During your child’s first few years, he has been aware of and interested in his peers, but he hasn’t quite been ready to play together with those kids and form true friendships. You may have seen him make his first friends at around 2.5 years old, but most children start making friends between the ages of three and four. These friendships are very important to your child and help with his social and emotional development. They teach him how to interact with and relate to others and show him that other people have different interests and opinions than his own.

(Playful Bee is launching our new DIY Preschool from Birth program! Click here to enroll.)

Play Tips:

How can you support your child’s development of this Building Relationships skill at this age? It’s as easy as 1-2-3.

1. Be a good role model. To help your child make friends, it’s important for you to model good social skills. This includes being respectful of others, being a good listener, cooperating, showing consideration, being a good sport, and resolving conflicts graciously. Model these skills in your interactions with your child, but also with any other adult or child that you meet.
2. Spend time with other children. Give your child plenty of opportunities to meet and play with other children. This may be something you formally arrange, like a play date or swim lessons, but it can also be spontaneous, like heading to the local playground or story hour. While there, encourage your child to say hi to the other kids or invite another child to share a toy.
3. Work on conflict resolution. Good friends work out problems together, rather than hurting feelings or “breaking up” over a little problem. However, children need to be taught how to resolve conflicts. Talk about any potential conflicts you come across throughout the day, in real life or in stories or movies, and how you could find a compromise and work out the problem. Some children’s books that deal with conflict resolution include:

• The Knight and the Dragon, by Tomie dePaola
• The Butter Battle Book, by Dr. Seuss
• The Island of the Skog, by Steven Kellogg

(Playful Bee is launching our new DIY Preschool from Birth program! Click here to enroll.)

Developmental Milestones:

Has your baby achieved the following Building Relationships developmental milestones yet? If yes, check off all the skill(s) he has already mastered to date using Playful Bee’s developmental milestones tracker. It’s absolutely FREE and easy to use, just click HERE!

• Desires to please and be like by friends.
• Is sometimes demanding, other times cooperative.
• Expresses anger verbally instead of physically, most of the time.

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Playful Bee

Education Team at Playful Bee

Playful Bee is an e-Preschool that delivers inquiry-based preschool learning from the classroom to your home. Our preschool curriculum was created by our talented team of rock star teachers. With years of hands-on preschool and Kindergarten teaching experience, they've developed a high-quality preschool experience that is convenient-to-use and easy-to-teach by you, grandparents, or your nanny at home.

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