| Three and Four Year Olds: On a Path of Discovery |  |  |  |
Just like Elmo, three and four year olds are exploring the world around them through observation and imagination. With their increasing language skills, they'll have lots of questions and lots of theories that will surprise and delight you. They'll want to try new things on their own, but will still look for your support. During these special years, get ready to laugh, learn and imagine the world through your child's eyes.
Physical Development
Keep your child’s physical development in mind when you play together. Focus on fun ways to eat right, get moving, and relax.
Fun with Food
Different colored fruits and vegetables give your child the nutrients she needs to keep her healthy and help her grow. Make fruits and vegetables playful and appealing to your child by taking a fun taste test. Together, choose and talk about different colored fruits and vegetables such as red peppers, oranges, yellow apples, green broccoli, and blueberries. Prepare bite-size pieces of each on a plate, then ask your child to close his eyes and taste each one. See if he can guess the name and color of each fruit or vegetable he eats!
Play with your child to show him the value and fun in eating together. Pretend to be at a restaurant or just eating snacks together at home. Help serve each other and while snacking, make conversation by asking: “What should we eat today?”…
“What does it taste like”… “What’s your favorite food?... Why?”… “May I please have some?”
Run with It
Set aside some time each day to move and play with your child. Pretend to be airplanes and run with your arms out to the sides. Run in a straight line and then tilt your arms as you curve to the left or right. Run up around an object, or run in place. You might even try running in shapes. Can you run in a circle? How about running in the shape of a triangle or a square?
Downtime
In addition to getting enough sleep each night, it's also important for your child to engage in calm and quiet "downtime" activities throughout the day—reading a book, drawing a picture, playing quietly, or listening to soothing music.
Also take time out during the day to take some slow deep breaths! No matter where you are, breathing can help you and your child relax. Sit together and take a slow, deep breath in. Then, slowly breathe it out. Try this a few times in a row to calm down from the busy routines of your day.
Related Video:
Bert’s Fruit Rap
John Leguizamo: Capt Vegetable
Jump Song
Emotional and Social Development
Children with emotional and social well-being cooperate better with others, make more responsible decisions, cope with disappointments and stress, and effectively communicate feelings.
Let’s Talk About It
Help your child learn words and language to express shades of emotions (angry, sad, scared). Encourage them to put their thoughts and feelings into words. Tell stories and sing songs about fictional characters who are coping with emotions. Ask your child to think of different ways they might be able help the characters let others know how they feel.
Set an Example
Children learn best by watching and doing, so look for opportunities for you and your child to practice sharing and taking turns. Draw a picture together while sharing markers. Build a block tower while taking turns adding blocks. Try to reinforce phrases such as "Let's share!" and "Let's take turns!" and explain why it's important to do these things.
Related Video:
Alvin Ailey Dance: Emotions
Elmo And Zoe Share
Literacy and Cognitive Development
Meaningful conversations with parents and caregivers help young children develop language and literacy skills during the early years through language-rich experiences. Pointing to and labeling things in the environment, describing feelings, or telling stories together is a powerful way of introducing children to new words and ideas.
Words, Words, Words
Developing a rich vocabulary at a young age helps children become more successful readers and learners. Expose children to words, words, and more words every day! As you go about your daily routine, have fun conversations using lots of new words to describe all the things you see and do together.
Make story time a special part of your child’s daily routine. Introduce the book by talking about the book cover. Encourage your child to look at the picture and think of what the book will be about. Read the title, then begin the book. Take your time so your child can get the most out of each page. As you read, point to the text from left to right. Pause to label and describe the pictures, letters, and words. Be expressive with your voice and actions — for example, if a picture shows two frogs hopping through the woods, pretend that you are both frogs hopping and making “ribbit” sounds.
ABCs
While many young children have a rote understanding of the alphabet by learning the ABC song, they often lack the ability to identify each letter and recognize letter sounds.
Help your child develop a more meaningful and rich understanding of letters by emphasizing what each letter looks like, sounds like, and showing your child how letters form words.
1, 2, 3
Encourage math and cognitive skills by helping your child recognize patterns and encouraging him to describe the patterns he sees. For example, "Here's an orange, apple, orange, apple… What comes next?" Help your child learn how to extend the patterns or even create his own patterns.
Understanding numbers and what they mean is an important part of helping to prepare your child for school. By playing counting games and exploring numbers with your child, you can help him to remember numbers and understand how to use them.