The Work Has (Mostly) Stopped: Potty Training Part 3
I’ve written twice about starting the potty-training process with my toddler, who will be turning 3 next month.
We pulled out the potty chair at around Christmas time because he was always telling us when he went in his diaper. And he did well for the first few weeks as far as telling us he had to go or trying to go by sitting on the potty at certain times.
Then he had a turnaround, where he didn’t want to even try anymore. That’s when I asked for some help. You guys gave me some great ideas about different things to try, some of which I did try, like the stickers for a reward and using underwear instead of diapers or pull-ups.
My goal was to be done changing diapers by the time he turned 3. Ha! We have only one month remaining, and things aren’t looking good.
Anyway, none of the suggestions or my own ideas were working, so we continued just putting him on the potty at intervals, which he fought so hard against that I eventually just gave up, mostly. Now we just talk about the potty and I ask if he has to go. Sometimes he says yes and goes, but most of the time, he yells no, and I have stopped pushing it. He even loves this book called “Caillou: Potty Time,” and often will want to go potty after he reads it. So I know he’s getting close.
Several parents who have been through this process have told me, “one day, she just got it” or “suddenly, he just decided he didn’t want to go in his diaper anymore.” So, I’ve decided to go the relaxed route instead. No more pushing so hard to get him trained right away.
Now my goal is to be done changing diapers by the time he’s 4, which will be just in time for preschool next August. There’s nothing like barely making the deadline.
As always, let me know if you have any advice, or if you can relate, in the comments section.
My other blog posts on potty training:
The Work Continues: Potty Training Part 2
Subscribe to the comments for this postReport: Times Not So Good for American Children
A just released report from the Foundation for Child Development is predicting that children will have a tougher time all around as a result of the recession.
Here are a few stats and projections from the report:
- The percentage of children living below the poverty line is expected to peak at 21 percent in 2010, the highest rate of child poverty in 20 years. The foundation estimates that approximately 15.6 million children will be living in poverty in 2010.
- The percentage of children living in families with no secure parental employment — defined as not having at least one parent employed full-time, year-round — will increase from 22 percent in 2006 to 26 percent in 2010. This represents about 20 million children.
- Food insecurity occurs when all family members do not at all times have access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food to maintain an active and healthy life. The foundation projects the percent of children living in food-insecure households to climb from 16.9 percent in 2007 to 17.7 percent in 2010, which is an increase of 750,000 additional children at risk over this time period.
- For all families with children, it is expected that median annual income will decline from $61,500 in 2007 to almost $57,800 in 2010.
- For children in female-headed single-parent families, median annual income is expected to decline from just over $25,900 in 2007 to about $24,250 in 2010.
So while economic indicators are pointing up, it looks like it may take families a little longer to recover lost resources.
Here are a couple of links if you want to read more about the report.
USA Today: More than one in five kids live in poverty
The Hechinger Report: Tough times ahead for children of the Great Recession, report finds
The Foundation for Child Development: Child and Youth Well-Being Index Page
More on Common Standards
The number of states to adopt the recently released Common Standards – national curriculum benchmarks in English and math – is up to 10.
According to Education Week’s Curriculum Matters blog, New Jersey, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio, Wisconsin and North Carolina have approved the Common Standards released earlier this month. And three other states, Hawaii, Maryland and West Virginia, tentatively approved the standards even before they were released earlier this month.
I wrote about the the Common Standards in a blog post a couple weeks ago. After thinking some more about Common Standards, I think adopting the standards is a good idea.
Here’s why: Society has changed a great deal over the last two generations, yet we’re still using curriculum standards individualized to each state.
We are more mobile and therefore more likely to move from state to state. We have more access to more technology, which further muddies boundaries of city, state, or country. We need to compete on a global stage because there have been great strides in education, technology and industry in other nations, which means the United States is not likely to be the default leader in any particular area.
All of these things lead to a need for rigorous standards that bridge the gap from state to state, so that no matter where students may move during their school years or if they go to college in another state, they will be prepared. In addition, the hope is that these standards will help the United States compete in a world where developing technology and conducting research in all sectors moves at a fast pace and education is the foundation for these future developments.
I’d especially like to hear from teachers with classroom experience. I am an interested onlooker, but I have no idea what impact these standards will have on the classroom. My guess is having national standards would help teachers and students, perhaps by saving time or avoiding the need for extra tutoring, when a new students moves into the district from out of state, since the school they were attending should have the same standards as the one they are moving into.
Let me know what you think in the comments section.
Other links:
The Hechinger Report offers a visual representation of how varied the standards are, and it underlines the fact what students learn in one state may not come up in another state until much later or even not at all.
Experts debate road ahead for Common Standards from Curriculum Matters blog
More Motivation To Exercise
Last week a couple of studies came out about students and exercise. As if we need more evidence that exercise is good and more reasons to do it. But, I guess since most of us don’t do it, we do. So maybe this will remind us of the benefits of getting moving, and that we parents cannot assume our kids get enough exercise at school.
One of the studies found that more states are requiring physical education for elementary, middle and high school students but that there are a number of waivers and the amount required varies by state, so the time actually spent in physical activity may not be much if any.
The American Heart Association and the National Association for Sport and Physical Education conducted that study.
The groups recommend 150 minutes a week of instructed physical education for elementary schoolchildren and 225 minutes a week for middle and high school students, but only a handful of states meet those goals, according to an Associated Press story on the study.
Besides the obvious health benefits to exercise, there are also educational benefits, that were once again backed up by research, this time with last week’s release of a study by the American College of Sports Medicine.
The conclusions of the study found that students do better in school if they vigorously exercise.
You can read more about that study here.
Crazy Story: ‘I Didn’t Know I Was Pregnant’
There is a story circulating around the Internet and Twitter this morning, as reported by USA Today. While it does seem hard to believe a woman would not realize she’s pregnant, this isn’t the only reported case of this happening. Anyway, just think of all the preparations, both emotional and practical, this mother and her family missed out on. That’s the thought that’s stuck in my mind about this story, and it’s kind of too bad for the woman and her baby.
Here’s part of the story from USA Today:
The woman who unexpectedly gave birth on a Carnival cruise ship last month, forcing the vessel to make an emergency detour, says she didn’t know she was pregnant until just before the vessel set sail.
Amber Badua tells a Phillipines television station today she has had a history of irregular menstrual cycles and only felt symptoms of the pregnancy a week before the cruise. She had planned to go to a doctor after the voyage was over to be examined.
The 30-year-old caregiver administrator tells the news outlet the child, a baby girl, was born in the toilet of her cabin aboard the 2,056-passenger Carnival Paradise after 10 hours of labor.
The television station reports doctors have determined Badua was 30 weeks pregnant when she gave birth.
As for the baby girl, she’s reportedly doing well, and she now has a permanent marker of the ship where she was born. Her middle name: Paradise.