4 year old girl with a fur-trimmed hood closes eyes and laughs. There are many milestones to look forward to with your four-year-old, including an increase in social emotional skills.

You Have a 4-Year-Old! Here's What to Expect

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  • A young boy and girl walk down a trail with their arms around each others' shoulders. Teaching your child about what friendship should feel like will help them have healthy boundaries and positive social interactions.

    Teaching Your Child What Friendship Should Feel Like

    As your child enters school, they will be surrounded by plenty of opportunities to develop new and exciting friendships. And while they're sure to have fun, there may be some situations in which they may be confronted by unhealthy behaviors from others and boundary pushing. One of the most important things we can do for our children is to help them develop healthy relationships. A crucial part of this is teaching them what friendship should feel like. Friendship is a fundamental aspect of a child's development and has a significant impact on their self-esteem, social skills, and emotional well-being.

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  • A 4-year-old girl holds her elbow with a forlorn expression. Teaching children at this age to identify their emotions is important for self-regulation and learning to sympathize with others.

    Teaching Your 4-Year-Old to Identify Emotions

    As children grow up, it's important to teach them how to identify and manage their emotions. A child who can identify and communicate their emotions is more likely to self-regulate and deal with them in a healthy manner. Furthermore, they will be able to perceive these emotions in others and have more compassion and better social interactions as they grow older. As a parent or caregiver, you can start teaching your 4-year-old how to identify emotions using some simple techniques.

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  • 4-year-old boy sits in a grass field while reading a book. Reading books is one of the best ways to grow your child's descriptive vocabulary.

    Try These Fun Activities to Get Your 4-Year-Old to Use Descriptive Vocabulary

    Your child's vocabulary is exploding this year, and one aspect of their language you can really work on growing is their ability to describe things. Engaging in fun, creative activities that engage the five senses is a great way to encourage young children to use descriptive vocabulary. From games that rely on their sense of sight or activities that encourage noticing smells and textures, there are plenty of ways to evolve your child's descriptive language in ways that are enjoyable for both of you!

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  • 4-Year-Old boy listens to an audio book with headphones. There are many fun ways to practice active listening skills!

    10 Activities to Practice Active Listening

    Listening is an essential communication skill that is crucial for success in both personal and professional life. The ability to listen actively and attentively helps in understanding others, responding appropriately, and building strong relationships. Naturally, it is important to start developing listening skills from an early age.

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  • Three child's stuffed animals lie side by side, neatly tucked in with a blanket. Creating a serene, organized environment for your toddler is helpful for fostering independence.

    Create a Serene & Organized Environment That Will Foster Independence

    Creating a serene and organized environment for your child is one of the most effective ways to foster independence in them. When a child has a clean, structured, and orderly environment, they are more likely to develop good habits, become more responsible, and feel more in control of their surroundings.

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  • A mother's hands chops up chocolate as her 4-year-old assists. Doing activities together in the kitchen can be a fun and educational experience.

    10 Fun & Safe Ways to Involve Your 4-Year-Old in the Kitchen

    Involving your 4-year-old in the kitchen can be a fun and educational experience for both of you. It's a great way to teach them about healthy eating and develop their motor skills, creativity, and confidence. Furthermore, it gives them a hands-on education about measuring and following directions. It's essential to ensure that these activities are safe and age-appropriate.

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  • 4-year-old girl lies on the grass with a huge smile. There are plenty of fun ways to play with rhyming words that will strengthen your child's literacy skills as they start to read.

    5 Simple Rhyming Games to Play with Your Preschooler

    Playing rhyming games with your preschooler is a fantastic way to develop their language and literacy skills. Rhyming games help children learn about sounds and patterns in words, which lays the foundation for reading and writing.

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  • Mother converses in the bed with her 4-year-old son, who is holding a Storypod and Puss in Boots Craftie. Having regular conversations with your 4-year-old is important for their language and social development.

    Conversing with Your 4-Year-Old

    Talking with a 4-year-old is usually a fun experience, but it can also be challenging at times (yes, we're talking run-on sentences and stories with no ending!) As a parent, caregiver, or educator, it's essential to encourage their language development and social skills during these conversations despite these challenges. At this age, your little one will have a vocabulary of about 1000 words and will be able to speak sentences of around 4-5 words. The more conversations you have with your child, the more opportunity they have to strengthen and expand their skills.

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  • 6-year-old daughter and her father hug, both with big smiles on their faces. There are several ways to fill your child's emotional bucket to ensure that they are growing up healthy and happy.

    6 Ways to Fill Your Child's Emotional Bucket

    With so much on our minds and busy, modern schedules, it can be easy for adults to get wrapped up in just getting through the day. Often, if our little ones are clean, fed, and safe we feel that we've done our duty and can send them off to play. And while these things are important and children should be able to entertain themselves, it's important that we take the time to fill our little ones' emotional buckets to ensure that they are growing up feeling happy, healthy, secure, and confident. Make it a point to spend some real, distraction-free time with your child each day.

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  • Two sets of hands hold cell phones, their owners completely engrossed by the screen

    Is My Own Screen Time Affecting My Children?

    The science behind the effects of screen time on developing minds is well known to most parents. But does adult screen time affect children, as well? While our brains may be fully developed, our screen time can still be detrimental. When parents are overly absorbed by their technology, they tune-out what’s going on around them.

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  • Young child lies on her back with a thoughtful expression on her face.

    Promoting Problem Solving to Raise Independent Kids

    As much as we want to support our children in all areas, it is important that we are training them to eventually become independent, productive adults. One way we do this is to teach them how to solve problems for themselves.

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  • Young child sleeps peacefully next to stuffed bunny

    Creating the Perfect Bedtime Routine in 5 Easy Steps

    There’s no doubt that parents of children of all ages understand the importance of sleep. Aside from preserving parental sanity, a child’s sleep is critical for their development. According to the CDC and the Sleep Foundation, adequate sleep is crucial for preventing poor mental health, obesity, type 2 diabetes, a weakened immune system, and both attention and behavior problems. Yet somehow, about 30% of children in the U.S. don’t get enough sleep.

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