How To Be An Emerging Four-Year-Old

In my third year as a teacher of a three-four year old preschool class, I have made some discoveries.  I am seeing patterns in behaviors of emerging four year olds that I do not recall having read about in child development lessons.  If I was to create a manual for "How To Be An Emerging Four-Year-Old," these are points that I would include.

As you embark on turning four, you learn the term "best friends."  As you are learning this, so are your friends.  Conversations frequently revolve around who is your best friend, who is not your best friend, and how you can't be so-and-so's best friend because you are already someone else's best friend.  Along with this discussion comes tears and occasional physical assault. You may mimic your teachers words of "we are all best friends in our class," when it seems to be to your advantage but you don't really believe it.

Along with discovering best friends, almost four-year-olds begin discovering the opposite sex.  During this time if you are a girl, you begin to fight over who is whose boyfriend.  Such words as "I went to so-and-so's house and you didn't," will be tossed out along with a toss of curls.  Downcast looks begin to appear as a favorite boy is playing with one of your female classmates.  As a girl you tend to show more evidence of staking claim, while what begins to emerge in boys is a strange sense of loyalty.   If you are an emerging four-year-old boy you may begin carrying back packs for female friends, being the daddy to their baby dolls and even being lead around by the collar like a puppy. As a little boy you may just as likely hit the object of your affection as well as to hold hands with her.  It is the beginning of a life long roller coaster involving how to relate to females.

Another three year old characteristic is the obsession with pretending to be a dog or a cat. As a three year old you often cannot resist the urge to crawl on the floor and bark or meow. Sometimes this is preferred to walking.  Smart teachers will learn to capitalize on this phenomenon. Sometimes your teacher will let you crawl like a dog to the destination as a quicker mode of transportation than trying to get you to hold the rope and walk in a line. If you are lucky your teacher will host a dog show.   Providing dog tricks you are to complete and rewarding  you with Scooby Snacks has the potential of keeping you from bouncing off the walls for as much as thirty minutes.  If you want another dog show just run around without listening and she will likely conduct an impromptu dog show for the sake of her sanity.