From Roger Lewin "Too often we give children answers to remember rather than problems to solve."I find that I do this often with Archer - when he can't do something himself I give him the answer of how to do it instead of helping him learn to figure it out on his own. I'm trying to remember this and help him learn to solve problems instead of solving them for him, but this usually presents another problem - a test of our patience. Its so much faster and easier to just do it for him but we all know what lesson that teaches - just whine and someone else will do it for you! Of course, there are times when he amazes me at the reasoning he uses to get me to do things for him. One day I was feeding Shelly and he wanted to play, I said, "I'm sorry but I can't right now, I'm feeding Shelly." He answered, very seriously, "Your put Shelly in her bassinet and she won't even cry and she can take a nap and you can play with me." He had come up with a very logical answer to the problem of me holding Shelly. And he's learned that he can reach just about anything if he drags his stool over and climbs up. He knows he's not allowed in the living room with food so he'll stuff as much as he can in his mouth and then coming running in, when I tell him no food allowed he shows me his empty hands but his cheeks are stuffed like a chipmunk. Its great to see his mind working to come up with answers, but I'm a little terrifid of what's to come - what will we do when Shelly's old enough to tell us what to do and they gang up on us?
2 comments:
For a while yet you can go with the fact that you are bigger than they are.
Dad - true, but not too much longer, especially when there's two of them now! I'd better start working out to stay stronger and faster than them, it would be great if I was still faster than them in high school like you were with us.
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