Perserverance

I went to a, "Talking With Toddlers" class a few weeks ago.  I took my neighbor with me and we both agreed we learned a lot.  Have you even been somewhere or experienced something and there is one single thing that defines that event or moment and it's the thing that comes to your mind the most often when you remember that period of time?  The thought I have regularly and repeatedly from the class is "perseverance".

Our instructor (who is also my daughter's lead teacher) said, "if you're watching your child struggling over something, you should be very proud."  The point is, that's how children learn.  Swooping in and doing the activity for the child, such as putting on the socks or opening the jar, isn't helping, it's depriving them of a learning experience.

She said it's good to let them get frustrated.  It's absolutely fine to wait until they're close to giving up and then coming in to give them a helping hand at figuring out the task themselves.

So now, every time I see my daughter set out to put on her underpants or her socks or her shoes herself, I don't fret that she's going to most likely fail; I smile at knowing she'll be busy for a while working hard on learning for herself.

The Big Boy Update:  "I need to go potty."  In the car this morning he told me he had to go.  I asked if he could hold it and got a non-committal response.  So I hurried when we got to the store to get two children out and in the building.  I was close, but I wasn't fast enough.  He lost is just before we got to the bathroom.  But he knew and he asked and he tried to wait. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  Walking up the stairs.  This morning I was in the kitchen and she was in the basement.  I heard her call my name and came to the top of the stairs.  I watched her talk to me while she walked, not crawled, up the stairs with only her hand on the wall for balance.

Fitness Update:  I have missed our trainer.  We did mostly upper body today doing buddy exercises with my neighbor and her broken toe.  I felt like doing a Hulk roar at the end of the workout, my arm muscles were so worked out.

Someone Once Said:  Any statement that starts with “I really ought to—“is suspect. It means you really haven’t analyzed your motives.