What I believe

[Alicia10-2-08]

Today a friend of mine and myself met up at McDonalds for lunch. I brought my one year old along with. When we finished eating, an older woman and man sitting behind us said, "Your daughter has been playing peek-a-boo with us while you were eating" and so struck up a conversation with these people.

 The woman asked me if I read to my daughter and I said "Yes, she loves to turn the pages." And the lady said to me "Well you should have flash cards with pictures and words of things like a chair and things like that, My grandchildren's Psychologist told my child (dont remember if she had a son or daughter) to do this with their child so they can be smart." I said thats nice, she then nicely said to me that I should do things like that with my daughter.

I then decided to say what I believed.

I said to her that I have been going to college for some time now(5 years) learning to become a early childhood education teacher and I explained to her that I have seen parents put pressure on their children to get all A's in school. I explained to her that I have seen things parents do, for example I had to give a spelling test to a second grader of words he has never before seen just to figure out which stage of spelling he is in and the mother stood over his shoulder while he spelled his words and every time that he spelled one wrong his mom would say, "Jared you know better", because of this I could not correctly do my project and had to move to another student to give the same spelling test to.

When the boy finished the test his mother explained to me that she and her husband expect their children to get all A's in every subject in school. . . .

I explained to the old woman in Mcdonalds that I do not believe in rushing children to learn or put pressure on them to get A's in school, as long as they do their best, that is what I expect.I said I have heard cases where children can begin reading at the age of 18 months old.

I do not want to put that pressure on any child. Don't get me wrong I want every child to exceed in school and learn but it will be at their pace of learning.

 I work with my daughter, but I want her to enjoy being a baby and explore her world. I am not going to be the type of parent who puts pressure on her to get all A's in school. I hope she does, but I am going to hope that she will have fun in school and not be pressured by her parents. When she becomes an adult she will have enough pressure in her life to look forward to.

The woman just smiled at me and my friend and I walked out of the restaurant.

Knowing what I know from my educational experience so far, pressure is not the way to teach children, children learn best when they are having fun.

Give your child love and attention and they will flourish.

 

[mommyposh]

Oct. 22, 2009 at 9:56 PM

Thanks for sharing this! Actually, I'm the one being pressured by my mother in law. She keeps on compraing her grandchildren...this post is really a great help. My daughter was a salutatorian in her pre school days, but after that I noticed when she started in her elementary, her study habits changed a bit. ..

[kkbird]

Oct. 23, 2009 at 10:32 AM

I TOTALLY AGREE WITH YOU!  let  these babies,toddlers and kids have their time to enjoy the simple life of growing up......  take care

[logansmomma2007]

Dec. 30, 2009 at 9:11 PM

Right on!  One of my co-workers has been pushing his son to the max.  Every time I hear the stories I feel bad for the kid.  He is only four and is being expected to learn things that he won't see until he is in 1st grade. 

Even though I would love to share my opinion with my co-worker, I don't.  I simply smile and nod.