Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Opposites


When you have more than one child you come to realize that, although you love them the same, you don’t parent them the same.

When Carter was a baby I spent countless hours reading to him, playing with him, and teaching him things.  When Grant was a baby Carter was a toddler…soooo…yeah.  I didn’t do those things as much with him. 

By 18 months Carter had every book we owned memorized.  I’m not making this up.  I have witnesses.  One of the books in his repertoire was “Opposites” by Sandra Boynton. 


Today Grant happened to pull that book out and ask me to read it.  I don’t know why, having never really gone over it with him, I expected him to just know what opposites were.  But I did…and he didn’t. 

Here’s how the reading went:


Me: “Big and small.  Short and…”
Grant: “Giraffe.”

Me: “No.  What’s the opposite of short?”
Grant: “Giraffe.”

Moving on…


Me: “Heavy and light.  Day and…”
Grant: “Moon.”

Me: “No, it rhymes with LIGHT.  Heavy and light.  Day and…”
Grant: “Sleeping.”

Pretty soon he just started naming the animals instead of actually trying to guess the word...


In and turtle.  Whisper and hippo.



Me: “Hot and…”
Grant: “Warm.”
Me: “Warm is not the opposite of hot.  Try again.  Hot and…”

Grant: “Spicy.”

At least that’s an actual phrase. 

Me: “Ok.  Hot and COLD.  Young and…”
Grant: “Dinosaur.”

Correct!  When someone is really old they can be referred to as a dinosaur.  Way to think outside the box!


Me:  “Now he’s out in the rain and she’s under the umbrella.  So he’s wet and she’s…”
Grant: “Warm” (He apparently really wanted warm to be the answer one of these times.)

Me: “No, he’s getting wet and she’s…”
Grant: “A chick.”

He needs more work on opposites. 
But clearly, instead of going over it with him again I’m…writing a blog about it. 

2 comments:

  1. I have a very similar parenting style. So good job I say!!

    And really, just get Carter to teach him. All the best parents rely on the older siblings like that.

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  2. Aww, that's cute. He'll get it some day - hopefully b/4 college. Plus, I think all his answers SHOULD be correct. I love short and giraffe.

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