As your child’s personality blossoms, they become more able to make up their own games and play on their own.
How your child is developing
Your child is now a ‘pre-schooler’ and their personality is blossoming. They can play on their own without making sure you’re always near and their powerful imagination allows them to dream up absorbing games by themselves.
You may find your child is more aware of what other children are doing and tries to copy them. They may attempt to join in games and feel rebuffed if excluded.
Studies show that even at this age, children have quite strong ideas about what makes a ‘girl’s toy’ and a ‘boy’s toy’, even in homes where parents have taken care to avoid stereotyping.
What you can do
Make different types of toys available to your child and don’t forbid boys to play with dolls or girls to play with cars and trucks. Also, don’t allow anyone to comment – or worse, laugh or criticise – if they see this happening.
Children of this age need scope and space to run wild. Play outdoors in a safe place whenever possible, so your child can meet physical challenges and enjoy overcoming them.
Provide some challenges yourself. Ask your child how many times can they hop on one leg, for example, or if they can walk along a low wall without wobbling.
Fun and games
Imagination allows your child to create a world in which they are powerful and grown up, and where they can direct the action. These ideas can help to encourage them:
- Throw a tablecloth over a couple of chairs to make a tent, house, shop or hideaway
- Play pizza delivery, with a toy phone to place orders and you as the customer and your child as the delivery person (then vice versa)
- Put together a dressing-up box with old clothes (especially hats, bags and shoes), old curtains as capes for superheroes, kings and queens, and net curtains as brides’ veils
- Make a shop from a collection of motley items and toys, arranged on a mat or a table, with you (and teddies and dolls) as customers
- Make a TV from a cardboard box so your child can stage a show
- Go on the web with your child, find a recipe site with pictures, and choose together what you like the look at.
Toys to buy
Your child enjoys pretend play more than ever before. You can support it with scaled-down grown-up equipment.
Toy suggestions:
- Play kitchen, with accessories
- Tea set – invite all the toys to tea (use plain water)
- Tool set – helps to encourage fine motor skills and teach simple engineering and design
- Play house or play tent – can become anything, from a restaurant or shop to a office, hospital or school
- Doll’s house, fairy castle, pirate ship or play garage – can become the scene for a thousand little plays produced, directed and scripted by your child
Let your child make bread bun pizzas by spreading the buns with tomato paste, sprinkling on grated cheese and arranging some olives on top – you can then heat the buns under the grill for a minute or so
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