best kids toys 4 year old image
cardo11
My 4 year old has way more energy than I can handle in 1 day. She is out of school now and the toys are not enough. I need some activities that can keep her busy for a really long time.
Answer
Kids today are growing up in an accellerated environment, critics call "the fast lane." From computing to comuting to communicating, everything is turned on and connected and previous generations are often not trained to that level.
The common response to this dialemma is to let kids have their superpowerful electronics, sit an the computer or TV for hours, and everyone's happy. It doesn't work that way.
I grew up in that sort of environment. My parents treated me that way, and I spent the majority of my childhood and teenage years alone with the boxes. I fel like I understood them and they understood me, and human beings were too damn complicated, unpredictable and malicious. I was also obese, loved fast food, started drinking alcohol heavily, smoked cigarettes, dropped out of school, parents divorced, and I stayed unemployed for years.
I now have my life on track, but ONLY because I realised what I was doing to myself and chose differently. Not even 1 of the failures in my past continues to exist. For most of my generation that is not true. If you won, you kept on winning; if you lost, your probably dead by now.
Technological saturation may be the easy way out for parents, but it's the hardest road a kid can possibly be led down.
It seems the only other alternative is competitive sports, where kids are bashed and beaten, come home covered in mud, blood and who knows what else, angry and ashamed about losing their game, and the parents wonder why they're spending so much on an activity their kid obviously hates, or loves to hate, or hates to love.
At the age of four, you kid has this choice to make, you have this choice to make for your kid, and I bet you don't like the sound of either. It's like people say about politics: which is the lesser of 2 evils?
It doesn't have to be that way. You can have your cake and eat it to, except it's a far more expensive option.
The key words are "balance", agreement" and "cooperation".
Balance: In this digital age, a person is damn near unable to exist without basic knowledge of the operation of electronics. But if a person immerses themself in mental digitalis, they are wasting the potential of the physical, and a person get's larger. If you teach your child to incorporate both in her life, and to keep those scales balanced, it will help both of you immensely.
Agreement: You must learn to nurture the natural talents and tendancies of your child's abilities. These abilities will become her greatest assets in later life, but she will only develop them if she knows she has your support. This means financial as well as saying "I support you."
Cooperation: Competitive sports teach kids to fight. While this may be good business for the defence forces of your country, it's not good for the psyche of your child to grow up feeling hateful, angry, frustrated, depressed, embarressed, or any of the other emotions that both winning and losing can foster.
To cooperate with others on a joint project that everyone benefits from is possibly the most vital lesson every child must be taught and regularly reminded of. However many schools have their priorities mixed up.
The things our kids are taught today will develop into beliefs our kids will live by when we are dead and gone. If we teach competition, they will play wargames, if we teach cooperation they will become the Mother Theresa's, Gandhi's and Martin Luthor King's of the new world.
So here's my question to you ...
Are you going to place your child infront of a TV, send her to play hide and seek or chasey with friends, or take the third option? it is at this fragile age where your decision makes the most impact!
So what are some third options?
Firstly, given that it's about sharing, there should be other 4 year olds around her most of the time. sleep overs, camping and overnight functions are excellent atmospheres for your kids. When I was young I was almost never refused the chance to sleep over at a friends house, and if the balance of being over there was similar to having friends over my place, I was almost never refused that either. At age 4, parents may need to suggest sleep overs to kids more often then they do to keep them interested in knowing other people, but make it clear that your not trying to get rid of them.
Secondly, it is best to keep them productive and creative. Art, cooking, studying, music, puzzles, reading, writing, travelling (cycling, pony riding, walking, exploring, sightseeing), playing with pets and other animals, and most of all talking are all great suggestions for activities for a 4 year old. Some may need parental supervision, but it doesn't have to be you (cooperate and take turns with other parents, or pay professionals to take the responsibility). Other excellent people your child can be left with for long periods safely are family, especially grand parents. They will more often than not jump at the opportunity to spend a few days with the young one, knowing they are also giving you a break and the child a change in environment. Again, everyone wins.
