any ideas

For me you cant really force a child to go to school if he or she is not really interested on it for now. So the best thing to do is to let him discover all the good thing he/she could get from school and little by little teach him how to gain interest on things that includes school things. Good luck!

competent father

I guess that it is not very late and not very early. I think you are teaching him at the right moment his alphabet and numbers. Well, if the child doesn't want to learn yet do not force him to he will learn that someday. That age is still for them to play, piling blocks, and other not so complicated task. I guess that you can search over the net the task of a 3 years old. He is in toddler hood stage so you can read it over the net to have more reliable information.

My neice is 3 1/2 and were doing these cool flash cards for her colors and numbers. We've been learning the ABC song and were teaching her some music stuff because I play guitar around her a lot so she's always trying to steal my guitar (and untune it ughhhh) so I got her a fretless mandilen. It's great for her learning because she loves playing it and she can strum it without having the hold down chords. We've learned Twinkle Twinkle Little Star thust far. In the three's her colors are the things she's learned the most though. It's amazing to be able to watch how she's learning to do things slowly little by little.