50 Essential Skills For The First 5 Years

Bike riding w. training wheels (2-3 yrs)

Newborn to 12 months

• Shapes 
• Colours
• Numbers
• Letters
• First Words 
• Motor Skills - Rolling Over, Sitting Up, Crawling, Cruising & Walking 
• Healthy Eating
• Self feed with fork and or spoon 
• Hold and drink from a glass or cup 
• Swimming

12 - 24 months 

• Animal names & sounds 
• 2D Shapes
• Colours
• Numbers
• Letters
• First Words
• Motor Skills - Running, Jumping, Climbing
• Healthy Eating 
• Climb up and down stairs 
• Potty Training (start between 18 & 21 months) 

2-3 Years

• 3D Shapes 
• Count from Numbers 1-25
• Days of the Week
• Phonics - Letter Sounds
• Recite Days of the Week & Months of the Year
• Manners
• Gross Motor Skills - Bike riding, Scooter riding etc.
• Healthy Eating - Identify Food Groups
• Scissor Skills 
• Practice tracing shapes, numbers, letters

3-4 Years 

• Count from 1 - 100
• Say & Write full name
• Phonics - Blends, Sight Words, Word Families 
• Basic Computer Skills
• The Environment - Name the Seasons & the Planets
• Healthy Eating - Food Prep 
• Read simple sentences
• Identify Primary vs. Secondary colours 
• Practice tracing shapes, numbers, letters
• Draw stick figures, people and or animals

4-5 Years 

• Simple addition & subtraction from memory
• Say full home address
• Spell Phonetically 
• Garden (from seed to plant)
• Create new recipes from familiar ingredients 
• The Environment: Describe the life cycle
• Read beginner books like Bob Books etc.
• Learn simple greetings in a new language
• Draw a landscape and or map that tells a story or gives information. 
• Gross Motor Skills: climb/ coordinate movement on more complex structures like a kids climbing wall and or zip line, gymnastics bar or tree (with adult help/supervision)

Bonus: Practice tying shoe laces 

What other skills would you add? Comment below. 

Kids playground with climbing structures (Gross Motor Skills)