Where to start

If you have a little girl in this age range, you might be considering starting preschool with them. They are curious and bright with so many questions. They seem ready to learn their letters and numbers, but if you have actually tried you will probably find that one minute they know what A is and the next they don’t. If you try to get them to sit, they end up under their chair or rolling around on the ground. Although it is tempting to start preschool at this age, I would wait till their brains and bodies are ready to process and retain the information you want them to learn. So what should we be doing with these little girls who seem so eager to learn?

If you have both girls and boys, you might already be aware of the vast differences between the species. Little boys in general seem determined to try to jump off the tallest rocks and you spend an astronomical amount of your time keeping them from injuring themselves, but they also seem almost proud of their injuries. Little girls can be just as active and energetic, or not, but seem to actually care about injuring themselves. At 2 ½ to 3 ½ both genders seem to delight in making giant messes, in running around in circles and creating absolute chaos, but testosterone is already surging through little boys at this age causing them to seek additional adrenaline experiences. This isn’t to say all boys, or all girls, are the same. There are vast differences in temperament, personality and family dynamics, but I will write a separate blog for boys of this age because their needs usually are different than girls.

What should girls from 2 years 6 months to 3 years 6 months be doing, if not early academics?

First, and foremost, children this age need 3 hours a day of outside time or movement play. Even if they are playing in the sand or drawing with chalk outside, that still counts because the feel of the sun on their face, the sound of birds chirping, and the smell of grass are still engaging their senses in ways that being indoors does not. Ideally, girls should be spending an hour and a half outside in the morning and in the afternoon. If not able to be outside, the 3 hours should be made up of indoor movement play that uses their whole body. If a child does not get these 3 hours a day of either outside or movement time, they will show it at bedtime.

The second most important element of your schedule for this age group of girls is being around other children their own age. Aim for about 5 hours a week around other children from 1 to 5 years of age. This can be at the park, or an indoor play place, and will also count towards your outside or movement time. Even if your child has siblings, it is important for girls this age to still spend time around other children to develop language, social, and emotional skills. Making friendships is also an important developmental step for this age and seeing the same children on a regular basis is the best way to help your child make friends. Friendships allow children to practice their relationship skills and executive functioning skills. These are things like sharing, take turns, cooperative play, conversational skills, and having empathy for another child.

The third most important element is sensory play. Two and three year olds are still integrating their senses and this needs to happen before their brains will be ready for formalized learning. This should look like two 30 minute sessions of play dough, kinetic sand (if 3), dried beans, water play, or even helping you bake and playing with the dough. This would also include playing with instruments, playing with kid-safe flashlights in a tent, or driving toy cars along a toy road. Sensory play should rotate between texture, sound, balance and visual experiences.

The fourth element of a child’s day at this age should be open-ended art time. This should be separate than sensory play or outside/movement play and should be for 30 minutes twice a day. This would include drawing with large crayons, markers, finger paints, dot markers, shaving cream, large foam stickers, and large butcher paper or construction paper. This should be messy and I recommend a designated spot for this play. This art time should be all about the process and should not be geared towards any end product. This is also about sensory integration, fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, and cause and effect. Art smocks are also helpful.

Building Blocks for Learning

There are some other elements that you can start to incorporate into your schedule as your child shows that they are ready for them. These are building blocks towards pre-academics. They develop executive function skills like focus, turn taking, and patience. Some girls will be ready for all of these things at 2 ½, while others may not be ready till closer to 3 ½.

The first is structured art projects with an end product. This is where you introduce smaller crayons, smaller markers, paint brushes, colored pencils, water colors, kid scissors, and glue sticks. The fine motor skills needed to use smaller crayons and markers, paint brushes, and scissors don’t usually develop until around age 3. Before that age, they may also struggle with the sequence of steps needed to use these tools. Once your child is ready, you can replace two of your open art sessions a week with structured art sessions. These should be heavily parent led and supervised at first as your child learns new skills, but over time this should evolve into creating art projects together. For context, my oldest daughter was exactly 3 when she was ready for this and I used a child’s craft book for inspiration.

The last category is game time. This is when your child is ready to follow simple rules with game boards or cards. Pick games that you can adapt so there is no clear winner. Games like Duck, Duck, Goose or tag are great around this age. Games that involve taking turns and minor disappointments are also good to introduce. Look for game boards that are recommended for ages 3 or 4. You may have to adapt them though. This is a great time to also introduce real puzzles that you and your child do together. This would replace two of your sensory play sessions a week. For context, my oldest daughter was 2 and 9 months old when she was ready for this, but we started with just 15 minutes.

Sample Schedule

• 7:00 am                 Wake up
• 7:30 am                 Breakfast
• 7:50 am                 Clean up
• 8:00 am                 Sensory play or Game/Puzzle time
• 8:30 am                 Clean up/Set up art
• 8:40 am                 Open Art Time or Structured Art Time
• 9:10 am                 Prepare snack
• 9:15 am                 Snack time
• 9:30 am                 Outside/Movement/Socialization Time
• 11:30 am              Free play
• 12:00 pm              Lunch
• 12:30 pm              Clean up
• 12:45 pm              Transition for nap
• 1:00 pm                 Nap time
• 2:15 pm                 Wake up
• 2:45 pm                 Snack time
• 3:00 pm                 Outside/Movement/Socialization time
• 5:30 pm                 Free play
• 6:00 pm                 Dinner time
• 6:30 pm                 Sensory play
• 7:00 pm                 Open art time
• 7:30 pm                 Bath
• 8:00 pm                 Bed time