Lastly, kids will more often than not mirror and copy their parents actions, so if they see you alone a lot, or just you and your partner, they will deduce there is something undesirable about being in the company of others. If you are dead tired after work, explain it to them so they know your not just brushing your friends off, and make being "dead tired" a rare occurance, because they will want your attention too, and you are more likely to give them and yourself an instant meal like fast food, which teaches them "do as I say, not as I do." A hipocritical phrase I find deplorable and far too commonplace. "Eat proper, nutritional food all the time. Now here's your happy meal."
If you are going to sit them infront of a box, play something educational, relative to their age. Documentaries, such as nature documentaries, as excellent stimulus for learning about status and authority, which is important for a child. It is equally important to give some explanation for the orders you give, so they understand the first few times, and then whenever they hear that order they will be able deduce why the order was given.
It is natural instinct for a young child to love their parents unconditionally, but as they grow up that love can become very conditional, and if parents don't comply they can learn to hate. Other kids grow up to develop very few conditions on their love for their parents, but very, very few grow up with no conditions at all. How do you want your kid to think of you in 30 years?? Are you really "Just doing the best you can"?
Kids today are growing up in an accellerated environment, critics call "the fast lane." From computing to comuting to communicating, everything is turned on and connected and previous generations are often not trained to that level.
The common response to this dialemma is to let kids have their superpowerful electronics, sit an the computer or TV for hours, and everyone's happy. It doesn't work that way.
I grew up in that sort of environment. My parents treated me that way, and I spent the majority of my childhood and teenage years alone with the boxes. I fel like I understood them and they understood me, and human beings were too damn complicated, unpredictable and malicious. I was also obese, loved fast food, started drinking alcohol heavily, smoked cigarettes, dropped out of school, parents divorced, and I stayed unemployed for years.
I now have my life on track, but ONLY because I realised what I was doing to myself and chose differently. Not even 1 of the failures in my past continues to exist. For most of my generation that is not true. If you won, you kept on winning; if you lost, your probably dead by now.
Technological saturation may be the easy way out for parents, but it's the hardest road a kid can possibly be led down.
It seems the only other alternative is competitive sports, where kids are bashed and beaten, come home covered in mud, blood and who knows what else, angry and ashamed about losing their game, and the parents wonder why they're spending so much on an activity their kid obviously hates, or loves to hate, or hates to love.
At the age of four, you kid has this choice to make, you have this choice to make for your kid, and I bet you don't like the sound of either. It's like people say about politics: which is the lesser of 2 evils?
It doesn't have to be that way. You can have your cake and eat it to, except it's a far more expensive option.
The key words are "balance", agreement" and "cooperation".
Balance: In this digital age, a person is damn near unable to exist without basic knowledge of the operation of electronics. But if a person immerses themself in mental digitalis, they are wasting the potential of the physical, and a person get's larger. If you teach your child to incorporate both in her life, and to keep those scales balanced, it will help both of you immensely.
Agreement: You must learn to nurture the natural talents and tendancies of your child's abilities. These abilities will become her greatest assets in later life, but she will only develop them if she knows she has your support. This means financial as well as saying "I support you."
Cooperation: Competitive sports teach kids to fight. While this may be good business for the defence forces of your country, it's not good for the psyche of your child to grow up feeling hateful, angry, frustrated, depressed, embarressed, or any of the other emotions that both winning and losing can foster.
To cooperate with others on a joint project that everyone benefits from is possibly the most vital lesson every child must be taught and regularly reminded of. However many schools have their priorities mixed up.
The things our kids are taught today will develop into beliefs our kids will live by when we are dead and gone. If we teach competition, they will play wargames, if we teach cooperation they will become the Mother Theresa's, Gandhi's and Martin Luthor King's of the new world.
So here's my question to you ...
Are you going to place your child infront of a TV, send her to play hide and seek or chasey with friends, or take the third option? it is at this fragile age where your decision makes the most impact!
So what are some third options?
