Being a mother and being a teacher are VERY similar roles to play. Just one example: Every time you think you have it “all figured out”, you don’t. 🙂 Since NSis’ arrival, MBug was doing SO well with the new baby. Not even a hint of jealousy…
until recently.
Part of it could just be her age, but I was really wrestling with how to handle it because it was beginning to affect our school time. She desired to be held a lot during school time and wanted my undivided attention. As you can imagine with 3 other children to take care of, I couldn’t do this. This, in turn, resulted in lots of whining and crying during school time…not the ideal learning environment for ALuv and NJoy.
So, we started Mornings with MBug! Before school time begins (which is around 9:30am), I take her into the schoolroom or the playroom and I give her some undivided attention while the boys have free play or work on the computer. This doesn’t happen every since morning, but we give it a try about 3 times a week. It has worked wonders for this little girl and This Reading Mama! 🙂
Here are some pictures from my recent mornings with her:
we named letters and colors, then she decided to sort them by color
Color Wonder-I found these the other day in a drawer and she loved them (and so do I because they don’t make a mess!!!)
I’ve been a mom/teacher long enough that I know better than to claim that this will work forever.
But for now, I’m savoring my mornings with MBug!
This post was linked to Carisa’s Moments to Remember.
~Becky
P.S.- I dealt with some s.e.r.i.o.u.s. sibling jealousy when NJoy came along (ALuv was 3 and used to being the only child). While there were many things I could have done, my aunt gave me a very simple and helpful tip that was doable for this extremely overwhelmed mama: Give the eldest child eye contact accompanied by a smile and say his name as often as you can.
This is a great idea I might have to use when our next daughter is born, since I don’t think her (two year old) big sister is going to take too kindly to sharing the limelight. 🙂