Anyone else have a preschool age kid like this??

[Jenny in GA]

My youngest of three is a boy who just turned four this week.

 

I don't know if this is a boy thing or what, but he has basically three interests:

 

1) Cars/trucks/trains

 

2) Being read to

 

3) Physical play, like riding his tricycle or swimming

 

 

It bothers me a little that nothing else really holds his attention. He might play with play-do for 5-10 minutes if he's playing with someone else.

 

He isn't interested in coloring, puzzles, beads, sorting games, crafts, stickers, Mr. Potato Head, etc. Today I even tried putting uncooked rice in a sand box. His older sisters had fun with it, but he lost interest in less than 10 minutes.

 

You're probably wondering, "Well, who cares?"

 

Well, partly it's hard for me to DO stuff with him, because I'm not really interested in playing with cars with him.

 

Partly, I'm wondering if it means anything -- does it mean he's developmentally young, or is that a typical boy way to be, or what?

 

And partly, it's a little hard to keep him occupied when all the "usual" preschool-age tricks don't interest him at all.

 

Any thoughts?

 

Jenny

[GWOB]

How many things can your hubby focus on at once?;):tongue_smilie:

 

It's a boy thing. My son was exactly the same way, just sub animals for cars. Now, at age 7, he still loves physical play and being read to, but his other interest changes. For example, he is currently obsessed with Greek and Norse mythology. He's reading through Percy Jackson and the D'Aulaire's Greek and Norse mythology books. Before that is was dinosaurs. Before that Pokemon stuff (thank God he outgrew that phase rapidly).

 

Give him time. He'll move on to something else soon enough.

[Mynyel]

:) :grouphug:

 

MY son is now 8...however at 4 all he was interested in was...playing with cars/trucks (like the matchbox/hot wheel ones and of course Lightning McQueen), playing outside or playing a video game.

 

It sounds to me like he is a normal boy!

 

Just do what you can with him....if he likes it when you read GOOD! Mine I have to beg to read to (at least my oldest son, my daughter loves it when I read).

 

Just try different things...painting, coloring that kind of thing. Even if it only lasts 5 minutes that is 5 minutes that you played with him and that time adds up and he will remember when he is older!

[JudoMom]

My youngest of three is a boy who just turned four this week.

 

I don't know if this is a boy thing or what, but he has basically three interests:

 

1) Cars/trucks/trains

 

2) Being read to

 

3) Physical play, like riding his tricycle or swimming

 

 

It bothers me a little that nothing else really holds his attention. He might play with play-do for 5-10 minutes if he's playing with someone else.

 

He isn't interested in coloring, puzzles, beads, sorting games, crafts, stickers, Mr. Potato Head, etc. Today I even tried putting uncooked rice in a sand box. His older sisters had fun with it, but he lost interest in less than 10 minutes.

 

You're probably wondering, "Well, who cares?"

 

Well, partly it's hard for me to DO stuff with him, because I'm not really interested in playing with cars with him.

 

Partly, I'm wondering if it means anything -- does it mean he's developmentally young, or is that a typical boy way to be, or what?

 

And partly, it's a little hard to keep him occupied when all the "usual" preschool-age tricks don't interest him at all.

 

Any thoughts?

 

Jenny

 

Sounds normal to me.

[bluemongoose]

I think it is normal! My DS is 3.5 yo. His interests are all things mechanical. He loves legos, trios, unifix cubes etc. He is always building something and it is usually a machine of some sort- a vacuum, a drill, a hammer etc.

 

I tried to start the RS math games with him as he is interested in #s. I started out with the Popsicle stick tallies in the beginning of the book. He said "no Mommy!" He quickly rearranged the tallies into a row of parallel lines and proudly exclaimed "Heater vent!"

 

I too wondered how to play with him in the same manner all the time, but then I realized...he wasnt really asking me to. He just wanted someone to show his cool things he built to, he wanted me to say it looked great and ask him real questions about the design and function of what he built. Then he wanted me to hug him and wrestle a bit, and then let him go off and build something else.

