Saturday, January 27, 2007

Imagination!


"... Adults don't really teach children to go potty. Children teach themselves by teaching their dolls." from Potty Train Your Child In Just One Day
I think this is so true and fun. Here Liv is helping her stuffed Olivia the pig doll, not because I showed her but she just started doing it one day. The book suggests that you set aside one day to have a "Potty Party" where for the first half of the day you demo with a doll all about the potty training, then for the other half of the day it's a combined experience for the child & the doll working together to learn. Well, I didn't do that & walked in one day to find Liv teaching her friend to go pee-pee on the potty! Then I read that quote & thought that it is so very very true! It's been a week since we started with panties & Liv isn't free. But I have learned so much from this "wonderful" experience. I have learned to see the progress not just the end project, because it is real obvious that Liv is learning. One other thing that really helped me was realizing that this is her learning about her body functions... like walking (which my little boy is learning how to walk so this was real easy for me to understand). When a kid is learning to walk we don't get mad when he falls, instead we keep encouraging him to try again and again. He doesn't fall just to spite us... he's just learning. Same with potty training, so encourage, encourage, and encourage! Also, when I notice Liv needing to go potty I don't ask her anymore I just say "It's potty time, let's race to the potty!" She loves this! So I'm always learning, sorry I am so focused on this subject, but I wanted to share what I have accomplished!

3 comments:

An Ordinary Mom said...

A "Potty Party." Now that is a brilliant idea. I will have to file that away when I get around to teaching Cory. I am not quite as confident with teaching a boy as I was with teaching my little girl.

Half a Dozen said...

That is awesome! We tried that with Emma, but she could have cared less about her doll going. She ended up doing it herself. You will see that it will just click one day. Keep having patience, and it's ok that this is your subject matter for the time being- it is a huge milestone in everyone involved.

Ordinary Mom- you will find it is a whole 'nother ball game potty training a boy. I found it really straight forward with a girl.

Heather said...

I am proud of you, I had to go through that same mental process, but I didn't do it with my first. It was after Julia and I had a massive struggle. She still has accidents on a daily basis and I think it's because I traumatized her. Oh, well, live and learn, huh?