First: Did you like being tested when you were in school? Did your classmates? What was the normal attitude toward tests by the students in your school. Probably a negative one. It is Exceedingly Normal for children to NOT cooperate with Tests! Stop testing him, like YESTERDAY!!!
also, I don’t know your kid, so your milage may vary with these tips:
As far as I know, 3.5 yos dont “concentrate” much without having been trained to do so for 1 reason or another. I was such a 3.5 year old, my younger brothers were not. Dont expect him to wake up with the ability to concentrate tomorrow if you haven’t been teaching him to concentrate or be still etc.
If you want to build/work on this ability, begin today. It is great to have your mobil child no about “still and quiet time” or when Mama says “Hooold it!” its important. There was a blog post by one mom who said she taught her son to drop what he was doing, come to her, hands on his side, and stand straight, smile at her and wait attentively for her instructions when she calls “AAAtttention!” military style.
She gradually built this up from about 10-30 seconds to 3 minutes or something like that. Its important that children learn to come when (seriously) called, quickly and with a good spirit and be prepared to cooperate with mom and dad, so thats a great skill to teach your kids, but start gently and with short sessions and build your way up.
On to “academia” type thinger-ma-bobs.
If you allow TV viewing, look into the Leap Frog DVD’s I like how they teach an Alphabet song that actually TEACHES something. (Teaching the kids to Chant the names of the alphabet has always baffled me, as you dont really need their names for anything useful if you can read, and the
names and sounds are different). On LeapFrog they teach kids to sing “the A says’ “ah”, the A says “ah”–everybody all together the A says…“a”!”
So, it might be worth investing in if it seems like a viable option for your family.
For “formal” lesson:
- Do micro lessons. 30 seconds at a time.
- Prepare materials ahead of time. Be 110% prepped with all the materials you need.
- Give the lesson quickly
- Get the materails out of the little kids way within 33 seconds.
Or, you could get creative and present “formal” stuff in different ways.
There are a lot of printable alphabet games and ever more ideas on how to make your own. I suggest doing 5-10 letters a week, playing once or twice a day.
You could, for example, make up interactive stories for him. If you have or can make large cut out letters for him to use during the stories.
For Example:
The Mama K is looking for her baby k, where, where could he be? When she cant find him in the kitchen, flying a kite or kicking back with his friend, Kangaroo, she stands on top of the K-house (convieniently filled with /k/ items) and calls to her baby with the special /k/ sound. Have him sift through a box or bag of items to find the baby k and bring it running back to mama.
Make Alphabet Books together, one a day.
Begin playing sound games.
Question: What, exactly are you hoping to teach him besides his alphabet and numbers?
The lesson really has to take a viable form for the content of the lesson. There are books out there on learning games. I liked How to Get Your Child Off the Refrigerator and On To Learning, the woman wrote a book on practical homeschooling methods for a child with ADHD, to teach them “rote” material, like the states and capitals.
Reading, Math, Science etc by playing games, she also teaches the parent-teacher to adjust their thinking. (Teach the boy while he’s in motion! Because he cant sit still for ever…or 3 minutes.) etc.
Please be more specific and I think I could help you better.