Children at the age of 3 and until they are ready for the primary school and formal education, need stimulation to develop the necessary skills. This gives us parents the honor to be the best brain trainers for a bright future.
At this stage of life, the main purpose of every activity we do is skills. Let me explain this a little, the accumulation of knowledge is really important but it is not nearly as important as the basic need of training body, soul and brain for a successful adult life. A child that does not develop enough skills to retain, analyze and solve what is in front of him, will have a very difficult adult life.
We might just need to stop a little on this one, just because every respectful scientist, sociologist, religious leader and teacher that I know agrees; the first years of a child will mark his life forever. So, bear with me if I take my time to share in three more blogs/videos, the little things I have investigated and learned from experience.
But with all that philosophy – as my husband would say- lets be practical and name toys to get for the 3-6-year-old kiddos. Everything you get at this stage should have a considerably bigger size than an adult utensil. If you get colors, markers or pencils, the should be “jumbo” size. If you get construction, dolls, blocks, cars, they should all be a bigger size. It will give you peace of mind that there will be less risk of that little one to have a taste of it, or block the resource from getting stuck on the ear or nose. And remember we are coming from gross motor development to fine motor – big to small-.
Continue providing opportunities to play with shapes and colors. Classifying, designing, making patterns all have to do with development of language, math, art, and so much more.
Try other uses for your kitchen tools. One of my favorites is the developmental activity of the pipe cleaners placed at their creativity using a pasta strainer as the base. Puppets are also great and just about anything to play pretend, dress up, or tell a story, imitate and create. All this pretend playing needs space so get them out of the house to an open space so their adventures grow bigger.
One great thing to start pre-reading /writing is a pencil box with sand, salt or something like it to “write” their first letters and small words (CVC) all you need is to print a few cards – I would recommend letters and words, NOT pictures and words. Why? I know there are just too many picture flashcards out there, but the brain starts decoding faster when there are only letters instead of the picture.
Math is a little different, make sure they relate: number symbol/ number word/ and number concept. Which means they can count the numbers, the can draw the symbol (1, 2, 3,.) and they need to add the concept (3 = ***).
And for those of you who take the path of technology at this extremely young age: try adding apps- not videos. Educational apps interact and make them answer back. Some of my favorites that I just discovered now that we started technology, 20 min a day to our 7’ and 9’ year old, are: “left vs right a brain training game”, “brain on: dot physics”, “two dots”, “doodling dragons”, “1,2,3 numbers – count and tracing”.
And please, please, please give the books at least once a day, let them tell the story, read the story to them, let them take the books with them. What our brain does when we read is immensely greater than what it does when it just watches a video, cartoon, movie.
Hope you got this far with me, let me know what are your thoughts and excellent ideas for children between 3-6? I will expand a little more on the development of children on the next three blogs. So come back and don’t forget to subscribe.
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