Friday, May 30, 2008

And They Say You Can't Reason With a Two Year Old...

So, whoever said that you can't reason with a two year old was actually wrong. You just have to reason with them in their world and on their level.

For example, Jane adamantly wanted to hold her baby doll in her high chair while she ate her breakfast and at first I tried to reason with her in my world saying, "Jane, you can't hold your baby while you eat breakfast because she will get messy." Jane didn't like that reasoning very much, so I tried a different approach. "Jane, your baby already had breakfast and she is SO FULL! Plus she wants to spend some time in the Exersaucer, so why don't we let her do that while you eat breakfast." She immediately agreed and was actually very excited about the whole thing.


Another example of this new found concept for me is Jane likes to play tea party and feed her babies and stuffed animals. So, I give her some utensils and some empty bowls and cups and she goes to town. Sometimes she asks me for real food or drink to put in her cups and bowls and I first try to explain that this would be too messy so we can't do it. She is not on board with this answer or this concept. So I step into her world and say, "Jane, do you need more juice in that cup?" and she enthusiastically says, "Yeah!" I then proceed to pretend the remote control (or whatever is closest to me) is a pitcher of juice and I make the pouring sound effects and everything and Jane loves it. She just moves on with her playing as if she has a full cup of juice. It's pretty great.

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