Independence Day

I've been told that bringing a younger sibling into the house causes the older ones to have no choice but to grow up and develop more independence. Has it been true? I suppose so. I've been told that the twins have matured somewhat in the last 2 months which happily coincides with Muffin being born.

Perhaps they are just better able to take instruction and are more keen to do things by themselves. Perhaps it's because we make it a point to tell them that if they want something, they are to get it themselves. Although that has had mixed success. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn't.

Baby J was kept home from school because she had a crampy stomach bug. Of course, when she is home and I am home, she is stuck to me like a limpet. More so when she is unwell. The problem is much as I want to give her my full attention, I would have to tend to Muffin as well.

Thankfully, Baby J seemed kept happy to just sit beside me and read to me and to Muffin a whole array of books. While reading, she would occasionally look over and stroke Muffin on the head and continue. She hasn't progressed much from Jordanese but when she knows the story well, she can summarise and narrate it. When she can't, she makes it up as she goes along.

Even after I was done nursing and needed to go take a shower, she was quite happy to read to her little brother in my absence. All I said to her was "don't step on your brother" and "don't disturb him while he sleeps". From my bathroom, I could hear her go on, quite loudly and animatedly.

I snuck out quietly and videoed her sitting on my bed and reading all by herself with her brother lying in a basket beside her (he's out of the picture frame though). Totally oblivious to me, she nattered on (If she knew I was there, the nattering would have stopped).




The thing was that only took up about half an hour of the morning and I wondered what to do with her for the rest of the morning. The little girl, who recently decided she liked the whole princess get up had ideas of her own. With a blanket flung dramatically round her shoulders, she comes to me for help to fasten her "cloak". I do that with a binder clip and she's off to her room again. This time, I follow, puzzled at what she was up to.

She points out to me the slats on her bed and tells me that she is crossing the bridge to the volcano. Context: Their current favourite episode of Dora the Explorer (they watch this in Chinese) is where Dora and Boots need to cross some mud, a bridge and a volcano to get to the library to return library books. What strange-ass library is situated near a volcano is beyond me. Anyway, I ask her how her cloak is going to help but all she can tell me is "I like pink" and goes on her merry adventure.









When she finally tires and comes to ask me to play with her, I know she's run out of ideas and needs a little push to find other things to do. Her eyes light up when I suggest we build a farm. I buy and keep these foam sticker activity kits so that when I really need something to occupy the twins, there're things for them to do. As she does it and puts her animals on the farm, she hums "O Macdonald had a farm" and insert relevant animal. We also attempt to spell her name to make it Jordan's Farm which thrills her to bits.









So my conclusion for the day was that Jordan was indeed much more independent and occasionally just needed a push in the right direction for inspiration. It wasn't difficult having her home and I had fun just watching her potter around and do her thing. I hope that increasingly, she will be able to do her own thing and then life will get much easier.

Of course, this peace erupted into near blood shed once her brother returned from school and they went back to fighting, snatching and crying, all of which I had to mediate like a Middle-East peace broker. But well, I can still dream I guess, of easier days to come.


Technorati Tags: pre-schoolers, developing independence