Oh man, if there's one point in a child's development when parents are worried sick, it's probably the pre-school age. This is the time where they start making friends and playing outdoors, and it's the time when parents need to be on their toes about what their kids are learning. Certainly, it's the four to five year old range where you really start having full conversations with your kid, and you realize, they've been paying attention all those years! Every dirty word you let slip when angry at the dummy who just cut you off, your kid heard it and memorized it. That's not just us trying to illicit a chuckle from our readers, there, that's making a point: These are some of the most important years in your child's development and education.
This is where all those words and skills they've learned over the last few years are first starting to come in handy. They're finally tall enough and strong enough to start doing things for themselves, so it's important to nurture the right interests, to teach the right skills, and to provide safe toys that will enrich their development.
Here are the main points you should be thinking about: Learning, safety, creativity, and exercise.
Don't wait for kindergarten to teach your kids how to read, write, and do basic mathematics. If you introduce your children to these skills early, they'll see it as a fun adventure, and not as the chore we all remember it being in school. Some of the better educational toys on the market right now include the Playskool Talk N Scan Cash Register, which is great for teaching basic math to the younger kids, and just about any of the Leapfrog books can get young kids started learning how to appreciate reading.
As for creativity, the default answer is usually Legos, but those can be a little tricky for pre-school aged kids, so the simpler Duplo sets may be a better choice for both safety, and the level of challenge.
For exercise, take your pick. You definitely want to encourage physical activity, as some of your child's most important physical development is taking place right now, and just about anything that interests them will get the job done. The problem is that, for us city slickers, you can't always get to the park and throw a football around. So if you live in the city, indoor sports sets are a great choice.
Basically what you want to be looking for on all fronts is something a little on the safe and simple side. Don't go giving them toddler toys or anything, you do want to challenge them, but you don't want to confuse the kid with a complicated erector set just yet, either. Toys always come with a recommended age range. If your kid is a fast learner, you can step outside of that range by a year or two, but in general, it serves as a pretty solid guide to what's suitable for what age group.
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