Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Pre-school Puzzles and a PreK Question

Legos have already been mentioned, but I will mention them again. We started duplo Legos I think the Christmas before 1 year, and have kept building our collection until switching to regular the Christmas before 3. Don't worry about getting rid of the Duplo at the change over time, because duplo and regular Legos mostly fit together.

Also dd now 3 is warm and cold towards jigsaw puzzles. If she likes the picture she will put them together, but she does it for the picture, not for the enjoyment of the puzzle.

Now, games are a different story. I started tic tac toe and hangman when my dd was about your little ones age, or just a little bit older. The hangman may seem strange, but my dd knew her alphabet and how to spell a hand full of words, so she could throw out letters at the time, but I think what she liked was the fact that I was drawing as we played. I usually drew the whole person because she did not win often, but she would keep asking to play again and again. Now we play board games like Surprise Slides, Connect Four, and Ghost Blitz. Also, card games. Lots and lots of imaginary friend games.

As for the daycare... We had no choice. Both parents work, and so she has been in daycare sense she was 3 months old. I personally think it is a net negative, but with some positives.
Negative, she learned to underachieve to fit in at a very young age. That bothers me a lot. But, the positive is that she does have several friends - mostly in the older classes. Neutral, I do not think she has learned very much other than socialization in her pre-preschool. We get report cards every day of the things that they "Learned Today". Everything that she is learning on a daily bases at school are things she knew while she was 1 year old. I suspect she will not learn much in the real preschool which will move upto next.

We do a lot of things less well than I would like with regards to preschool, but we are living in a real life with real life constraints. It does not make sense for either one of us to stay home right now in our careers.