britton thinks out loud

Ever since Peter's teacher brought it up last November, we've been wondering if perhaps part of the reason why Peter has been difficult to handle over the past few months is that he's not being sufficiently challenged at school. Potty training was taking much longer than I was expecting, daytime naps rarely happened, and much of the time Peter just seemed...frustrated.

She recommended we move him up to pre-school as soon as possible, but the school administrators informed us that they did not have the required age ratios to do so until he was closer to three years old. I harbored my doubts as to whether moving to pre-school would be some sort of "magic pill", but there was little doubt that he needed to transition as soon as possible. When we got the green light to start the move to pre-school two weeks ago, we jumped on it.

Sure enough, we're noticing the change. Right now, he's sound asleep on his bed, having voluntarily chosen to nap instead of just taking "quiet time" in his room. His potty training has accelerated dramatically. When we pick him up in the evening, he enjoys talking about what he did in pre-school that day. He's still a firecracker, make no mistake, but now it's clear that he's where he ought to be.

So, the takeaway: making sure your child is appropriately challenged at school can make all the difference in the world.

From this article:

'[Obama] cherishes family dinner in the White House, where "thorns and roses" is now the favorite family game. Each family member describes the day's highlight, or rose, and the day's worst moment, the thorn. We were told after describing one particularly challenging day at the White House, Malia Obama had this to say to her father the president: "You have a really thorny job."'

Yeah, I'd say so.

Well, it's not like I've really switched jobs -- things have sort of changed out from over me, as it were. But after a few mergers, acquisitions, and joint ventures, it looks like things are settling down.

So, as of now, I work for the newest (kind of) kid on the wireless block: ST-Ericsson.

My son is a pretty good kid. He's bright, he shares with his sister, he likes to help his mom and dad around the house. But he has a serious issue in one area:

Transitions.

Dropping him off at school; bringing him home; coming down to dinner; going to bed; interrupting whatever it is he's doing to go sit on the potty. Getting Peter to stop what he's currently doing and move on to the next thing on your timetable can often (though thankfully less often than not) result in a full-blown meltdown. It doesn't matter how far in advance or how often you warn him of the coming change; his immediate reaction to "okay, it's time to go now" is to wail and fuss.

We're still learning as we go, but part of the trick seems to be to work hard on focusing his attention on what he's about to do. "Are you going to sing that song I taught you for your teachers today?" "Hey, guess what we're having for dinner?" "What books would you like to read tonight? Hey, how about that new one we just got?" Distract, divert, pry his mind off of the wonderful things he was doing and reattach it to the wonderful things he's about to do.

Routine and consistency are, of course, probably the best tools for easing transitions. They can only take you so far, though, especially when you have to deviate from the routine. Prime example: vacation.

Which will be the subject of another post Real Soon Now(tm).