jprunty's Journal, 04 June 2008

Jennifer, I raised three sons, so I know what you're up against. But you simply MUST establish at this age that he is not the boss, you are the boss, and he will do everything you say or else . . . and be willing to follow through on the "or else." If you don't, there will be NO controlling him by the time he's a teenager! I'd suggest you tell him that he doesn't have to nap, but he MUST lay quietly on his bed (perhaps reading a book?) for a half hour. That may slow him down enough he will fall asleep. The trick is not to be constantly yelling at him, just quietly expect him to do as you say.  

Our 4 yr old is the same way~!! Very "color oriented" lol. Glad to hear it's not just ours... I was a bit concerned! lol Our older child did not do the color thing, as I recall. Keep up the hard work.. oh and my 6 yr old told me that she wasn't going to goto kindergarten today! lol I have NO idea what makes her think that she can even say such a thing, but she did, and she did go. She only has like 11 days left and summer break will be here. WOW! Where does time fly off to? Have a great day! 

soo funny! ok, here is my best advice of what I had read in the many books about child rearing (you have to choose the ones you think will work with your own child) and that I had the best results with. NAPS: Get a kitchen timer and set it for 20 min... tell him he has to lay down and stay quiet for 20 minutes and that if he is still awake when the timer goes off, he can get up and does not have to take a nap. You set a timer or watch the time closely so that in 18 minutes you go peek in... if he is asleep, you remove the timer from his room and turn it off. If he is awake, then he really and truly was not tired and can stay up. Most of the time mine was asleep, only rarely did she make it past the first 15 min. The books said that if they are tired they will be asleep before the 20 min is up.. if not, then they should be allowed to stay up. After all... you really can not order someone to sleep. However you can ask them to have quiet time. also funny about almost getting kicked out of pre-school. I have to tell you my story about my youngest daughter (not ImLuuvd).. who actually FAILED pre-school!! I was outraged when i got the call at work that she had to go back to the three year old class because she failed 4 yr old preschool!! Preschool isn't evrn a requirement to get into kindergarden! I knew she would be bored going back into the 3 yr old class, so I simply took her OUT of pre-school. all the time I was venting and commentating on how could a child possibly FLUNK PRE-SCHOOL! Amazingly, they evidently missed the money and called me back wanting to put her back into the 4 yr old class and I had them wait til after the holidays were over before I took her back. I have great empathy for the teachers and pre-school teachers but honestly, she wasn't a bad kid and she wasn't hurting anyone or doing anything to disrupt anyone, she simply didn't want to sit in the reading circle. To this day i am still amazed that my child flunked pre-school! Soooo it could be worse! That child is now working on her phd and is working on a team to develope a genetic substance that will help make bacteria NOT resistant to anitbiotics. She's a geek! and she flunked pre-school. have patience , it will work out!