ribbons

He is frank and thinks Kermit sings like Frank-enstein. That was very insightful, actually! When I think about it, I do envision Frankenstein singing like a deeper-pitched Kermit. I think it’s amazing that your son knew how to read by his 3rd birthday, Erica! He has inherited his mother’s keen mind. And I find it very difficult to believe you ever needed a tutor to learn anything. Your school was obviously misguided on that score. As you stated, you simply preferred to read the books you loved – like The Berenstein Bears and Bambi – and to do other things, rather than to read only what they wanted you to. My children were not as quick to read fluently as your child; they were sort of pre-reading by preschool (age 4). I did read to them a lot when they were toddlers, and we watched VHS tapes and DVDs on phonics which helped them to grasp letter sounds and combinations. The phonics exposure particularly was good preparation for them.

Thanks, Erica, but I’ll spare you the torture. These songs do not go over well in our home. (Although at times I think – or like to think! -- they are still secretly comforted by them. Whenever my daughter or son has a bad day, I’ll start singing those stupid songs and they’ll get strangely quiet with a faraway look . . . for a full 15 seconds! )

Same situation here, Erica. Katy is very popular at my son’s school – even though he doesn’t care for her songs, the majority of the kids do. The boys think Katy and Taylor Swift and Beyonce are “hot”. My son likes Beyonce (an older woman! ). And he knew about Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Call Me Maybe” before I did – he says that if he hears the girls in his class sing that song one more time, he may go “crazy”.

All very true. And I think the repetition gives infants a sense of confidence in their own ability to “master” what is being learned.

Thanks for posting about this thesis, Erica. I found it online and will read it. I find it very intriguing because it’s interculturally based.

I never realized it was referred to as “Pat-a-Cake”, either! (always thought it was just “Patty Cake”) Speaking of colic, my daughter was colicky as a baby and I remember that every night around 9:00 p.m. she would start wailing and suffering terribly. This would last until around 3:00 a.m., and I was working at the time. I used to go to work feeling like a zombie (shades of your son’s comments, Erica). The only things that would soothe her would be either to (1) hold her with her back against my chest, so she would be facing outwards, with my arms and hands clasped underneath her bottom – and to walk around jiggling her that way, or (2) take her out for a ride in the car until she was lulled to sleep. But as soon as we shut the car off she would wake up and started crying again. I was so at the end of my tether at one point, I purchased a device called the Sleep-Tight Soother which was a vibration device attached to the springs of her crib that would rattle the crib – the aim was to make the crib vibrate akin to the motion of a car. The first night we put her the crib with the Sleep-Tight, she stayed in there for a little while and fell asleep but soon after she got “wise” to the device and woke up wailing. Then I read a book called “Healing Children Naturally” which stated that certain babies’ colicky symptoms might be due to drinking too much formula and effectively maintaining a protein/carbohydrate imbalance (resulting in painful constipation!). The book said the trick was to add a natural carbohydrate – in this case blackstrap molasses – to the formula to offset the protein excess. It worked like a charm. The teaspoon of blackstrap molasses had a pleasant caramelly taste when combined with the formula, and she took to it right away. “Colic” problem solved! Before my son's birth, I was worried he might have colic as well -- but fortunately he didn't. He usually slept through the night with few problems (a very easy baby luckily for me, and I still call him my "little Buddha". )