Pace. You’ve made peace with the fact that the pace of your adult daily life is vastly different from the pace your child is capable of. You know that her sensory input is on overdrive and that her neural pathways are more like fireworks than a traffic grid right now. You’re sensitive to the tremendous task she has of coordinating and refining movement. Mostly, you’re ready and able to protect and defend her right to that pace whenever possible! Sometimes that’s as simple as sending a text saying, “BRT, we’re looking at a butterfly around the corner” and sometimes it’s a tricky balance of boundaries like, “Thank you again for inviting us to your party, we’re so excited to celebrate with you. We’re going to take a few quiet (or wiggly) moments in the foyer together before everyone gathers for presents (or sits down to eat).”

         Process. You get that childhood is a process, that these years of early childhood are a journey of discovery rather than a race to milestones. You delight when your child wanders, follows his own interests, makes connections on his own, experiments and repeats at his discretion, or maybe anxiously holding space for that to happen. You’re content, even overjoyed, to let your child play inside the cardboard box that spatial reasoning toy came in even if that means he’s totally uninterested in said toy until he’s finished with the box. You let him pour the same spadeful of sand over and over again by himself in the sandbox at the park even though you brought him there so he could use the slide and play with the other children.

          Persistence. You give your child many, many, many, many, many opportunities to try again. You know that communicating your confidence in her with a gentle smile or nod of encouragement is often all it takes for her to complete the task herself, or that offering a one word hint or gestured reminder is all she needs to be successful on her own. You probably find yourself saying things like, “I can sit here with you while you fasten your shoe,” instead of “Let me do it for you sweetie.”

          If none of this sounds like you but you’d sure like it to, that’s great! Remember at Montesshare, we’re here to share your journey, too!

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Last Child In The Woods, Richard Louv No Bad Kids, Janet Lansbury Free Range Kids, Lenore Skenazy The Backtalk Book, Audrey Ricker and Carolyn Crowder Montessori The Science Behind The Genius, Angeline Lillard Nurturing The Spirit, Aline Wolf Making Classrooms Better, Tracey Tokuhama-Espinoza