Madness of Motherhood

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We continue our talk about potty training with Sara Au, coauthor of Stress Free Potty Training. We discuss the most common mistakes we make when we start this “fun phase” of our children’s development. Afterwards, we meet Monica Arcos, the owner of the Math Monkey located in Lake Mary where we hear about how we can make our monkeys at home into Math Monkeys!

What are the mistakes we make as parents when we start to potty train our children?! Once we hear what they are, hopefully, we will try to avoid these mistakes, right? So, Sara starts by saying the number one mistake we make is trying to force our child to become potty trained. You cannot force your child to do something she is not ready to do. Sometimes it may take one day or sometimes it may take up to one year… depending on your child’s personality. If you force it, it will be more difficult for both you and your child!

The second most common mistake is parents bringing their own personalities into the situation and not understanding your own child’s personality. For example, you may have an internalizer who needs to watch and observe first.However, you are very strong willed and want him to do it a certain way. You need to leave “your way behind” and focus on how your child’s way of doing things.

The third most common mistake is starting the whole potty training process too early. Remember, this is all about your child, not about you. Try not to succumb to playgroup peer pressure or other outside pressure that may influence your gut feeling. Listen to your child’s cues, not your neighbor’s.

Also, pay particular attention to Sara’s suggestion to “Naked Time”. I loved that suggestion and is very helpful!!!

Then, we meet Monica Arcos, the owner of a very fun place called Math Monkey. Math Monkey is a knowledge center to help children’s math capabilities expand in a fun and laid back atmosphere. The classes are for children ages 6-14 years of age and are based on the Vedic Math from India.

Monica ways they want the children to have fun with math and to think about math all the time. When you are out with the children, have them look at license plates and try to add, subtract, multiply or divide them. It’s practice and fun!

They have different programs all the time and encourage families to come visit! So, if you already have monkeys like I do at home, why not make them Math Monkeys?!

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