Looking back, I have come to believe that we made a mistake by
not socializing Robby more when he was a toddler and preschooler.
For a variety of reasons (primarily
financial) he did not regularly interact with many kids his age. He certainly
wasn't unsocial, but he definitely struggled to separate and to make friends
when he started school.
I want to learn
from this experience by encouraging Timmy to interact with peers on a regular
basis.
From going to the toddler playgrounds to the trampoline and bounce
parks, Timmy is constantly around other children his age. Children his age
don't necessarily play together, but they are learning to take turns and to
socialize. Timmy loves nothing more than climbing, sliding, running and
jumping. He is definitely a rough and tumble kid who is in near constant
motion. Figuring that we had the physical side of his socialization covered,
over the weekend I began to look for opportunities for him to participate in a
more structured activity.
I was delighted when I discovered a local toddler story time at
our library. I knew that sitting quietly with others would be a stretch for
him, but I was optimistic that the experience would be beneficial. After all,
certainly the librarian was not expecting perfect behavior and attentiveness
from the young toddler participants, right?
Wrong! When I arrived, I was a tad concerned that Timmy was (by
far) the youngest participant. Although
it was advertised as a toddler time, all of the other kids were between four
and five. There is a difference between
a two year old and a four year old. While all of the other children sat quietly
on the rug waiting for class to start, mine was jumping around the
"listening circle" happily entertaining the young audience. When the
librarian began the session, I ushered Timmy over and tried to keep him still.
I was hoping that he would follow the lead of everybody else. Again, I could
not have been more wrong.
He squealed with delight at every opportunity. When the class
began to clap their hands to a song, mine leaped from my arms and began to
dance on the table. I can tell you that the librarian was not amused with my
little table dancer.
The librarian pulled out a Halloween book, read the first page
and quietly began to circulate it among the audience. The kids were instructed
to smell the scratch and sniff pumpkin sticker that was put on the first page.
Every child took their turn smelling the book. When it was Timmy's turn, I first smelled the sticker myself in
the hopes that he would copy my behavior.
Instead he grabbed it from my hands, licked the page and threw the book across the room.
It was then that the librarian politely suggested that he was not
ready for story time and invited us to come back another time. In other words,
we were expelled from class. I picked up my little book-licker and was forced
to do the walk of shame out of the the toddler time circle. Sigh. I really hope that this isn't a precursor to his academic career.
