2
Suffice it to say, I’ve been a bit preoccupied lately… I always have many things to write about, but it’s usually the middle of the night when I find myself writing in my head, far away from the computer. (Been having trouble sleeping lately.) When I do have time, I’ve been posting on a blog I’m sharing with some other moms, where we share all the ins & outs of specific eduational materials that probably aren’t of interest to the general public… But I would like to take a minute now to talk about my soon-to-be-3-year-old.
2 is evidently a hard age to be. For example, you might get overly-excited, throw a toy, and accidentally hit the window, which partly due to the below-freezing temps outside, is not happy about it: (we’ve made a large advance on his future allowance money…)
And if you try to make bread with a 2-year-old, remember that as soon as he sees you sprinkling flour on the counter-top, he will assume that flour is supposed to be sprinkled all over the kitchen. But when that isn’t met with approval, he will decide to sit & eat dough instead:
But for all the foibles, being “almost 3″ reveals to me a clear transition from very young child to small thinking person. It is why Montessori pre-schools begin at age 3, not 2. I am so excited to begin more formally introducing Montessori materials to this child next month. (I am preparing now by cleaning out & rearranging our learning room.) His capacity for absorbing information was clearly demonstrated recently when he sang the “States Song” - the 50 States, in alphabetical order - and only skipped one.
I keep a book of cute things the kids say, and lately this particular child has been contributing the most. Some examples:
- I asked him to stop doing something recently and he replied, “okay mom, I will not cause any more mischief.” Then he went directly to his older brother and asked, “what does mischief mean?” [I think this might be a word he picked up from our beloved Minarik books-on-tape.]
- He was watching a man plant a maple tree with red leaves in the neighbor’s yard and said, “look mom, it’s a sumac. It’s all red.” (good guess!) Then when the man took the root ball out of the plastic container he said, “see mom, there are the roots!” I have not taught him these things; he just overhears me talking about these things with his brother.
- After different discussions on the Eucharist and fire safety, he synthesized the information by saying to me, “If there’s a fire in church, Jesus will have to come out of the bread and run outside to be safe!”
- And finally, out of the blue he said, “Jesus is in heaven, in Mother Mary’s heart.”
Yes, dear little one, just as you are always in my heart!
