Hot answers tagged pre-schooler
18
With our 3.5 year old son, we do this by making sure he knows that he won't get to do the next thing until he puts away his toys. Want to watch TV? Put away your toys. Want to eat some snack food? Put away toys. Play hide and seek (his favorite game) or get thrown onto the bed? Put away your toys. Once he believed us, that he wasn't going to get away ...
18
You should only let the child pull it out themselves (or leave it to fall out when it is ready if the child doesn't want to pull it). If you try to pull it out you may cause pain or injury to the child.
Edit to add: letting it fall out by itself is fine - what would be bad about that? The more ready it is, the less pain and bleeding there will be.
15
A few ideas:
Start with yourself
You're at your wit's end. You need to fix that as best you can.
You're not a failure. You may have lost some battles, but you're haven't lost the war.
Remind yourself that this phase won't last forever, and that you will get through it.
Look after yourself. Make sure you're sleeping, eating etc. properly and that you have ...
14
One, no slapping. Besides being very unpleasant it is counter-productive and will make the problem worse. The reason your nephew is misbehaving this way is because he gets attention. You have a problem because there's little you can do yourself, parenting must come from the mother and father.
The problem is he's getting lots of the wrong kind of attention ...
13
Yes, it's uncomfortable.
No, it's not a concern.
My personal experience (having traveled many thousands of km/miles in the summertime as a child) is that high temperatures while driving is not a serious concern. When you don't have A/C, then your best defense against heat is to be smart:
Passengers will be thirsty.
Bring lots of drinking water, but avoid ...
12
My son (now 8) also did not want to color! I think it takes a certain kind of personality to be able to sit there and perform all these small repetitive motions over a long period of time. My son was an active kid who was pragmatic in his own way: he would much rather draw pictures from scratch himself, whether it is with crayons or paint. He just didn't ...
12
My guess is that she has memorized the number sequence, but hasn't actually made the correlation between the words and the actual amount of things. This a big leap. Have her practice counting as much as you can, but make it fun and incorporated into daily life as much as possible.
Like,
When giving snack "here's one slices of orange, now you have two* ...
11
Perhaps you are approaching this the wrong way. You seem to want to win, so that she will obey, but it's not about that. Think of it this way, how would you feel if someone was telling you what to do and how to do it every second of the day? You want her to do what you want, when you want it, and how you want it but it doesn't work that way unfortunately. ...
10
I would suggest reading through some of the top voted questions under:
Discipline
and
Behavior
The answers to this question seem particularly relevant to your needs (same age, same problem).
Reading between the lines, it sounds like you're exhausted and may be struggling to get the support you need. Counselling may help, starting with phone counselling, ...
10
We had a somewhat similar situation with my son when he started pre-K this past August. He would refuse to do any activities that involved cutting with scissors. There were a couple of reasons for this: 1) I'd never actually let him hold scissors prior to that, so he didn't have any experience with them. 2) He's left-handed, he's the only kid in the ...
9
I think that the adage "forewarned is forarmed" would be good here. Since you have identified a situation that you want to be prepared for, and you don't have the power to change the other adults, you need to be prepared for these encounters.
I would keep a mental list of recent accomplishments that your 4yr old has done and when the other adult has ...
9
When my daughter asked about my c-section scar, I told her that's the mark where the doctor removed her brother. Then again, he spent a few weeks in NICU and she was nearly 3, so she was a bit more aware of what was going on.
She often asks for her baby story, and part of me telling her about her birth is when I tell her that Daddy cried when she was ...
8
If you aren't sure how much she minds your telling, ask her. "Do you want me to say or would you rather pass?" Teach her how to say, "oh it was an accident" and that she has the right to not share any more than that if she doesn't want to.
This is one of those moments you could treat her like you would a fellow adult that wasn't in the room. If someone ...
8
It's about choice. It's not that he doesn't want a bath, it's that he wants to say when he has a bath. That's not possible of course, but one way that seems to work with my 3 year old is to ask "do you want your bath before x, or after x", that way he has some choice. I'm amazed how well this tends to work.
What you have to remember is that children are as ...
8
This is actually the method we consistently use with our daughter - with a few slight tweaks and it has worked well and doesn't feel "bad" at all.
