Frustration!

When Kate was about eighteen months old she learned her colors. We were so proud of her, and of course we wanted her to show off her new skill. Her favorite thing to do then… Everything was yellow. That green turtle—she called it yellow. The red fire truck—yellow. The black dress—yellow. One day her aunt asked her what color her shirt was (it was yellow, so we were sure to get the right answer, weren’t we?)—PINK!

Well, Kate finally gave up on that game, but now she’s using the same strategy on her letters. We know that she knows some of them, but she will say anything but the right letter. I was trying so hard with her yesterday that I had to walk away from it for awhile.


I know that she’s testing us, but sometimes the right solution eludes me at that moment. We made a new rule now. She has to do her letter work, just a few minutes, before she can play with her computer. It makes sense, because some of the games are letter related, so she needs to practice her letters anyway. It gives her a reason to work on what we want her to learn, and it gives us both a little power—I hold the keys to the computer and she can choose to work or not (but of course she wants her screen time).