Preschoolers have a natural inclination to be silly. They like to rhyme words meaninglessly, make up new words, and come up with new words for every day objects.

Kids this age may be too young to appreciate any “real”jokes or riddles, the kind that make older children laugh. What you can do at this age is to encourage their natural silliness. Here are some ways you can encourage a preschoolers sense of fun and laugh with her.

1. Play “silence” games. Everybody sits in a room, not saying anything. The one who laughs first is out of the game. The laughter is even more contagious when there is more than one child in the room.
2. Share funny things that happened during the day with your kids. Tripped on a step at the supermarket? Your preschooler will find it hilarious!
3. Share comic strips in the newspaper that are about hilarious kids his age, like Calvin and Hobbes.
4. Play what if? games. Create outlandish scenarios. What if she was in charge of the house for a day? What if your pet was a dinosaur?
5. Tag any day of the week as “special.” Have a Roller Skating Day when you wheel yourselves around the house. Or a “Blender Day” when you whip up juices together. Let her come up with her own ideas for the Day.
6. Laugh at her jokes, even if it takes her 20 minutes to get to the punch line. It’s important for her to know that she has the power to make others smile.
7. Place an empty carton at the door way, and insist that she has to crawl through the carton and into the house every time she wants to come in that day. Encourage her natural playfulness.

Above all, have fun!