Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments helping to balance out 3,5 year old

Side note on the Trio, if your kids do not have strong hands it can be hard to snap and unsnap the blocks which can frustrate kids with low frustration levels (know this from personal experience!).

well yesterday I sat at the table with them with some traditional blocks and they did play for them a little bit, but it was interesting HOW my three year old used them. First she made three little houses then acted out the Three Pigs again and again in different ways, then used a big flat bowl and put different blocks in there in different ways and had them represent things: three standing blocks were three rooms, then small blocks were different characters, etc. She basically used them the way she uses figurines and Playdough (to illustrate stories) which are the types of toy she likes the best. In a way I think it was good for her because she had to really stretch her imagination to think of blocks as pigs. I am not going to force things on her though. I'll check into some other building things and put them out and let her do whatever she wants with them. She is too strong willed and stubborn for me to make her do anything anyway!

My father told me that all the "stupid" people went into the humanities. Hence I spent three years as an engineering major hating every second but...still achieving. Perhaps it was this train of thought that got me thinking about the "wordy vs. mathy" topic. Still lingering issues over the value of non-math abilities.

I think it is hard to overcome societal gender training. At the young ages of your children I would simply encourage them to do what they love which it sounds like you already do! :-)