Child Development in Young kids: The Changling School Child!

Young kids change rapidly once they become school children. We'll look at some of the developmental milestones in young children and Law of Attraction Tips (LOAP TIPS) to inspire you on your parenting journey.

In many countries, young children start school at five - many having attended pre-school/kindergarten for part of their earlier years. What can your five year old do physically by this stage?

Milestones for Young Kids

• Holding a pencil properly and show reasonable control: tracing letters, and mostly colouring inside the lines.
• Young Children can reproduce many shapes, triangles, circles, squares etc.
• School aged children can start to use diagrams to assemble constructions - lego, three dimensional building blocks.
• Young kids can use scissors and mostly cut a straight line.
• Most school kids probably have a dominant hand by now.
• They are able to balance on either foot.
• School children can skillfully ride a tricycle, and many young children learn to ride a bike at this stage.
• By five, your child can jump, hop, skip fairly confidently.

The ABCs

Many young children have learnt to recite the ABCs, but don't really have much of a concept about what the letters represent. They may recognize their name and a few other words. However, by school age, young kids start to understand upper and lower case letters, and increasingly gain enough understanding to read and write.

Initial writing is usually copying, but as their vocabulary increases along with their cognitive abilities, they start to be able to figure out words and attempt to write them. Spelling of course is not a skill at this stage.

Young Kids and Numbers

Young children start to develop better cognitive abilities. Counting, perhaps up to 100, and recognizing numbers.

A school child can start to learn to tell the time, and can relate daily activities to a time frame. They start to understand a calendar - moving from how many 'sleeps' until Christmas, to understanding months.

Young kids start to understand money, recognizing the various coins and understanding purchase power!

School Kids and Concepts

There are a lot of more complex cognitive development that happens from now on in young children. They start to understand comparisons and relationships.

for example:

• Which glass has more water? Which has less?
• Rank or order things from Smallest to Biggest; Shortest to Tallest etc.
• Group things by shape or size, or with two categories, such as all the round red objects, all the tiny yellow pieces.
• Can understand positions, First, Second, Last; Oldest Middle, Youngest etc.
• Can understand simple fractions, how many pieces if the cake is cut in quarters?

Language

Your school kid will have a Vocabulary of approximately 1,500 words! He can put them into sentences using around seven words at a time. School age children start to understand tense; went, swam, and start saying things like "I jumped", instead of "I jump" (adding ed to verbs).

Young kids can tell a story, first from looking at the pictures in a book and telling something familiar, then beginning to make up stories about an event or pictures.

Humor starts to develop at this stage, telling jokes and playing tricks is a favorite (and yes, you do have to laugh even though you have heard it ten times already!) Humor is one of the hardest things for speakers of other languages to pick up. Even very competent English or Spanish speakers have difficulty picking up humor (and sarcasm) in a language that wasn't their first. The younger the child is in learning a second language, the more familiar it will be. Young kids pick up languages far easier than adults!

Social Interaction

As a young child's language develops, their social skills also increase. Being able to communicate verbally increases the interaction - but don't dismiss the importance of non verbal communication. Your school age child will start to develop close friends, sometimes having a best friend. The ability to play co-operatively increases, sharing toys and ideas and taking turns. Young kids imagination is wonderful, and some of their games are full of incredible play-acting.

Middle School Years

One of the obvious physical changes, is loosing teeth!
Click here for my LOAP TIP (above) about the Toothfairy!

There are often rapid changes in height and most school age children gain about 4.5 lbs or 2 kg per year in body mass.

Physical control becomes greater, and most young kids enjoy lots of vigorous physical activity - sports, ball games, riding a bike, swimming. (not me, I could mostly be found hiding between the bookcase and a chair, reading!).

Many children at this age have trouble sitting still. A good teacher will balance expectations of quiet, concentrated time, with time to let off steam!

Fine motor skills increase, with school kids developing greater abilities with writing, drawing, and assembling detailed models. Your child's concentration span increases, particularly when they are interested in something.

School kids have fun with problem solving and sorting activities like puzzles and mazes and word find games. As young children get older they become more self-sufficient, tying shoelaces, packing their own schoolbag, remembering to take a special item to school.

Rude Words and Tricky Questions

As young kids grow up, they start to explore more complex language, and start experimenting with slang and swearing, often finding rude words hilarious. You will sometimes have almost adult like conversations and discussions about things they are curious about. They will start to ask the hard questions, such as questions about death and dying or why some children in other countries don't have a house or enough food.

This will be a real challenge to your Law of Attraction teachings! Try to be as honest as you can. If you are not sure about what you believe, then say that. Young children pick up on your confusion or uncertainty anyway and will just keep asking more questions! I will address some of these BIG questions in other articles.

Education

If you are interesting in looking at alternatives to traditional schooling, check out our pages about Homeschooling and Unschooling. We even have a mini forum where you can ask other parents questions or contribute activities.

What is the advantage of homeschooling your young kids?
This article talks about the advantages of homeschooling, and how to minimise the cons, such as social isolation and getting support.

Readers Contributions and Questions from Parents about Homeschooling
Articles and Questions from other parents, discussing the pros and cons of homeschooling. Ask Questions, post your reply, share your experience. We have even had a young boy write in and give us his perspective.

Unschooling, a more radical approach to homeschooling
This article explores Unschooling and how it differs from more conventional homeschooling.

Share your homeschooling activities here!
What homeschooling activities are other parents doing with their children? Get inspiration and share your success stories.

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What's Next?

From Young Kids to Pre Teens
Is your daughter 11 going on 18? This article looks at the wonderful world of pre-teenagers. Just before they blossom into adolescence.

Click here for Information and LOAP TIPS about Adolescent Psychology.
What's happening in their head? How are they feeling, what's important for Teenagers?

Adolescent Physical Development.
Information about Physical Development and Sexuality in Teenagers and LOAP TIPS to inspire you.

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Resources for Parents

Disciplining children.
For more ideas on how to discipline a child read my article on disciplining kids and teens.

Do Children Misbehave?
More ideas on handling misbehaving children, and understanding their needs.

Ask Annie
Online Coaching with Annie - Do you have a question about school aged children? Need some help with behaviour issues or challenges with school? For only $9.95 your question and my answer becomes a page here on our site, so together we inspire other parents. PLUS you get a free copy of my e-book worth $29.95 - Manifesto for Inspired Parents: How to Raise Happy, Inspirational Children.

Click the link above and scroll to the bottom to read what other parents have asked.

Negotiating with Teens
Teenage years can be a delight and a challenge for many parents. Heres some ideas on handling some of those tricky times!

Teenage Behavior
This Audio answers questions from readers about communicating with teenagers. You can listen to it here, or my members can download this and many others on our Parent Coaching Membership site.

LoaParentCoach.com
I'm really excited that our LOA Parent Coaching Membership site is now up and running. We have a great community, lots of coaching audios, teleseminars, blogs and more added all the time.

Free Law of Attraction Parenting Games.
Read about the importance of play and having fun with your kids and get your free coaching course, Law of Attraction Games.

Parenting Coach
Interested in having a Parenting Coach to empower you to be the parent you aspire to be?

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