The Buzzert Deferral

I saw something happen when I substituted at school and I was so impressed, I said to myself, "some day I'll be able to do that with my children."  I watched some children ask for something they wanted.  It might have been as simple as, "can we go outside to play?"  The teacher said to them, "you can when you clean up your work." 

So the children, with some reminders to keep them on track, cleaned up their work.  Then, she said, "okay, you need to go to the potty before you go outside."  The children each took a turn going to the bathroom by themselves.  Then, when they asked if they could go outside, the teacher said, "you need to have our outside shoes and jacket on to go outside."  So the children got ready with their shoes and jackets. 

During all of this, the teacher was doing other things and helping other children.  She didn't put up their work, she didn't help them go to the bathroom and she didn't assist them in getting dressed for outdoors.  These children did it all by themselves and they were three or four-years-old. 

The children didn't complain or balk at the instructions and they weren't overly upset that it took them a half of an hour to finally be able to go outside.  It was wonderful to watch.

This afternoon my children wanted "buzzert" after lunch; only they hadn't eaten their lunch.  They did several things with toys, still asking for buzzert and eventually they came back and ate their lunches, all without me having to do anything other than remind them the requirements for dessert. 

When they were done, they had to put their plates and cups on the counter, go to the bathroom and put on their shoes.  Then, I told them if they went outside to the playground, I would bring them buzzert, gah, I mean dessert (they have me saying it wrong now.)

It was two-o'clock when they finally got dessert from lunch, but I didn't have to cajole them or do anything other than let them know the requirements for getting for having dessert.  It felt like all the perseverance in parenting and not giving in with all the toddler testing finally paid off.

The Big Boy Update:  He had a good first day back at school from vacation this week.  Some days he has a hard time focusing on his work and we were worried he would have a difficult time getting back into the groove of school.  I'm glad he remembered his friends and the routine of school.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  She did not have a good first day back at school after vacation.  There was an underpants issue while we were on vacation and she got stuck in diapers for some of the trip.  On her first day back in the three hours that she was in school, she wet five pair of underpants.   The good news is, she remembered how to use the potty on her second day back, although she's still working on remembering at home.

Fitness Update:  Workout at the gym this morning and seven miles this afternoon.  After all the Easter food and candy, it's about dang time I got back on the exercising.