Building listening skills, 3-4 yos

[Gen35]

Anybody read any good books or have suggestions about activities I can do with dd to build listening and concentrating skills? She's 3.5 and likes to do free play all the time especially where she's in charge of the role play game (she's the mummy, she's a princess, im the baddie etc) but pretty difficult to get her to get dressed, sit and do crafts etc and very hard to get her to listen to a story, she 'reads' me stories but rarely listens to me reading to her. She has spent a lot of time in nursery since 10 months and now at home a lot more due to dc2 arriving soon. I do take toys/screens when she refuses to go to bed/get dressed/stop doing something but want ideas to build cooperation positively.

What screens are you talking about? How much screen time is she getting daily? Her desire to do free play all the time is perfectly normal and healthy....as is her need to be in charge. I have to say that most 3 year olds are difficult to pin down when it comes to the boring stuff like getting dressed.

I've always found it works better if you just make a game of it...sing a song about it or do a funny voice. For instance when my DD won't stand still for her hair brushing then I pretend she's a mermaid that I've discovered and that her hair is full of small fish and shells which need to be removed.

She's always happy to stand still then and I narrate the bits I've found! Odd but it works.

I like the mermaid game idea! It's up to an hour at bedtime, probably a couple of hours on weekends. Screens means iPad and TV as she watches things on both. Just don't want to get to school age and find she won't concentrate, listen etc.

Well that doesn't sound excessive at all to me....they're just terrible at doing things they don't want to in my experience

If she has a good imagination (sounds like it!) then she'll love the little scenario type games which get mine through the boring things....be prepared to have to do it every time though sometimes the last thing I want is to improvise finding a mermaid in the bath when all I want to do is get her out and dry her!