something happened yesterday, It all kind of jumbles together. Might also notice that a lot of 4-6yos say "When I was 3..." for every memory under the sun from ages 0 to just a few months ago. There seems to be a big boost in long-term memory at 3 so a lot of random events get attributed to that age hehe.

As for tracing, our niece was only writing letters in dot-to-dot format until just before her 5th birthday. She can now write a wobbly version of her name with no tracing/dots. She's an average-to-bright kid.

[ELH05]

Great thanks for the replies - glad to know all is ok !