The snubnose’s teachers tell me that she is extremely gifted in music, dancing and arts. However, she needs to be encouraged to read more books to improve her vocabulary, which is not as extensive as her class-mates.
Basically, the problem is this…she learns just enough words to make her needs / desires known to us. And it encourages her to speak, when we comply with her wishes when she utters the words just right.
For example, if she wants to listen to Old MacDonald, she only gets to do so when she utters the magic words : Mama, please play Old MacDonald for me, which she now does quite often.
The problem : she wants to listen to it all day long, and if not Old MacDonald there are numerous other songs on her wishlist. Which means, she ends up saying the same sentence again and again. Not learning anything new. The snubnose’s idea of a good time is watching nursery rhymes and songs on You Tube, and then practising the steps and the tunes all day long.
Ideally, she should spend an equal amount of time with her books. When I try to persuade her to do something else, she throws me a glare indicating how much she hates me. If I am not quelled by the glare, it is followed by loud noise, and runs off with huge protests to papa. Who in turn, chides me for not being sensitive enough to the snub-nose’s feelings !
This is now standard routine in our house, and it has left me plagued with a feeling of unworthiness – that I am probably an insensitive bullying mom who (in a more enlightened country than mine) could be charged with child harassment.
Sometimes (not always), when I am glaring down at her in full fury, I suddenly realize just how small she is, and then my grrr mode ends up melting away.
Small but deadly !
