Friday, June 10, 2011

Underestimating Children

Do you think we underestimate children?  I do.  I don't believe we should expect a child to think as an adult or anything.  I don't think we need to be stressing our children by trying to stuff them with knowledge.  However, I know that I've been guilty of not explaining or teaching things to children just because I underestimated their ability to learn.

Maria and Eric have been showing letters to Cordy for a long time.  She has books that show "a" is for apple and such.  Maria said she'd recently been writing Cordelia's name and Cordy said it.  Maria, realizing Cordy now recognized her own name, tried teaching our names to her.  I didn't know anything about this and when they were over to our place, Maria wrote this...


Maria then said, "Where's Mama's name?" and continued on in random order.  Cordelia was successful at identifying (by pointing) at each word.  You can see how Maria marked under the p and m in our titles, which I thought was clever, helping Cordy see the difference.  Maria did not claim that Cordelia was reading or anything, but it was pretty cool to see that she was recognizing words.  She's only 20 months old, and I'm sure I wouldn't have thought to try that yet.  I would have underestimated her ability to learn this.  The important part of this is that Cordelia was proud of herself; it was a fun experience for her.  She also let us know when she was done performing as well!



This picture doesn't really have anything to do with this post. 
It was taken last month.
I just like to put up pictures of that sweet smile.

Give me a break!  I'm a grandma!








7 comments:

The Nutter Sisters said...

What a cute story! What a cute little face!! I love reading your blog and you must be so proud of what a great Maria and Eric are. It shows what a great parents Maria had :)

Enjoy!

~ Helen Nutter

The Preppy Student said...

Love this post and the picture!

Maria Rose said...

I learned from the BEST!

Anonymous said...

Go Courdy! This is so true. My son is just starting to talk and sign. But he understands so so much more. When I told him it was dinner time last night he went into the other room and to the closet where his high chair. Then he banged on the door until I pulled his chair out! VERY COOL!

Emily said...

I'm impressed! I mean, I already told Maria that I think Cody's a genius, but still...I'm impressed anyway! And go ahead and post pics of that sweet smile. That's what Grandmas do! :)

Anna said...

Such a sweet post! :)

Onlythemanager said...

Nicole, I love it. You are so right. They certainly do understand more than we sometimes realize.

Emily, Hi! Come back for another visit soon!

Anna, Thank-you.

Toesthattwinkle, thank-you for your kind comment and thanks for stopping by.

And Helen, hi there! You are too sweet! But you are right, it is a pleasure to watch Maria and Eric on this parenting journey. Every child should be so loved!

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