Harry is now being potty trained and it is going well. His successes are increasing, and his accidents getting fewer and fewer.
Poor Harry spent a few hours in accident and emergency this month. He and Jasmine had been enjoying a game in the garden, lining up some leftover bricks, sorting them and making patterns, with mummy watching nearby.
Suddenly Jasmine decided to throw a brick to Harry, as she had seen a builder do on television. 'Catch, Harry,' she called. Harry tried to catch it, but not surprisingly he couldn't and ended up with a broken thumb.
At the hospital he told medical staff 'Jazzy threw a brick at me'. Mummy had to explain that it wasn't quite as bad as it sounded.
Once he was over the initial distress, Harry was rather proud of his injury, holding up his bandaged thumb, saying 'I got this'!
Questions
1 Harry is being potty trained. How can this stage in development be managed positively?
2 Harry's accident was unfortunate, but was there anything actually wrong with the game he and Jasmine were playing?
3 How would you manage an older child involved in an incident such as Jasmine's part in this one?
Answers to part 26 questions (18 May 2006)
1 A clear 'cause and effect' explanation was needed to make it clear to Jasmine and Harry that flower heads need to be left to bloom. However, they were offered to mummy as a present, so their kind gesture also needed to be acknowledged.
2 Jealousy can easily occur if an older sibling feels put out by the arrival of a new baby. It was important for Harry's mum to accept his 'joke' of running off with the baby's clothes, and to give him small jobs such as passing things to her, keeping him involved wherever possible.
3 Children are not usually ready to learn to tell the time until between six and seven years. It is quite an advanced concept for them. At Harry's age they are still learning about time frames - lunch time, story time, bed time, although, like him, they may show a general interest in numbers and clocks.
By Sandy Green, an early years consultant and freelance trainer. She is also Harry's grandmother.
