3 years old litlle interest to books, arts and crafts.

[margobambino]

My 3.2 years old DS is not showing much interest when we read stories or books to him. He was better with books when he was 1 and 2 actually. He is not much interested in drawing, painting or gluing etc either. He still is not able to hold a pen properly most of the time and draws only poor circles, dots, etc or scribbles.
When can a DC draw more meaningful staff? How can I draw his attention to books, drawing painting etc rather than running around and climbing everywhere? Do you think his fine motor functions delayed? Should I be worried? Please help....

I'd just let him get on with it TBH margo

They're all different and he is learning lots while he is active, enjoying his physicality and learning how to use his body well. There is plenty of time for the other stuff later.

Does he go to a preschool or nursery at all?

He was going to a nursery for 3 half days, we recently increased to 3 whole days. We haven't heard any negative comments from the nursery about this but they give us examples of his paintings etc sometimes. Staff he does in the nursery is not very good either. for example acoupel of days ago, they glued hats on top of pictures of people with different jobs like nurse, firefighter, etc. DS glued quite poorly it seems. Hats are in the same box but not on their heads much. :)
I'm wondering at what age do others learn these things. For example should a 3 years old be able to draw a person figure?

Sorry for the typing errors; stuff (not staff) and a couple of....

my 3.9 ds just scribbles (and claims he has drawn a rocket). As did dd (5.3), who suddenly decided she liked drawing a year or so ago when she was way behind her peers (not that its a race but YKWIM), and is now very good at it.

he sounds normal to me, I wouldn't worry.

My 3 yr old can do marvellous squiggly lines and ...well, that's it really

Have you seen aquadraw? Dd loves hers ...she still only draws squiggles though

I only asked because our DD does a wide range of activities at nursery and I think sometimes they will do stuff away from home that they won't do with their parents IYSWIM.

3 is really little, i wouldn't worry at all if I were you. He's joining in with the painting and glueing at nursery, and they haven't picked up on any developmental issues, honestly he sounds completely normal, please don't worry

Thanks ISNT. Unfortunately I'm a natural born worrier.
sethstarkaddersmum, at least your DS claims that it is something :) He sounds very sweet.
plonker, I'll try aquadraw, googling it now.
What do you think about my book worry?

I don't think people would have said a 3 year old had to be interested in books a few years ago, it's just that right now there is this obsession with reading to your kids (government leaflets telling you to do it etc) which sets up this expectation and adds pressure.
Wanting to run round all the time rather than sit down and listen to stories seems to me like totally normal behaviour for a 3 year old. Of course MN is full of preschoolers who are reading fluently (apparently!) so if you spend too much time on here you get even more freaked out.

I second Aquadraw, it's such a useful toy - doesn't matter if they put it in their mouths, doesn't matter if they spill it as it's just water, doesn't matter how wrong their drawing goes because it all just disappears in a few minutes.... brilliant stuff.

Is MN full of preschoolers reading fluently? It is scary
I agree that there is a growing obsession about reading. There are DVDs and books called "your baby can read" around.

The trick on here and in RL is to not listen too hard or seriously to anything that anyone says their children can do. It will only lead to misery. I tend to avoid the "what can your 3yo do" type threads as they are always full of people saying things like "DD conducts the London Philharmonic twice a month" "DS can do 6-dimensional maths" "DD has designed and built her own space rocket and the design has been bought by NASA, the original is orbiting Mars" and so on. Just don't do it to yourself

The other thing to remember is that ones who are good at reading might not be good at dancing, ones who are good at climbing might not be good at egg & spoon, and so on. They all have their own talents

I don't read those threads either. Also in RL I try to avoid people who keep comparing their children with others. However, as a mum who is an only child and has no small children in family, sometimes I feel a need for knowing about normal/healthy development. Especially when I feel anxious about something. MN helps with those moments.
Definetely agree, everybody has their own talents.
ISNT, mums you mentioned in your post reminded me a friend of mine who was telling me about her child exceptional puzzle skills last week. Appearantly her DS is doing 60 pieces puzzles not only in a normal way but also by using their back sides. I felt a bit weird for a few mins as my DS is hopless in puzzles. Then I thought, my DH is terrible with puzzles but has PhD.

@ backwards jigsaw boy. I'd be a little at that one too!

As for development etc, he is at nursery and teh people who work there are all trained to spot problems, if there were any they'd be on them like a flash. Relax

the best, best threads are the 'Is my child gifted?' threads where someone comes on and describes what is obviously a very bright child (albeit not an extraordinary one), and a bunch of the other MNers, desperate to put the presumptuous newbie down, reply that what the child is doing (eg knowing all their letters at 3) is actually perfectly average, when in fact it is nothing of the sort.

My take on it is that most children do something exceptionally early and something else exceptionally late and it doesn't really do to focus on either.

But there's nothing wrong with wanting some perspective. I was arguing the other day that there is nothing wrong with asking about reading levels when otherwise you simply don't have the foggiest idea if your child is doing all right because school won't tell you and in some playgrounds no-one ever mentions it.

zapostrophe, my DS definetly meets all the milestones then

I have a big surprise girls! I am very happy despite my back and shoulder pain. A couple of days ago we had started doing a chart and putting happy faces for good things he does and sad faces for bad things. The chart is hung on the wall. Today after nursery, he was a bit naughty and I said I would draw a sad face on the chart. He said he wanted to do the sad face. I said OK, not expecting anything. A couple of minutes later I went to the hall to see the chart and saw that he did really draw a face! Although, it is not possible to understand whether the face is happy or said, it is clearly a face and has 2 eyes and a huuuuge mouth.

Well done to your DS! I'd recomend keeping those first pictures either in a folder or on the wall and add to them over time. I've got pictures on my wall that DS did in pre-school up to the present day (yr3) and it's lovely seeing how they develop over time from those first giant heads with legs coming out of them! Your DS will also one day enjoy looking at pictures he could do when he was little.