Lily James

>No, Camille, what I said was *IF* he is unhappy I'd worry. I'm not
>there and can't assess his happiness, she is. And she did say one
>thing that made me wonder if he is getting frustrated, she talked
>about him stressing out over some of the things she talked about.
>Which is why I said *IF*.
>
>Bridget

I'd say by and large he's ecstatic. He has a lot of smiles, a lot of laughs,
and is just coming to this stage where he finds certain words funny -- last
night he rolled on the floor laughing over the phrase "more pudding" which
he was saying in this bizarre gravelly voice that was making husband and me
blow coffee out our noses from laughing so hard. :)

So, while he is in general happy, and in general all this alphabet business
makes him very happy, it also makes him very intense. When he can't find the
letter M for example, from the magnet set, he gets upset to the point of
screaming. When he can't find a certain book that he thinks he needs to go
along with whatever video... he will tear the house apart and end up in a
pool on the floor weeping. That's what I mean by stressed out. I have seen
him get obsessed before. There was a counting/numbers obsession and before
that an Elmo obsession. But nothing like this. This is causing big roller
coasters of extreme joy and extreme angst.

Which isn't really necessarily bad I suppose. But I find *myself* now sort
of feverishly putting the alphabet stuff (blocks, books, etc) away thinking
"IS IT ALL THERE? IS IT IN ORDER?" because I'm anticipating Benny feeling
awful if it isn't.

So... since the happy/unhappy was an issue... I will report officially that
he is 90% happy, and 10% frustrated. Which, for a two-year-old, I'd say is
pretty normal? Part of this is that I am not used to being around kids and I
have nothing to compare him to really.

Love,
LILY

_________________________________________________________________
Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp.

Fetteroll

on 4/21/02 3:40 PM, Lily James at glamatron@... wrote:

> When he can't find the
> letter M for example, from the magnet set, he gets upset to the point of
> screaming. When he can't find a certain book that he thinks he needs to go
> along with whatever video... he will tear the house apart and end up in a
> pool on the floor weeping.

I'm thinking this behavior sounds very much like some of the children
described in Raising Your Spirited Child by Mary Sheedy Kurcinka. The
subtitle is A Guide For Parents Whose Child is More Intense, Sensitive,
Perceptive, Persistent, and Energetic. (I think someone else recommended
this too.)

(You can read reader's reviews of it at
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0060923288/qid=996921905/sr=1-1/ref=s
c_b_1/104-6558198-0898344)

My daughter's mellow so I haven't read it, but lots and lots of people have
said it helped them so much.

Joyce

[email protected]

In a message dated 04/21/2002 4:04:21 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
fetteroll@... writes:

<< I'm thinking this behavior sounds very much like some of the children
described in Raising Your Spirited Child by Mary Sheedy Kurcinka. The
subtitle is A Guide For Parents Whose Child is More Intense, Sensitive,
Perceptive, Persistent, and Energetic. (I think someone else recommended
this too.) >>

Funny you said this, I who am raising one of these children (now 14 and never
a dull moment) thought just the same thing, LOL. You can bet your life will
never be boring!
Laura

[email protected]

In a message dated 4/21/2002 1:04:11 PM Pacific Daylight Time,
fetteroll@... writes:


> I'm thinking this behavior sounds very much like some of the children
> described in Raising Your Spirited Child by Mary Sheedy Kurcinka. The
> subtitle is A Guide For Parents Whose Child is More Intense, Sensitive,
> Perceptive, Persistent, and Energetic. (I think someone else recommended
> this too.)

