Our little Sweetpea is now three and a half.  We use the half to ensure we understand that we are no longer three and can do hard work (and “tricks Mommy…say hard tricks”).  I look at this little lady and just hope to goodness I’m not damaging her foundation.  There are so many “Mom is the worst” thoughts I had years ago towards my own mother.  I think like most, I have found that she’s absolutely amazing (her art studio).

Memories

Our Sweetpea seems to remember pretty much everything.  Listening to her recount a chain of events to include how she felt is sometimes difficult.  She will tell me how “Mom was dragging me”…ok your dress was too long and you kept tripping…I didn’t want you to get hit by the car (there are no sidewalks where we live).  Fair point though…as my mom has said…most parenting issues stem from the parent.  I need to slow down, calm down and be patient (and maybe think through the dress).

Parental Pressure(???)

Sweetpea appears to have a strong competitive spirit, a desire to tell people what to do and an intense curiosity with spelling/reading/counting/patterns/matching/puzzles.

There is a large part of me that is proud of our daughter for being able to spell her name, recognize letters, complete patterns, play the “Counting Game” etc.  There is also a larger part of me that worries that she doesn’t having enough free play.  Does she have subconscious pressure from preschool to be perfect?  Does she internalize my attempts to hide my excitement over academics?  Is all of this too much too early?  I seriously just want her to happy.  As my Mom says…unintentional pride in one area can have unintended consequences and pressures for performance.  In an Academic world of competition and doing your best, so much growth/creativity/thought…comes from simple free play.

It Starts With Me

So if simple free play is the beginning of all goodness…I need to get off of Facebook, stop playing my silly (but addicting) game on my phone…and have my own “free play”.  Which I think will be tennis, running, reading, cooking.  Sometimes it’s simply hard to avoid being lazy!