Firstly, given that it's about sharing, there should be other 4 year olds around her most of the time. sleep overs, camping and overnight functions are excellent atmospheres for your kids. When I was young I was almost never refused the chance to sleep over at a friends house, and if the balance of being over there was similar to having friends over my place, I was almost never refused that either. At age 4, parents may need to suggest sleep overs to kids more often then they do to keep them interested in knowing other people, but make it clear that your not trying to get rid of them.
Secondly, it is best to keep them productive and creative. Art, cooking, studying, music, puzzles, reading, writing, travelling (cycling, pony riding, walking, exploring, sightseeing), playing with pets and other animals, and most of all talking are all great suggestions for activities for a 4 year old. Some may need parental supervision, but it doesn't have to be you (cooperate and take turns with other parents, or pay professionals to take the responsibility). Other excellent people your child can be left with for long periods safely are family, especially grand parents. They will more often than not jump at the opportunity to spend a few days with the young one, knowing they are also giving you a break and the child a change in environment. Again, everyone wins.
Lastly, kids will more often than not mirror and copy their parents actions, so if they see you alone a lot, or just you and your partner, they will deduce there is something undesirable about being in the company of others. If you are dead tired after work, explain it to them so they know your not just brushing your friends off, and make being "dead tired" a rare occurance, because they will want your attention too, and you are more likely to give them and yourself an instant meal like fast food, which teaches them "do as I say, not as I do." A hipocritical phrase I find deplorable and far too commonplace. "Eat proper, nutritional food all the time. Now here's your happy meal."
If you are going to sit them infront of a box, play something educational, relative to their age. Documentaries, such as nature documentaries, as excellent stimulus for learning about status and authority, which is important for a child. It is equally important to give some explanation for the orders you give, so they understand the first few times, and then whenever they hear that order they will be able deduce why the order was given.
It is natural instinct for a young child to love their parents unconditionally, but as they grow up that love can become very conditional, and if parents don't comply they can learn to hate. Other kids grow up to develop very few conditions on their love for their parents, but very, very few grow up with no conditions at all. How do you want your kid to think of you in 30 years?? Are you really "Just doing the best you can"?
What would you put in a prize bag for a 4 year olds birthday party?
chicken200
I am giving my son a birthday party he will be four. I am just getting some ideas what kind of prizes I can give the kids. I plan on having some games. I do plan on at the end giving all the kids a prize so nobody is left out. I am thinking of little things from the dollar store. Like cars and dolls. I got these little bags from target that were in the clearance section. The kids are in pre-K. 3-4 year olds.
Answer
Any of the following:
Small canisters of play-dough
Hot Wheels cars (popular with both boys and girls at this age)
Mini slinkies or Silly Putty
Glow sticks - available inexpensively around Halloween
Mini bottles of bubbles
Party blowers (preschoolers LOVE these!)
Punch balloons
Toy "treasure" - coins or jewels
Stickers
Kazoos or train whistles
Prism scopes
Sunglasses
Larger bouncy balls or light-up balls
Plastic bugs, frogs, or dinosaurs
Fingerpuppets
Shaped erasers or fun pencils
Wind-up toys
Parachute toys
Tops
Play money
A single, fun candy item such as Pop Rocks, small pack of M& Ms, ring pop, or candy necklace
Any of the following:
Small canisters of play-dough
Hot Wheels cars (popular with both boys and girls at this age)
Mini slinkies or Silly Putty
Glow sticks - available inexpensively around Halloween
Mini bottles of bubbles
Party blowers (preschoolers LOVE these!)
Punch balloons
Toy "treasure" - coins or jewels
Stickers
Kazoos or train whistles
Prism scopes
Sunglasses
Larger bouncy balls or light-up balls
Plastic bugs, frogs, or dinosaurs
Fingerpuppets
Shaped erasers or fun pencils
Wind-up toys
Parachute toys
Tops
Play money
A single, fun candy item such as Pop Rocks, small pack of M& Ms, ring pop, or candy necklace
Powered by Yahoo! Answers
No comments:
Post a Comment