Learning to write

Today I found a little drawing in Rose’s day care bag and was absolutely stunned. It was s little fish cut-out with some colourful scribbles. But there, above the scribbles was a name. Rose. Not written by an adult.

I thought for a second, “Could some other child have written that?” and caught myself with the ridiculousness of that thought. Then I asked Rose if she’d written it.

“Yeeeesssss!,” she said. “Of course!” said her tone.

Then she said, “I wrote a lower case ‘R’ not an upper case ‘R’.”

“Mummy, why are you crying?”

“I’m crying from happiness Rose. I’m so proud of you. It’s so wonderful that you can write your name.”

“Mummy, don’t cry. You’ll feel better soon.”

And then we sat down together and wrote our names, all afternoon.

Who’s the boss?

About five minutes ago, Rose gave Tess her first time out. The girls had seemed to be playing nicely, fooling about with the little trolley. Then we heard, “Tess, you’re having a time out!” followed by pushing Tess into her room and shutting the door.

We had to explain to Rose that Rose can’t give Tess time outs. Rose was full of whys, naturally. “Rose can’t give Tess time outs because only Mummy and Daddy can give time outs.” More whys. I said, “Can Tess give Rose time outs?”

Rose smiled. She hadn’t thought about that argument, but she had also just as quickly come up with a defence. “Tess can give me time outs when she’s bigger.”