[Sahamamama]

SWB said in her lecture on teaching writing in the elementary grades that she used to walk through stores and see coloring books and think, "Who buys these? Who has kids who color? They don't really color."

 

She has three sons. :lol: (and a daughter, who colors).

 

I have three girls, and yes, they color! :001_smile: But my sister's sons, when they were little -- cars, trucks, trains, Bionicles, Duplo blocks, little army men, Legos -- these were it for the boys.

 

They also spent their early years playing in the creek mud, riding their bikes, and building a "fort" in the lone tree in the backyard.

 

If your son(s) enjoy(s) being read to, consider yourself blessed. Snuggle and read. Boys are not wired like girls. Yours is normal, you've just gotten used to your daughters.

 

I say to my husband that after three daughters, we'd have quite the adjustment, if we ever had a son......

 

He rolls his eyes and says, "Ain't gonna happen, Honey, ain't gonna happen."

[6packofun]

My almost 4yo is like this. I really try to just go with his current interest (obsession? lol) and he always turns to something else in a few weeks or so. Right now, it's everything Star Wars. Before it was Batman and Iron Man. Sometimes he only wants to play with action figures and sometimes, for days on end, it's little animals or cars or whatever.

 

I try to help him think of NEW ways to play with those same things. For his cars, we will make roads and ramps with all sorts of stuff (building blocks, making a "road" of wide masking tape on the floor, etc.) or attach parachutes to them so that he can drop them from the stairs--OK, not everyone would want to do that...LOL Eventually, he will either get tired of the current thing OR get interested in another toy we've brought into the mix to make the cars or whatever more fun.

 

I am blessed that he doesn't seem to need me with him all the time, or even his siblings, but sometimes he does. Those are stressful times. LOL

[Chris in VA]

Try putting the cars in the rice bin? :D

I don't think you have anything to worry about.

 

When I taught preschool, I used to get parents that were worried because their child only wanted to play in a certain area--typically, it was a boy who just wanted to play in blocks. I reassured them that I could bring most of our curriculum into the block center, and, while I would encourage branching out, their child would be fine.

The trick is to use their interests to give you a structure for the things you want them to know.

 

So, some ideas for you, off the top of my head--

 

Cars and Trucks

Math:

Sort into catagories--sports cars, pick up trucks, cars with doors that open v. cars with doors that don't, etc.

Patterns: blue car, red car, truck--repeat. Can he make a pattern? Can you guess it? Can he add to your pattern?

Put a sticker with a number (or dots) on the roof, then have him match to soap box garages with the same number (or dots)

How many cars fit around the edge of a hula hoop?

How many cars tall is Mom? How many trucks? Why is it different?(non-standard measurement)

 

Art:

Track painting--"drive" thru paint and make tracks on nice, long paper

Cut "roads" from the classified ads--tape on a table top. This can get quite involved--we made a whole town with intersecting streets and boxes/blocks for buildings, then we wrote down words for the buildings and street signs.

 

Literacy:

Town idea, above.

Drive on an outline of a letter. Drive in the rice to make a letter track.

Tell me a story about this car--where has it been? Who owns it?

Let's look at a map--where do you think you'd like to go? Let's look how many miles it is away. How long do you think it would take to drive there?

 

You get the idea, I'm sure!:D

[ChristusG]

Actually, my 3 year old DD is like this and has been since 18 months. She plays with one thing.....her princess figures. She loves to be read to and will sit there forever. But that's all. It's either imagination play with her princesses or reading (she will even sit and look at books for a long time on her own.) She really does not like to play outside, color, do art projects, or anything else.

[FairProspects]

Sounds like both my boys!

 

I agree with Chris in VA, use the cars to do things. Put them in rice, drive them through shaving cream and poster paint, have him sort them by type or color, etc. We use cars and/or trains for every subject in our house :D.

