Learning through discipline
1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10 (inhale)
11-12-13-14-15-16-17-18-19-20 (inhale)
21-22-23-24-25-26-27-28-29-30
Multiple Choice Question:
What is the above most likely to be?
A) Us teaching Swee’Pea and TheMonk to count.
B) The amount of counting it takes to calm down when Sanjaya survives another week.
C) Me counting the number of Cheerios wedged between the cushions of our couch.
D) Timeouts in the Childsplayx2 household.
And the answer is…
Well, “C” is ruled out because there are waaaaay more than 30 Cheerios currently nesting within my couch. In the same vein, “B” is wrong because I need more than 30 seconds to overcome the anguish of having to watch Sanjaya for another week.
So that leaves “A” and “D”. And the answer is… both!
Yes, we have perfected the “Time Out” method of teaching. If you truly want to teach your kids to count at an early age, give them one a few a lot of timeouts while you count out the seconds of their punishment.
And while the timeouts will have very little effect on curbing hitting, screaming and throwing of tantrums, it apparently is very effective in teaching the ancient art of counting.
For proof we need only look to this evening. After dinner Swee’Pea and TheMonk begin bouncing a ball back and forth to each other – laughing out loud at the novelty of playing together with this bouncing ball. As Mommy and Daddy encourage and watch, Swee’Pea picks up the ball, cocks it at shoulder level and shouts, “One… Two… Fweeeeee!” as she releases the ball.
Caught off guard, Mommy and Daddy look at each other, not sure we just witnessed our 22-month-old count. As if to make sure there wasn’t any doubt, Swee’Pea picks up the ball once more and this time goes even further…. “One, Two, Fwee, Four, Five!” As she releases the ball once again.
“Are you counting, Swee’Pea?” I ask.
“One, Two, Fwee, Four, Five, Seben, Nine, Ten!” shouts our little girl.
While not quite sure what she has against six or eight, we are amazed at her ability to count. It seems she wasn’t just sulking in the corner while we counted out all those time outs. She was taking notes!
Time Out
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Amazing isn’t it? Just when you think they can’t surprise you any more than they already have, they do.
But you should be careful.. if she was taking notes then, she’s probably always taking notes and now knows some of your “deepest and darkest” secrets.
Comment by Kemp — April 18, 2007 @ 6:35 am
Wow.
You amaze me. Well, you, your wife and your kids.
Way to multitask!
Comment by Allanna — April 18, 2007 @ 9:12 am
Wow! Absolutely amazing! Her profound intelligence surely must be genetic! And I sometimes forget the 6 and 8 also!
Comment by Aunt Raina — April 18, 2007 @ 12:25 pm
Nice one.
During one of our attempts to get our son potty trained, he had to sit on the toilet for 60 seconds. We counted out loud. Pretty soon he was doing the counting instead and eventually made it up to 100. We’re still working on the potty training, but when it comes time to learn to count to 100 we’ll be all over that.
Comment by Mike — April 18, 2007 @ 2:23 pm
Well, you can toss “B” out the window!! Woo-HOO!!!
Comment by Deanna — April 19, 2007 @ 1:05 am
Perhaps now you can begin citing passages from Shakepeare or MLK,Jr during time outs…To be or not to be…or Free at last! Free at last…
Comment by Grandmother — April 19, 2007 @ 3:53 pm
Oh, nice picture of the Time Out in action!
Our little one has something against 8 as well. And it took a while to get the concept of 11 and 12 — because, I think, they didn’t have the -teen at the end…
Comment by L.A. Daddy — April 19, 2007 @ 8:55 pm