Supporting Learning and Curiosity

Over the last four years, you have been helping your child get ready for school. Remember giving him little bits of food to pick up with his thumb and tiny pointer finger (pincer grasp) when he was a baby? That was the start of skills he now uses to pick up and hold a crayon to write. Who would have thought that the pincer grasp in infancy was an early writing skill? Now it is time to refine and expand those skills.

Here are some ways to encourage your child’s learning:

• Be a partner in pretend play–sometimes. If your child invites you to play a role either with other children or when alone, by all means join in. Take the role assigned to you and follow your child’s lead. It’s alright to suggest ideas to add to the play—just be sure he gets the last word.
• Offer interesting props. Are there things around the house that might make his play more interesting? For example, if your child and a friend are searching for dinosaurs, make a cave by putting a sheet over a table, offer them a book about dinosaurs, or cut a paper towel tube in half and tape them together to make a pair of binoculars.
• Build on your child’s natural interest in science. Your little scientist is thinking about how things work and wants to try out his ideas. To motivate your child’s thinking, ask questions like: I wonder why…?; What do you think might happen if…? How does that happen…? Encourage scientific thinking as you talk about cookie dough turning into a cookie, popcorn popping, toys floating and sinking in the bathtub, insects, worms, growing seeds and clouds.
• Surround your child with math. Teaching children to count from 1-10 is a great skill (rote learning) but it is also important to help them learn the meaning of the numbers. Help your child learn math concepts by encouraging hands-on learning as you ask questions like: “Can you get mommy three spoons?” or “How many blocks did you stack?” Give him opportunities to match and sort things: “Can you find two socks that match?” Provide lots of opportunities for your child to compare two objects and talk about what is bigger, the same, smaller, faster, slower, heavier and lighter.
• Give your child lots of opportunities to move his body! A four-year-old continues to refine existing skills and add new skills in both small (fine) and large (gross) motor development. At this age, children are not designed to sit still for long. Activities that help support gross motor skills include catching and throwing with others and at targets, hopping, skipping, jumping, running, walking backwards, bike riding, and balancing on one foot to name a few. Fine motor activities include painting, scribbling, drawing, writing, cutting with scissors, using playdough, puzzles, stringing objects and building/stacking objects.
• Look for opportunities for him to be with other children. Take some time to learn what activities are available outside the home for your preschooler to attend. Is your child now in a preschool, Universal Pre-Kindergarten, Head Start or nursery school program? (Remember that Universal Pre- Kindergarten and Head Start are both free preschool programs). Are there community activities or play groups that you could take your child to? Check out libraries in preschool age programs, and even the school where your child will be enrolled for Kindergarten.

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