Fostering fun, wit and humour (4 to 6 years)

From the age of 4 to 6, all types of humour continue to grow - physical, verbal and creative. Children will find humour in more and more situations, and will also try to create situations which are humorous.

See our article on why humour is an important skill to develop in a child.

Here are some tips on how Indian parents can encourage a sense of humour in children between the ages of 4 and 6 (kindergarteners):

• Laugh with your child. Often they may find something funny that you don't. If it is not offensive, do laugh along with them. It gives them the encouragement they need to try and be humorous.
• Just act silly. Be a child yourself. For example, walk with exaggerated gestures or waddle like a penguin or walk backward. Do a silly dance.
• Use things in a way they are not meant, like, putting a toy on your head as a hat.
• Funny books with rhyming words, like the works of Dr. Seuss (Cat in the hat, Horton hears a who etc.), will be very entertaining from the age of 3
• When you are reading a book, there may be some funny or incongruous pictures in it. If your child comments on these, discuss it with them and laugh with them.
• At this age, children will also try to point out funny situations by themselves. Encourage them when the humour is appropriate. It will increase their confidence.
• Getting children to tell you a story themselves is a great way to create a funny situation.

Feel free to add any more tips in the comments below....

rukmini 2011-07-08 15:22:45

Wow Roshmom, you are great!!!!!! (as always)

seerat 2011-07-08 11:31:42

I too try all this.gud points.

RoshMom 2011-06-01 18:37:43

I quite agree that being silly and doing funny things actually makes it easier to handle the kids when they throw tantrums or when they are being fuzzy. we (Ds and I) do lots of funny stuff. point 2 : I do make lots of funny faces and funny noise. like when my DS twists my nose, i make noise just like a squeaky toy. I change the tone depending on how long he twists or squeezes. When i become tired i say the battery got drained and i don't make noise. we take pictures of funny faces esp during the parties or outings with his friends. Point 3 : he used to be a little fuzzy when the shower takes a little more time to get warm water. Though he knows it takes few secs, he used to complain a lot. Now what I do is tell him that the hand shower is the dragon looking for someone to spit fire on and move the handshower slowly towards him. Now it's all fun for him. I make chapathi out of him (pretending him to be dough). while kneading the dough, he laughs his heart out. these days he suggests some object what i want to pretend him to be. I turn him into a table and keep the plate on and eat from it or a plant from which we pluck leaves or a dish which I scrub to make it clean. Point 4: Even at the age of 5.5 he laughs so much when we sing the rhymes such as 'this little piggy goes to market' and tickle him. Sometimes i give him piggy back ride and sing 'Hurry little pony' song or '10 little horses galloping to town' and at the end of the songs i say '1, 2, 3 and pudum' and drop him on the bed. And sometimes the horse becomes too tired and becomes a grizzly bear and we sing 'Oh Grizzly bear, Oh Grizzly bear is sleeping in his cave' and at the end, i scream "do not wake him. do not shake him or he's sure to growl". We play a game to see who can stay for longer without laughing. Not even once he could stay quiet for longer than 5 secs. point 5 : We read a book called 'The perfect little monster' in which the monster family is very grumpty, they snarl,they mess up things and they don't follow any manners. Once in a while we pretend to be a monster family and tell him that i hate to see him smile or tell him how rude it is to say Please and thank you. It's so much fun to laugh with kids..