Respecting her pace

“Let’s play teacher, Mommy!”

I know she misses school. She likes to play teacher everyday.

Today we did numbers one to twenty. She has numbers one to 12 down pat. Numbers 13 to 20 are still a challenge but she’s learning fast.

I’m learning to respect her pace and her interest in studying. Sometimes I feel this tendency to hurry my big girl, I think “You’ve got to learn this now!”

But I remind myself that children learn differently. The more you force them to do something, the more they will  reject it.

The important thing is to be ready to engage them in a fun learning activity once they show an interest in it. Of course, it helps when you scatter educational materials all around the home that will encourage them to learn at every opportunity.

It also helps to track their individual progress. Sometimes there’s a tendency to compare how our child is doing with other children their age. And that is like setting ourselves and our children up for failure.

I know someone will always be better or slightly lesser than my daughter. But no one can ever be like my big girl.

“Okay Mommy, I’d like to play something else now.”

I would have wanted her to keep playing until she mastered all the numbers. But I helped her put the cards away. We can save studying for another day.