When using any form of discipline (this is not synonymous with punishment) it is really important to set things up to be predictable. Predictability sets you up for success. A statement made out of ...
8
As a teacher of twice exceptional kids (Kids with both a "disability" such as ODD, Dyslexia, Aspberger's, Tourette's . . . As well as an extreme Gift or Talent usually expressed with a very high IQ fall into the twice exceptional category) I encountered a fair number of ODD kids (I know, unfortunate acronym for Oppositional Defiant Disorder. They really ...
8
You know the scar is about a birth, but your little one doesn't. Children ask about scars, birthmarks and such all the time. Mine have never really wanted the whole entire details all at once. They indicate their interest by continuing the conversation after your first simple answer. Imagine if it was from your appendectomy or from a burn you got when you ...
7
It helps if cleaning is a standard part of every activity rather than a big event. For example, you can make a rule that she can't play with a new toy until the previous toys are put away. If she can't grab a new toy until she's cleaned up, then she only has to clean up one toy at a time. If she isn't already in the habit of cleaning up, it may take her a ...
7
I have a few ideas based on personal experience; the main focus is dealing with it as a gradual change, and keeping in mind that all children are different, so something that works for one child may not work in this case. Keep in mind that if she's that afraid at 5, the process may take a while - it needs to be done at her pace, not yours.
Get her a ...
7
Actually, yes. It is possible he is purposefully riling you up. Not, perhaps for any specific reason he is consciously aware of. It is also possible that he simply gets distracted and doesn't know how to cope with your anger and unwittingly makes you more angry with his reactions.
If he is purposefully riling you, he may do it because (even if he does ...
7
Board and card games are a great activity idea. I think that 5 is old enough to be able to handle moderately complicated rules, but (more importantly) old enough to keep track of what rules apply to which game. Indeed, the variation of many new games probably helps memory and strategy skills, since she has to keep things straight!
The trick is to balance ...
6
Some people object to older cartoons as being politically incorrect, violent etc, but I agree with you that the classics contained useful messages about good and evil, right and wrong.
That said, many modern cartoons also bring a good message, so I would suggest allowing them to see cartoons from any era but just check age appropriateness.
6
Starting nursery is a big deal! A significant change in his life, even one that doesn't seem like a big deal to us, can be stressful on a little one.
Does he like the nursery program?
Does he show any other signs of stress?
Does he have a hard time starting nursery in the mornings?
To me it sounds like he's just adjusting to the separation from you when he ...
6
As another answerer already mentioned of course, decibel level is of concern - you don't want your kids listening to music that is so loud, you will actually hurt their hearing.
Outside of that, as shared by this poster some studies on music and toddlers have shown that there can be some impact on intelligence, while still others seem to indicate that is a ...
6
There is no easy answer or magical tricks that older/experienced parents are withholding from you. Its more of setting a positive and respectful environment for the trainee.
Several months ago my 2.5 yr old was home for 5 wks with out daycare so I jumped on the chance for some toilet training. Having messed up a bit on her older brother a few years before I ...
6
I apologize, I don't remember how old your son is, but I feel like the first part of my answer probably won't apply to you.
If exposed to a bike/trike/whatever with pedals, it seems like most kids will master pedaling between the ages of 2 1/2 and 3. I would definitely say this was the case for my son. He got his first bike at 3 1/2 (having all ready ...
6
Some thoughts:
There's a new baby and many requests for quiet, so a bit of sibling rivalry or age appropriate rebellion may be at play.
There's construction noise going on, and his singing may be a way of "controlling" the noise.
He is quiet sometimes (yea!), and this is probably just a stage that will go away if you don't let it become a battle.
...
6
If your son is otherwise progressing well in his development (that "his play becomes more complicated" and "he wants to explain the rules" is an indication of that), I would not worry (and would certainly not start hectic manouevres to speed up his linguistic development).
If you don't feel qualified to judge his general development, don't hesitate to talk ...
5
Bear in mind that some parents will never acknowledge their child has a disability or even a medical problem. It's possible you may be up against that type of parent.
I have a friend whose son is 30 years old. The first time I saw a photo of him,as an adult, I blurted out "does he have some kind of syndrome?" I work with many people with disabilities and it ...
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