[LizzyBee]

My youngest dd had NO interests as a preschooler and could not sit still long enough to read more than a page or two of a book. She's almost 9 now, and still will not play by herself. Even if she goes out to ride her bike, she wants someone to watch her. I can offer commiseration because I know how hard it is to homeschool the older kids when the preschooler cannot/will not entertain herself/himself and craves constant attention. I used to read and try all those lists of things for the preschooler to do during school and really, it was depressing because they just didn't work for us. :grouphug:

 

ETA: Is your gut telling you that something is wrong? Because if it is, you should trust that; you're with him every day, and we're just getting a snapshot. I've read your post several times and nothing screams out that there is something wrong. But if you were concerned enough to type up a post, there is possibly more going on than your post conveys. My dd didn't have any formal evaluations until age 7, but she is now diagnosed with APD, SPD, ADHD - combined type, and dyslexia. She was very different from my other girls, high maintenance from birth, and by age 4 I suspected she was dyslexic because she is exactly like my dyslexic nephew (who also has SPD and ADHD).

Edited May 18, 2010 by LizzyBee

[Rosie_0801]

My 3 yo daughter is the same. Her interests are climbing things and covering things with blankets. She might listen to a story if I catch her early or late enough in the day.

 

Rosie

[thescrappyhomeschooler]

Totally normal. Playing with play-doh in our house consisted of smashing all the colors together until they turned a putrid gray color. This took a max of 5 mins. Coloring books were pointless. For my guys, it was little action figures instead of cars, but that's all they wanted to play with. They are starting to branch out a little and play with other things now that they're a little older. They will even color their kid menus while waiting at a restaurant now.

 

One thing they did enjoy was shaving cream. I have an old fashioned laminate top kitchen table, and I would squirt them out a big pile of shaving cream to play with. They loved smashing and swirling it around on the table. If you have a plastic tablecloth, I would give this a try. It would occupy them for at least 15 minutes.

Edited May 19, 2010 by thescrappyhomeschooler
didn't want a kitten to die!

[Jenny in GA]

 

ETA: Is your gut telling you that something is wrong? Because if it is, you should trust that; you're with him every day, and we're just getting a snapshot. I've read your post several times and nothing screams out that there is something wrong. But if you were concerned enough to type up a post, there is possibly more going on than your post conveys. My dd didn't have any formal evaluations until age 7, but she is now diagnosed with APD, SPD, ADHD - combined type, and dyslexia. She was very different from my other girls, high maintenance from birth, and by age 4 I suspected she was dyslexic because she is exactly like my dyslexic nephew (who also has SPD and ADHD).

 

 

Good point.

 

I don't think I suspect a true problem. One thing I was wondering is if I'm doing something wrong, that I can't interest him in anything!

 

Mostly it is just a little frustrating to me. For example, if a "what do you do with your little kids during schoolwork" threads, somebody said their son loved Mr. Potato Head and would play with it for hours.

 

I said, "Oh!" and took ours down from a shelf and set it out for him. Nothing! He wouldn't even touch it!

 

And people have suggested that "preschool in a bag" stuff, and I just know it would be a waste of my time to set all that up!

 

Jenny

[Lindy]

My youngest, a son, is 3yo and has three older sisters. When they were his age, they had various interests from books to coloring and crafts to catching bugs and lizards.

 

My son? He plays with his cars and trains. He looks at books. He watches Thomas for a few minutes at a time. He loves outside where he can run and ride his tricycle and throw an occasional ball. But he doesn't care a thing about nature--bugs, birds, creepy crawlies don't interest him at all. He can't slow down enough to enjoy them.

 

But our outside sand and water table brings great joy to him and his cars!

 

I'm not really sure how homeschooling will happen in the future. Yeah, the preschool in a bag activities would be a waste here, too. And my child would try to flush the Mr. Potato Head pieces. Workboxes? Maybe--if I fill them with food and/cars. Boys are just so interesting!

Edited May 19, 2010 by Lindy

[cmarango]

My dd(3) loves her cars/trains and books equally. Until she was recently able to ride her bike and kick and hit a ball well, she was not that interested in going outside. Every now and then I will try to get her into another activity, but that doesn't last very long. With her cars and plastic insects/snakes (forgot to mention those) she can entertain herself for a very long time.