As your child reaches the age of four he or she will seem to be growing and changing almost daily. The amount of knowledge and skills that your child is developing will be rapidly expanding and developing right before your eyes. One of the best ways to encourage this needed development is by the toys and kids games that he or she plays with. The right toys (coupled with the right type of play) will help your child develop those pre-school skills that will allow for success in the school years to come. But the first step is to understand how four year olds play and what they really like. Here is what you need to know.
By age 4, your child will be beginning to explore many basic concepts that will be taught in greater detail in school. For example, she now understands that a day is divided into morning, afternoon and night, and that there are different seasons. By the time she enters kindergarten she may also know some days of the week, and that each day is measured in hours and minutes. She also may also comprehend the essential ideas of counting, the alphabet, size relationships (big versus small) and the names of geometric shapes.
While there are many good children’s books that illustrate these concepts, you should not feel compelled to rush things. There is no real advantage to her learning them this early, and if she feels pressured to perform now, she may actually resist learning when she gets to school. Using toys to help her understand concepts is a much better way to introduce them.
This is the time to learn and respect her special interests and talents. If your child seems very artistic, you can take her to art museums and galleries and let her try her hand at painting and other artistic endeavors at home. On the other hand, if she is most interested in machines and dinosaurs, you can take her to the natural history museum, and then help her learn to build models, and provide her with construction kits that allow her to create her own machines. Whatever her interests, you can also use books to help answer her questions and open her horizons even further. At this age, your child should be discovering the joy of learning so that she will be self-motivated when her formal education begins.
So now that you understand how she will learn here is what you need to know about how your four year old will like to play:
- Most four-year olds like active play. At this age she can walk along a curb, climb up the steps of a slide, play on a monkey bar and ride a bicycle.
- Sports can begin to become a part of your child’s life. She can learn to swim, skate, ski, dance and use a trampoline.
- Art and creativity can become a focus with a new creative game, toy or activity. This can often keep her engrossed for hours.
- She will be starting to add details to her drawings and other art projects and she may print her name on her art.
- She also understands that other people have feelings that are different from her.
The types of toys your child will enjoy playing with at this stage include:
- Dollhouses complete with lots of accessories-Your four-year old will be learning how to use her imagination and will use her toys to act out concepts she is just beginning to understand.
- Cars, vehicles and other remote control toys-Four-year old are fascinated by movement and if they can control it to some degree this tends to delight them.
- Role play toys-Make believe figures prominently for children at this age so dress up costumes, sword play and face painting are all big winners with this age group.
- Sports toys-While many four year olds are not mature enough for a group dynamic they will enjoy the play acting aspect that comes with golf clubs, little basketball hoops or t-ball equipment.
- Battery-powered ride-ons-Four year olds do love the idea of being a “big kid” and riding these.
- Creative activity toys-Puzzles, art kits, simple beading and sidewalk chalk all help to encourage creativity in this age group.
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