Toddlers #4

Somewhere after your child’s third birthday, you will realize your chubby toddler is gone forever, replace by an ever busy, ever questioning preschooler. He has learned that he is capable of conducting his own life and he is his own person. Give him the space to learn and make his own decisions about those aspects of his life that you do not need to control. Your reward for giving him this power is that he will be more amenable to listening to your reasons for things that you need him to do. Those days of “me and mine” are replaced with the desire to please you. Three year olds love to do the right thing.

If your child is in a child care or preschool program, the teacher will hear a pretty close approximation of your conversations about rules, “My mommy (or daddy) says…..” When he comes home from school you will have the fun of hearing your child’s teacher’s voice about school rules.

Today’s Twinkletime song can give your toddler or preschooler more practice in imitating your gestures or sign language. Handspeak.com is the online sign language dictionary I suggested last week for you to learn simple signs.

Song

I’m thankful for mama

I’m thankful for papa

I’m thankful for family

I’m thankful for me.

I’m thankful for my grandma

I’m thankful for my puppy

I’m thankful for my nice toys

I’m thankful for me.

This lovely little song is augmented with the use of sign language for the word thankful, mama, papa, family, and me. In the second verse use children’s choices of what they are thankful for. Being thankful is a difficult concept for preschoolers. Using this song and having moms and dads and grandparents say “I love you and I am so thankful you are my child,” is one way of giving meaning to this difficult concept. Another wonderful way is for parents and grandparents to tell their little ones “thank-you” when the child tries to please by doing what the parent asks or by showing kindness.