Another book I liked even more than the above (which is a great book) was:
"The Explosive Child" (From their website) -- The Explosive Child is the
internationally acclaimed book by Dr. Ross Greene that provides a more
contemporary conceptualization of inflexible, easily frustrated, explosive
children, and describes a new, practical, comprehensive approach for helping
these children at home and school. This approach – called the Collaborative
Problem Solving Approach -- is aimed at decreasing adversarial parent-child
interactions, reducing family hostility, and improving children's capacities
for flexibility, frustration tolerance, communication, and self-regulation.

http://www.explosivechild.com/books.html

--pam




[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Camille Bauer

I'm thinking this behavior sounds very much like some of the children
described in Raising Your Spirited Child by Mary Sheedy Kurcinka. The
subtitle is A Guide For Parents Whose Child is More Intense, Sensitive,
Perceptive, Persistent, and Energetic. >>

Yes, good book but I wouldn't hold it up like a bible :)

Camille Get more from the Web. FREE MSN Explorer download : http://explorer.msn.com


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

rumpleteasermom

--- In Unschooling-dotcom@y..., "Lily James" <glamatron@h...> wrote:

> So... since the happy/unhappy was an issue... I will report
officially that
> he is 90% happy, and 10% frustrated. Which, for a two-year-old, I'd
say is
> pretty normal? Part of this is that I am not used to being around
kids and I
> have nothing to compare him to really.
>
> Love,
> LILY

Yes, for a two year old that is pretty normal behavior. BUT I if I
were in your shoes, I would be careful to watch for increasing
frustration and irrational mood swings. I also would educate myself
about OCD and other illnesses like that just for a little more peace
of mind.

Bridget

Camille Bauer

"The Explosive Child" >>

Don't read it! :)

Camille

----- Original Message -----
From: PSoroosh@...
Sent: Sunday, April 21, 2002 11:57 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [Unschooling-dotcom] alphabet frustration

In a message dated 4/21/2002 1:04:11 PM Pacific Daylight Time,
fetteroll@... writes:


> I'm thinking this behavior sounds very much like some of the children
> described in Raising Your Spirited Child by Mary Sheedy Kurcinka. The
> subtitle is A Guide For Parents Whose Child is More Intense, Sensitive,
> Perceptive, Persistent, and Energetic. (I think someone else recommended
> this too.)

Another book I liked even more than the above (which is a great book) was:
(From their website) -- The Explosive Child is the
internationally acclaimed book by Dr. Ross Greene that provides a more
contemporary conceptualization of inflexible, easily frustrated, explosive
children, and describes a new, practical, comprehensive approach for helping
these children at home and school. This approach – called the Collaborative
Problem Solving Approach -- is aimed at decreasing adversarial parent-child
interactions, reducing family hostility, and improving children's capacities
for flexibility, frustration tolerance, communication, and self-regulation.

http://www.explosivechild.com/books.html

--pam




[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]



~~~ Don't forget! If you change the topic, change the subject line! ~~~

To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
[email protected]

Visit the Unschooling website:
http://www.unschooling.com



Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ Get more from the Web. FREE MSN Explorer download : http://explorer.msn.com


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

[email protected]

In a message dated 4/22/2002 9:07:16 AM Pacific Daylight Time,
goddessofwisdom2@... writes:


> "The Explosive Child" >>
>
> Don't read it! :)
>
> Camille

Camille?

Did I get the wrong book? I can't find my copy - but the book I'm thinking of
talks a LOT about how to set up an environment and plan in advance in order
to help a kid who is easily frustrated and angered to have enough time and
space and support to learn to handle things.

Sorry if that was the wrong one -- I'll dig around in my boxes of books and
hope I didn't give it away already.

Of course, it could be the book I was thinking of and it could have had other
stuff that I might also have objected to -- I tend to read through these
kinds of books pretty quickly and if they give me some great insight I tend
to forget about the rest of what they might say, since I take what makes
sense to me and leave the rest.

I'm sure people here aren't looking for some authority to blindly follow -
but someplace to get ideas to consider - that they'll use as launching pads
for more ideas of their own.

--pamS


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Camille Bauer

Camille?

Did I get the wrong book? I can't find my copy >>

I could be thinking of the wrong book as well, I will check my copy and let you know.

CamilleGet more from the Web. FREE MSN Explorer download : http://explorer.msn.com


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]