Dear J-
One of the latest batches of books contains the recommended Making the “Terrible” Twos Terrific (John Rosemond), which is written to help you understand what must be going on in that churning period between twenty-four and thirty-six months. Much of it is common sense — in developing your sense of independence, there are several milestones — sleeping alone, potty training — that must be achieved without crushing that independence. Therefore, in outthinking a two-year-old (it’s harder than it looks, honestly), you have to appeal to them feeling grown up.
The book is liberally sprinkled with Rosemond’s strong opinions — daycare, an evil to be avoided at all costs; co-sleeping might as well be an invitation to years of therapy. We’re not innocent of any of those (it did take a few days to break her of needing to sleep with us, and we continue, as we have for nearly two years now, to keep her in day care. The one that we’re most guilty of, though, is the TV watching — he claims it’s deceptive in being able to keep children calm, and giving you a break. Indeed, it’s more like creating a zombie (interaction drops to nothing, slack-jawed staring does not count) for the time it’s on, and then an amped-up monster is on your hands the rest of the time.
He goes on, in fact, to recommend that all toys invented after 1955 be taken out of the house and replaced by simple ones (Tinkertoys, Lincoln Logs, LEGO bricks, and wooden blocks) that spark imagination. So I tried the blocks today; he may be on to something here (there was still some TV, but it was much more limited than typical in this house), as figgy was enthralled with the destruction of the soaring structures I’d set up. Good for me — keeping me involved and interested instead of the semi-comatose state I slip into after the umpteenth iteration of the latest obsession (WALL-E has replaced Kung Fu Panda); good for her — excited by the world around her instead of the world in the little black box.
Mike
Tags: figgy, interaction, rosemond, toddler, truth, tv, unit blocks
16 July 2009 at 3:45 pm
How do you know which baby books to read? There seem to be so many all saying different things. Has Figgy seen a TV show called yo gabba gabba? It might turn her into a dancing zombie. She is super cute by the way.
16 July 2009 at 8:33 pm
So far we’ve been picking out favorites we liked when we were little; I think the key is that we read anything at all, sometimes — she is now starting to request certain books.
There are certain classic books — your Goodnight Moon-s and Harold and the Purple Crayon-s, but we also have a big collection of things like the Frances the Badger books (Hoban), Madeline (Bemelmans), Babar, Where the Wild Things Are, Beatrix Potter books. Part of the fun for me is that finally I can own the books I wanted as a kid — it’s not to say that there haven’t been good books published since 1985, but I’m just picking the ones I’m familiar with, and I rely on the Caldecott and Newbery medals to point me towards the other (more recent) ones.
Oh, BABY books. Um. The “What to Expect” series is pretty good, I think, although it sets unreasonable expectations at times. Dr. Spock is very reassuring and comprehensive. theVet liked Girlfriend’s Guide to Pregnancy (Vicki Iovine); they all pretty much say the same things, though. One that might not be immediately recognizeable is Happiest Baby on the Block (Harvey Karp), which covers the first three months, but contains seemingly magical tricks to stay sane those first ninety days.