Kaitlyn Preschooler Summary: 3.75 Years Old

Daily life, schedule, and routine for a 3.75 year old preschooler. See how the preschooler’s sleep was going and how eating was going.

Preschoolers dancing

This is a summary for Kaitlyn between ages of 3.5-3.75 years old.

EATING

Eating is pretty much the same, though she is starting to be more adventurous again. I wouldn’t call her adventurous, just more than she has been.

I am guessing kids start adventurous, then many (or most) get less adventurous around two, and as they creep up on four they start to get braver. Sometime between 5-6 they get pretty brave…this is all assuming you have them try new things without making mealtime a battleground. And it is just a theory I have right now 🙂

SLEEPING

Oh sleeping. This has been our difficulty in many ways for the last few weeks. 

One big piece of news is that we finally got her a twin bed and moved her out of the toddler bed. She was too old to still be in the toddler. I really should have moved her out between 3-3.5. Closer to 3. It really didn’t cross my mind. But now she is in the twin and loves that.

But she is at that point where she thinks she is old and she wants to get out of bed on her own. I think that is an age appropriate freedom, but I need to get her a new clock. So far we are opperating on light outside, but that will soon start to be unreliable. Her clock just has lines, so I need to get her one with numbers. 

We were having issues with her getting out of her bed for nap for a couple of weeks that was very similar to what we went through with Brayden around this age (see Toddler/Child Getting Out of Bed). She hasn’t been as extreme as he was, but there have been days she hasn’t fallen asleep when she clearly needed to. 

I have used PBSkids.org as incentive as well as sleeping with her animals. 

The difficulty with Kaitlyn is that she is so relaxed and happy about life. If you take something from her, she does her best to see the bright side and be happy about it. That is a great quality, but difficult to work with when you are trying to discipline :). 

I suppose this process is normal as the child gains the freedom to get out of bed on their own. I am fine with her getting out of bed from a nap after she has slept. I actually prefer it. I don’t have a video monitor and she is quiet, so I don’t know for sure if she is awake or asleep. So letting her get up once she is awake is great. There is no need for her to be in bed longer than she is for sleeping. It is just a trick of her learning the rules and me being able to convey them to her. And getting her a new clock.

Nap Timing

Naps were getting hit and miss, but I knew she was not really ready to be hit and miss since she was super emotional if she missed. So I tested out times and found 2 PM to be the new perfect for her nap to begin.

PLAYING

Playing at home is normal. As McKenna is getting older, they are having more fun playing with each other. 

DANCING

Kaitlyn loves dance class. She is a girl who is full of dramatics. When I drop her off, she hugs my leg like she doesn’t want me to go. Then I leave and she jumps around exclaiming how much she loves dance class and how her teacher is the best.

IMAGINATION

Kaitlyn is full of imagination and is a great, believable story-teller. Yesterday we were leaving a friends house and my friend asked her how she liked dance. She asked her about what she did at dance that day. Kaitlyn told her that her teacher wouldn’t let them dance that day.

The girl is good at making up stories that sound real. And only an hour before she was showing off her new moves from the day. It will be tricky to help her distinguish fact from fiction when telling people stories…and thinking them in her head.

Kaitlyn loves to bring me a book and tell me the story as she looks through it. She is a great story teller for sure.

ICE SKATING

We are currently taking ice skating lessons. The first week didn’t go so well for her. She hadn’t taken a nap that day (my fault, and bad move on my part I realized during the lesson).

She was sensitive and nervous. The class was quite large (they have since cut it in half).

The second week, she loved it. My husband put some skates on and stayed right with her through the lesson. She was very happy with that and made great progress while having a lot of fun.

NURTURING

Kaitlyn is tapping heavily into her nurturing right now. Seriously almost every one of my closest friends who live close to me have had babies in the last 4 months, so she is in baby heaven kissing and consoling babies. 

She has always been very caring of others. When McKenna got her stitches out, Kaitlyn cried the whole time. She is very empathetic.

PRIMARY

Kaitlyn has graduated from nursery to primary at church. This was a hard transition for Brayden, but has been a breeze so far with Kaitlyn. She is loving it and I am told participates a whole lot. She is one of those kids who tells lots of stories about her family…and as I have demonstrated, she is good at making up stories, so I have asked to be kept up to date on her stories 🙂 There are great benefits to having a talker of a child–you get lots of information from them easily. At least I don’t have any secrets I am afraid of her telling the world 🙂

OUR SCHEDULE

We have a variation to this for playgroup and dance class, but for the most part:

8:00: Breakfast
9:00: Learning intro. Then get ready(unless she got up at 7, in which case she is already ready and she looks at books or plays with toys while McKenna gets ready).
10:00: Sibling Playtime
10:30: Independent playtime
11:30: Learning activity
12:30: Lunch
1:00: Play with Brayden
2:00: nap
4:00: up. Play until dinner
5:00/5:30: Dinner
6:00: Free play
7:00: Start getting ready for bed
8:00: In bed


About once or twice a week, she plays PBSkids.org or watches 30 minutes of TV. I also have her help with chores. 

 GOOD BOOKS

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3.75 year old routine

4 thoughts on “Kaitlyn Preschooler Summary: 3.75 Years Old”

  1. My daughter turns 3 tomorrow and we have had great success with the My Tot Clock (www.mytotclock.com) to help with the transition of when she can get out of bed herself. It basically changes colors to let her know when it is okay to get up and after just a couple of nights, this worked like a charm!

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  2. i'm just curious on days she naps, how long is she napping? Do you have to wake her?I recall you had nap issues with her before (i think about a year ago) and you found it was lack of exercise for the winter. We have an unfinished basement and it is great for days we can't go outside! And days she doesn't nap, how early does she go to bed?Mine is almost 4 and she skipped her 1st nap just last month! Quite amazing! But she seems to be shortening nap on her own most days but thankfully longer nights (but I do still do earlier bed on shorter nap days too)So we started this transition I'd say the last month or two.

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  3. Amanda, thanks for that! We are trying to teach her to read a normal clock, but if that doesn't work, I will definitely look into that.

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  4. Yvonne, most days I do not have to wake her, she wakes after two hours. Sometimes 1.5. Yesterday I had to wake her and she took a long time to fall asleep that night. Days she doesn't nap, we just keep bedtime the same. Maybe 30 minutes earlier if needed.Thanks for the reminder on the physical exercise thing! I will have to pay attention to that!

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