The Poo started preschool recently, and despite some bumps, her transition to this new routine has been remarkably smooth.
Because she attends a cooperative school, I am required to work in her classroom once a month. I had my first experience there last week, and I had a chance to observe 12 other two-year-olds.
Some of them have just turned two, while others, like The Poo, are on the tail end of this developmental stage.
I’ve often had occasion to revel in The Poo’s intelligence. She speaks remarkably well for a child her age, and she is already trying to spell words and write her own name. Her frustration when she cannot accomplish these tasks tells me two things: she wants to get it right, and she knows her efforts aren’t making that happen.
She also learned shapes, colors and counting early on, giving me no end of smug satisfaction at my own ability to produce a smart child.
But when I saw all the kids drinking from Dixie cups last week, and The Poo demanded her sippy cups repeatedly, or when she refused to even try a taste of a new food during snack time, I saw in stark relief my own failures to nurture her development.
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
Is this when somebody needs to have the nerve to stand up and say “every child is different”? or “stop measuring your child”? (I’m building the sandbag bunker right now)
Please please please please please tell me you’re going to let her climb trees, pick up dirt, and tear the knees out of her trousers after crashing her bicycle.
I was rubbish at school – and for most of my childhood – and yet now I am perhaps the most academic person I know.
Like I said – everybody is different
Ask your parents what you were like.
I’m coming out of hiding to share some advice my 92 year old grandmother recently gave me. I was complaining about Matthew’s unpredictable sleep habits and comparing them to Sam’s solid sleep. She put her hand on mine and told me to not loose sight of the fact that he is still a baby, and to not wish him older. I tend to see all the amazing things he can do and say and forget that he’s only two. They’re at the age where they marvel us with their independence and then throw themselves on the floor because of a broken pumpkin cookie. (We’re still recovering.) So I’ll remind us both that they are still babies. Smart, wonderful, babies.
I agree, every kid is different! Don’t be so hard on yourself – or her. I also co-oped in my girls’ pre-school classes and it was always interesting to see the broad spectrum of development within the group.
She’s learning and growing at her own pace and that’s what makes her The Poo.
She’s fine… Just fine.
In my opinion, letting them feel love, teaching them to be good people and smart people is much more important than teaching them how to drink out of a big cup. When she’s ready, she’ll do it. Don’t beat yourself up!
Oh, two is so much fun. I am pretty sure NO two year old does the same things as any other two year old at the same time. One will do this while the other is doing that and the one doing that is weeks away from doing this and vice versa. I have a 2 1/2 year old at this very moment. She is totally different than the 2 1/2 year old that I had 2 years ago.
One of the best things about a two year old is that every week they learn to do something new that they couldn’t do the week before. So don’t stress. Next week she probably won’t want a sippy any more and then you are going to be cleaning up apple juice every time you turn around.
Stay the course with the Poo! Soon she will make adjustments and changes as she begins to notice those around her. You too will make adjustments and changes also. Don’t rush it and let her be herself. You do an awesome job from what I can tell while lurking around your blog! I admire you!
Oh, honey – she is fine. You are doing a fine job. Everything you’ve described is so completely normal (maybe not ideal, compared to the stuff in the Perfect Parent Handbook, but who wants perfection?).
And she’ll get there, potty training, drinking from a big girl cup, sleeping in a big girl bed (although I don’t think there’s anything wrong with a crib, at least she isn’t in YOUR bed all night) and eating a wider variety of foods. She’ll get there, in her own time.
Just keep on doing the wonderful job that you’re doing!
PS. I did co-op with all 3 kids, and sheesh, I don’t think I ever worked so hard in my life!
Having raised my own troop, working in daycares and preschools; I can only agree with the others. You are doing a wonderful job and not all children are the same.
we all hold them back. we all help them fly. we all can’t pour dixie cup fluids at the same time. our love binds it all together and keeps it moving forward.
you embody that, Ms. C.
All kids are different, a fact I never fully understood until I had more than one child.
Einey was potty trained right before her third birthday, Moe by 18 months.
Moe just turned three and she’s not so keen on knowing her colors or her alphabet. But she is potty trained and riding her sisters bikes and a champion climber (she scales our kitchen cabinets to get onto the counters). She can open doors with safety latches – her older sisters call her when they want something behind a latched door.
Moe too still sleeps in a crib (its the ONE thing she won’t climb) and I prefer it that way. Her sisters were each out by 19 months. I just don’t feel I can trust her to stay in bed! Plus she’s the first to rise in the morning.
On Tuesday, I am having her speech evaluated because she’s not at the level her sisters were. She seems to have alot of problems pronunciation and I don’t know whats developmentally correct for her age. She knows alot of words and speaks in sentences, it’s just really, really hard to understand.
As a friend of mine told me when I was upset Einey was nearing three and not potty trained (even though her younger peers were) “You haven’t seen a child in Kindergarten with diapers”. The best advice I got was to let her train when she’s ready. If she’s not ready, it becomes a battle of wills. I asked her every morning for 5 months if she wanted to wear undies. One morning in early December she finally said yes and was diaper free from that date on. Accidents were very minimal. She was ready and it showed.
The Poo seems like she’s on the fast track to Harvard knowledge wise.
Hang in there, you doing a great job!
As the mother of 4 grown children (27, 25, 21 and 14) every “fault” that you have found in your daughter is pretty normal for her age. She will eventually eat other foods (my 14 year old was the kid who ate much the same as Poo-and anything else he smelled or thought about would cause him to vomit on the spot – numerous times a day)Don’t compare her to the other kids – each one is unique in their own way. My daughter was strong willed as a toddler, and stillis to this day at 21, but is a great asset for her out in the world, when someone is trying to pull one over on her. My two oldest sons were not potty trained until 3 or after. But, they were trained in just a couple of days because they were ready. It all evens out at some point – by the time next year rolls around she will be out of her crib, out of her diapers and not interested in sippy cups anymore, and you will be wondering who took your baby and replaced her with a grown up girl.