I'm a father and a scientist by training. The latter point will become more relevant in a moment.
I'm interested in what people do at home with their preschoolers to encourage their development. Here, I'm talking about the usual things you will come across if you do some digging: fine/gross motor control, sensorial, numeracy, literacy, emotional/social development, resilience/grit.
I imagine this sounds like a science experiment to some, it kind of is and isn't I guess. What I know, by reading over years of scientific research by World leading paediatricians and psychologists is that we should care about preschoolers development in these areas and we should do this by focussing on learning through play (I know, some of you are thinking, you had to read science to figure that out!? Haha). However, as part of our social-norm, we outsource these services through nurseries, etc. This isn't the answer to the problem IMO and we can't rely on this. So what do you do?
The thing that gets me is complacency. I get a lot of this form some close friends and family: "they are a three, let them be, it will be fine", "just leave them to it", "aren't they too young?". I'm really not talking about military school here haha.. I'm literally talking about things like: "here's are some blocks, have fun, create something - let you imagination run wild, now - pause for a moment, can you sort them in size order, and if you can't, that's OK, we'll try later". This process has major benefits for children i.e. fine motor control, spatial navigation which has been shown to correlate with future math and problem solving skills, creativity, building resilience (which has been show to be associated with "success" < let's not get in to show you define that, but just go with it for now).
So I'm intrigued, what do you do? What do you really swear by? Or if you don't do anything - that's fine too! In fact, I want to hear from you, why don't you do anything? I know you care about their future, so what is the reason for letting them just be?
Hoping for some really cool discussion here - call it a Father's day present and hope this question doesn't "rub anyone the wrong way" ;)