5 Steps I implemented to distract the attention of my 4 years old from my stationary shelf
I have an extremely gifted 4 years old boy. He loves to write (yes, he writes very well) and he loves to draw (yes, he draws very well) too !
But, I have a problem with him constantly taking my stationary and destroy it !
Like my Post-It highlighter !
I decided to go to the local store to get some supplies.
1. Supplies.
a. A 5-tier drawer.
b. Pens and Pencils.
c. Crayon.
d. Color papers.
2. Label the drawers.
3. Teaching.
That is when the man of the home comes into picture. The father teaches the child on the principal of ownership.
4. The reward part.
Smiling face’s sticker.
When he finishes his artworks and able to put it back to the artwork’s drawer, he will get a smiling face’s sticker, likewise if mama and papa do not find any missing stationary for a week, he will get a smiling face’s sticker ; and after a certain number of stickers, he will get a certain real life rewards, like going to the playground or getting a chocolate candy 
.
5. The pride of parenting when your child understands the concept.
And we have funs !
How about sharing share with us some of the projects you have done with your kid(s) or even if you are single, what are the projects that you have done to solve a problem that you encounter ?
I like to hear from you, my readers !
That is so clever. Wish I could have done that when my kids were young.
*Jaw on floor again*
His S’s and e’s are in the right direction! And he knows “Art Work”?!
With Kay Lyn (that’s my kid), she seems to be grasping the concepts of cleaning up after she’s done playing with her toys. I tell her once to put things back where they belong and she’ll just waddle away to do it, effectively or otherwise, another issue altogether.
*Cirnelle drags her jaw to work*
Hi SA,
How many u have and how old are they now ?
Sorry for being busy body
Jamy
Cirnelle,
.
Ya, he seems to be very gifted in a few areas but compensated in some areas, like at 4, he still wants mama to feed him, sigh !
“With Kay Lyn (that’s my kid), she seems to be grasping the concepts of cleaning up after she’s done playing with her toys. I tell her once to put things back where they belong and she’ll just waddle away to do it, effectively or otherwise, another issue altogether”
They said girls seems to follow order earlier but boys are a different ball game
Jamy
Cirnelle, he knows his vowel when he was 23 months.
Cheers
That’s an interesting method to teach responsibility to a 4-year old. I like the concept of smiling stickers, so cute, hehehehe.
I am definitely going to track, if you’ll allow me, the chronicles of a child prodigy in a conducive environment and see what this amazing kid grows up to be.
Just continue your postings about him. Then make sure you tell us when he wants to run for President.
Cirnelle,
I used to joke before I moved here (I was based in Brunei then) that my son is going to be America’s president one of these days. Then my bible teacher said why? It is a very difficult job and not many people appreciate the president. Now I looked back, what he said is so true.
My father in law is very into geonologyy, he has his own site and his own forum. Apparently, ( I don’t know how true it is, you know how these people can be very fanatic with this subject), he has a geonology map that has George Washington on one of the branch. So, when I did my US citizen naturalization, I kind of feel very proud, he he he.
In fact, you brought up a very interesting subject, might be I will set up a category on a genius in making.
I will in the post write down how I stimulate his visual, auditory, fine motor etc… I don’t think it is coincidence that he is what he is today. I think it has to do with both innact and environment.
There are 2 things that I defile all experts research and …
Take it as a pinch of salt :
These 2 are my 2 big guns !
1. I believe in mother love gives a child the greatest confidence that he will ever have.
I had never left him outside of my reach when he went to sleep all the time. Even now he is in the same room with us, different bed.
Ya, it defiles theory that you should get your child independent as young as a baby. Let the baby sleeps in his/her room, if he/she cries, stand outside of the door, let them cry to sleep.
I don’t do that at all. Whenever he cries, I picked him up. I rocked him and sang to him. English song, Malay song, Chinese Song, Hokkien song, Tow Chiew song, I sang to him until he goes back to sleep.
His ped is very interested in his development stage, he said he has not seen a child like that all his years he has been a ped.
