November 20th, 2007 - Independent kid
Generally speaking, I feel lucky that we have a fairly independent kid. Remember, she’s not quite 3–she’s still 2 but for only 2 more days. I think this fits into the theme of this blog because the more independent she is, the more she is able to help us. The more she can help, the more we can get done. Also, the more independent she is, the more I can do without having to keep an eagle eye on her. Which again means the more I can get done.
Not that it doesn’t take time to get to this point. Watching her try to open her bedroom door took a couple minutes the other night. It would have been far faster to simply open it for her. But tonight, she opened it on her own without me in the room. Which meant I did not have to quit getting ready for bed to open it for her. (She likes to close her bedroom door while we are getting ready for bed, then we have [in the past] had to go open it before she freaked out about being left apart.) Or shoes–she got a new pair of shoes tonight (Robeez). They are bigger than her previous pair, which she has never successful put on by herself, although I’ve tried to get her to do so. She was excited by them, and wanted to put them on. So I let her. She needed just a little bit of help at the end. Two minutes later, she took them off–something she hasn’t done with her other shoes except when told. So I told her to put them back on. It took another 2 minutes for her to get it done–but she did it. And we no longer have to worry about putting her shoes on! (Her sneakers are another story–we’re still working on them. And her new sneakers are have laces so she’s not able to put them on nor off without assistance. Now I get why velcro is so awesome! But we couldn’t find canvas or leather shoes for her with velcro. Actually, we couldn’t find leather sneakers period. Everything was fake materials, which I’m trying to avoid.)
It’s also be good preschool-wise. We left her there at 6:30am and didn’t pick her up until 3:45. She had a wonderful time and the teachers find her delightful. No problems or worries at all! (Except, as expected, she did not nap during nap time. I thought they made the kids lay down anyway for the 2 hours. But they have an “awake room” and after 10 minutes, she told the teacher, “Maggie awake! Maggie awake!” Oh well. :)
I can’t wait for her help in the garden next spring/summer. I think she will be more of an asset than a hindrance. And if it’s still the latter, at least I will be preparing her for her 4th summer when she definitely will be able to help!