Is it normal for a 3 year old to completely lose interest in things?

[vladthedisorganised]

Just puzzled really.

DD is 3.6 and loved 'writing' up to about three months ago. She doesn't colour in - just makes huge scribbles; doesn't draw anything more than the same huge scribbles, but showed a real interest in writing from age 2.7 onwards. She enjoyed tracing over the letters of her name, could hold a pen 'correctly' and made small swirly marks inside two lines - some of which became recognisable letters (e, c and s) over a few months. I have lots of pens and paper around the house and a wipe-clean board; plus a couple of join-the-dots books which I thought DD might enjoy.

Now she seems to have lost any interest at all in it - she won't hold a pen, won't trace letters, and will only scribble in a colouring book if there's absolutely nothing else to do. The dot-to-dot books got scribbled on once and haven't been touched since - she doesn't want to do any kind of join-the-dots type things at all.

Is this normal? She was fascinated by it for ages so it's kind of surprising she's dropped it like a hot potato. I suppose I'm just hoping her interest comes back before school starts!

What other toys, games, activities etc has she got? At that age she needs as many creative and imaginative activities as possible; trying to 'make' her do educational things could do more harm than good in the long run.

I was a primary school Teaching Assistant and voluntary helper for over twenty years, mostly with Reception, Yr1 and Yr2, but I also worked with Nursery children. They used to love making me 'pretend' cups of tea, cake etc from Playdough; I would eagerly and noisily 'eat and drink' their offerings, then we might talk about what they were going to give me for lunch!

Does DD go to nursery, pre-school etc? Dot-toDot is too advanced, because it requires the child to know numbers so the dots can be joined in the correct order.

Give her magazines and catalogues and a pair of child-friendly scissors for her to cut things out; then a scrap-book or some other plain paper book and a suitable glue or Pritt stick, to stick things down with.

Make her a pretend 'washing line' and plastic pegs, so she can peg out dolls' clothes, or clothing pictures on the line. As she gets older, make number and letter cards which she can peg up, in the correct order once she starts to understand about sequencing. Also large dice and counting activities are good, or dominoes to match the dots (and there are lots of commercial card-matching games.)

Give her Duplo or Lego bricks for manipulative and building activities. Do sewing or weaving with her, either on stiff paper, light card or coarse cloth and a blunt needle, and use thick coloured wools.

DON'T HAVE the radio or TV on all day; share special programmes with her for short periods of time, and talk to her about them. If you can sing, or play an instrument, do music with her. Get her inexpensive percussion instruments, or make them from yougurt pots, part-filled with dried peas, pasta, so they have different sounds when shaken.

Probably the most valuable thing of all is talking to her, and reading stories.

DO NOT plonk her down with something and leave her to get on with it; SHARE as much of your time with her as possible. I realise you may be busy with other things, but shared time is very important.

TRY NOT to spend too much time on your phone or computer, leaving her neglected.

Enjoy her while she is at home: you'll miss her when she does go to school.

Yes, I think it's quite normal. I found DD would spend lots of time on one particular thing then once she'd 'cracked it' to her standards she'll drop it and concentrate on something else. After she drew her first recognizable picture she didn't draw anything else for 6mths!

Worry not, they just develop in funny ways sometimes.

Thanks both. DD tends to play a lot with the dolls' house at the moment, is occasionally interested in baking, and likes train sets/ cars a lot. She is at nursery but enjoying it less these days; they used to do a lot of things like drawing and writing but it seems to be a lot less now for some reason. Apparently she will have a go at writing her name if pushed now, where previously she would jump at the chance.

Her counting is pretty good - she can get to 15, skip 15 and go on to 20 - and she can recognise most of the letters though mixes up B and P. She's very good at memory games, always has been - I've tried dominoes but she's very insistent that my rules are wrong, same with playing cards as she has her own rules.

I do try to limit TV time although she would happily watch more if I let her. I also try to make sure I'm joining in with whatever she does, even if it's a) interfering with all the stuff I should also be getting on with like housework - I live in a midden - and b) involves 'making soup' out of marbles and wooden vegetables for an hour. They do a fair bit of glueing at nursery so she's gone off it by the time she gets home, but I'll try the washing line idea.

I suppose the drawing/painting/writing was a lot nicer for me as I could happily sketch alongside her, which is easy to do after a day's work when I'm tired and she isn't!