All About Your Child

Characteristics

Inquisitive This stage is the age of many questions. Even when answers are given, the four-year-old continues to ask “Why?”
“yes..yes..yes” day in day out, “why this, why that?” Keatkeat will be 4 on 2nd November, so I think he is starting to show his Age 4 characteristics…
Think of it this way, deep in you, you want your child to be knowledgeable, or even more intelligent than his/her peers…
So other than ABCs and 123, which he learns in school, who else can he learn general knowledge from? YOU! How would you feel, when he say something or do something that create a “Wow! that’s a smart boy!” response from a stranger, and your child said:”Mommy taught me that.” *wink*
To all great moms of the universe: Take a deep breath and answer the questionssssss…

Talkative Because of their increasing capacity for language, children now tend to talk incessantly. This can often frustrate and wear out the adults!
*Laugh* yes…it can really bring up the blood pressure sometimes…but by just sitting back and looking at his energy, his enthusiasm, his relentless spirit, the intensity in his voice. You really can’t help but to be so amazed, “why have I lost that type of energy, ‘cos I strongly believe that I once had that when I was 4years old.”

Emotionally Unpredictable Children at four can often burst into laughter or tears at the same time! There are also sudden bouts of anger but the squalls are over quickly.
Thank God! The squalls DO GO AWAY QUICKLY…

Lively and Sociable Full of energy and life.
How they enjoy being with other people now!

High Moto Drive The swings, the monkey-bars, the jungle gym, cycling…their need for muscular movement drives the four-year-olds to frequent activities.
Whenever its not raining, after his nap, he would definitely ask: “Playground is not wet already, we can go play now, right?”

Tips for Handling Four-year-olds

• Encourage the child to ask questions. If you don’t have an answer, find out the answers together with the child – look up an encyclopedia, visit the local library, etc.

Do that! Its fun learning TOGETHER. You will be surprise at the number of things he noticed and asked you, and Ooops, you don’t know the answer! Huh?! Didn’t “you eat more salt than he eat rice?” – that’s how we say it in Chinese to someone that should be more knowledgeable in comparison.

• Encourage lots of large motor skills activities. Allow them to climb, swing, ride a bicycle, jump, etc. Be sure to take safety precautions so that the child can play heartily.

Safety first, never forget.

• Talk to your child, read to your child. Build on his vocabulary skills. Allow him to participate in your conversion.

Occasionally, when my husband and I are in a not-too-serious kind of conversation, we would ask Keatkeat’s view. He loves to give his views, man!

• Provide opportunities for your child to have social activities. let them invite friends home for a party, or have a popcorn night.

My husband has two elder brothers, all married with children. Every Sunday, we would bring the kids to their grandparents’ house, everyone will come together. We call it the ‘family day’. That’s the regular time for the kids to mingle and update each other what new toys or gadget they bought over the week. …..and a time for parents to relax…phew!

Anxious to Please Children conform readily at this age because they like to please adults and get approval and acceptance.
KeatKeat is always asking me: “I do this and you’ll be so proud of me ah?” “Am I a good boy today?” “I didn’t make you angry today, right?”

Cooperative They enjoy following instructions and working with other children. They also like to share now, because they are very interested in other people.
If you read my first post Understanding Your Child, you would know that KeatKeat was not such a child then….the nursery class this year helps to build his social skills too. Now he is just so eager to mix around with his friends and new kids he meet.

Very Energetic They are on the go almost every minute of the day and tire themselves out easily.
Yes! His would take a blanket, cover his head and pretend that he is holding the Chinese Lion Dance head and kept dancing up and down tables and sofas as if they were the stilts… sometimes he get so engross in it that he would knock around and still continues…. the whole time you can hear “jiak dong chiang, jiak dong chiang, dong chiang dong chian….”
Believe it, he can do this whole day if the Chinese Lion Dance VCD is playing at the same time.

Highly Imaginative They live in a world of make-believe and are not yet able to distinguish between the real and the imaginary. They will believe you if you tell them that the big, black dog is a bear.
Well, he always imagine that he is a racer in a sports car. Sometimes he makes me feel his cars are more important than his life. He must always ‘race’ before he goes to bed, after he wakes up, before meal and after meal….meaning he is racing almost all the time!

Tips for Handling Three-year-olds

• Praise the child for work well done, obeying, or helping out

Don’t just say Good Boy or Good Girl. Be creative, use different words, it increases vocabulary learning too. Say Good Job, Smart Boy, You impress me!….

• Provide active games and fun for the child, but be sure to give him rest periods throughout the day.

That is sometimes a challenge. ‘Cos the kid is so pumped up, he became unstoppable! Try this : When you want him to stop, give him a time frame or some sort of gauge. Let’s say you are playing hide and seek, you can say “This is the last round or last 2nd round, after that we need to rest. We will continue another time.”

Or if your child can tell the time already, simply says “5mins more“. If your child still can’t tell the time, but can recognise numbers, point to the clock and say “when the long hand touches number 12, we need to stop this game, drink some water and rest.”

• Provide time and materials for imaginative play. Play “Guess where I hide”, “Can you be a bear?” with the child
• Provide cooperative activities for the child and his siblings, and also with his neighbours.
• Praise him for working together with others.

share with me your experience with your child. I would love to learn from you.