In fact, he is the one who encourage me to sleep with him from day 1. He is a Hispanic, they are very close knit kind of society and family, a bit like Asians.
His theory is that the closeness and bond provide a child with up-most confidence and assure him that he can do anything. And he said that can also helped him in problem solving. At that time, I was very skeptical but I was afraid not to do what he had recommended. I did and it was a very difficult job. It would be much easier if I dumped him in his baby room and set up the radio receiver and came to his room when he cried ! But, if what his ped said was true, it is worth every of my aching old bone.
When he was about 26months. His ped dismentaled the ear otoscope and watched if he could put all the pieces together. He was shocked when he did it within seconds. He said it’s not usual for someone who had never used a ear otoscope to be able to put back all the pieces together and at his age, 26months. From then on, I have a feeling that he has very strong analytical skill.
2. The other big gun is I instill in him a love for learning. I instilled in him as young as 3 months old that it is fun to learn and learning is fun kind of mentality. I don’t like structure learning, especially when they are as young as 2-3 years old. I felt that is the window (time frame in a person life) where creativity part of our brain develop. My 2cents is structure learning at that time kills every creativity in a child [in fact, there are research on this issue, that is why most woman would prefer to keep their children till 3 before send them out to preschool, I am the least pro-towards daycare or baby sitter]. Don’t get me wrong, I do believe in discipline. I got him to sit on his baby chair everyday for an increment of 5mins until he can sit still for at leat 20minutes when he was a young toddler. That training enabled him to sit with us in the church’s family bible studies and worship service. In fact, I had a lot of people stopped me at grocery store and wondered how could a child sit so still on a shopping cart. But he can be as active as any boy at his age and as mischievous
, a boy is still a boy, no matter what !
I don’t want to compare him with other children. I want him to live a normal life. A lot of people who knew him keep telling me it is impossible because eventually he will know he is very different. His piano teacher wanted to ask the local newspaper to come to take pics when he had his 1st solo piano recital at 18months. I refused !
There are a lot of things which I taught him which were very very unconventional. Sometimes I browse blog and see what mothers do with their kids. I thought to myself, I would never have done that. I think it also has to do with my personality.
I collected quite a number of his drawings and will show post them now and then for you. So you stay tune. Now there are more amazing things developing. He is creating his own story scripts, his own cartoon scripts on speech and on paper. I think I should invest on a video camera
:). Might be my youtube will be more popular than my blog 
Aiya, “how lian” only lah, many readers said in their head, ha ha ha ha.
Cheers !
Jamy
*cirnelle feverishly taking notes*
Cirnelle,
.
It is not a gospel, it is an experiment
Jamy
The wonder of smiley stickers..
Kuanhoong,
Yes, it is very true.
Even adult we love being appreciated ?
That’s really clever. So how many smiling face stickers have you got yourself?
Wow Jamy, that is one gifted child!! My kids are just a few months younger, and neither can recognize their letters, except for letter A!! Where did I go wrong?
Hmm… may be I should let my brother use this tips for her naughty child!
His child break anything he could find in the ground! sound’s like godzilla or something…
ops, typos there! :shy:
I mean his child, not her child.. ;p
Doris (Puteri),
:) and he does not keep up with his messes 
:).
There is nothing wrong with your child or you.
All of us have different gifts.
I truly don’t want any parents here to feel lesser.There are a lot of areas where JJ is very compensated like he still want mama to feed him every meal
Love
Jamy
Neo, I bought the pack that has 10 sheet. I cannot remember how many pack I have
. I think lots of them. 
. I don’t like shopping, so I buy bulks 
.
Yes, Ken, ask your brother to try. No harm
.
I also use a shelf like yours & I dedicated one drawer for my gal. So now she knows she can take anything in that particular drawer since it’s hers. The other drawers are a no-no ‘cos it’s mommy’s. So far, it’s working. : )
Your daughter is very teachable but being tidy is a challenge of my son
:)
Am trying to teach my son to “put back” his toys after he took them all out, we had the first lesson this morning, hopefully he’ll understand the concept of filling the box soon