Occasionally, I have seen/heard of trained Montessori guides who decide to homeschool. I am just curious about what led to these decisions. Did you think the Montessori curriculum had weaknesses? Are there other factors that led to your decisions?
I’m a stay at home mom to a 2 year old daughter. My husband and I are interested in sending our daughter to a Montessori preschool and elementary school. I’m thinking of waiting until age 4 for preschool, she is currently our only child and we do lots of parent & me activities every week, etc.
Has anyone done this?
Just wondering is part-time Kindergarten usually an option in Montessori schools?
Thoughts on screens and technology use in elementary schools. I am a Stay At Home Mom to a 2 year old daughter. We are screen free at home and this has been wonderful. We are starting to get serious about figuring out where we would like to send her for elementary school and preschool. (I know she’s ~3 years away from starting kindergarten.). Our local public school uses and issues laptops to students. 😞. It seems like some parochial/private schools around us may be similar as well. We hope to avoid those but it may be difficult. What are your thoughts on screen use in the classroom, like smart boards, etc? We worked so hard so hard to be nearly screen free at home. I feel like later in her education videos like Khan Academy, etc could be a useful resource but I would rather her participate in (and learn from) the real world for now and not be immersed in videos/screens/technology. What have your experiences been? Did you find yourself having issues finding preschool/educational program for your child(ren)? Anyone feel the need to opt to homeschooling or an alternative program like Montessori, etc?
Has anyone gone back to Block 1 for poop withholding? Did it help? My LO has pooped on the potty maybe 3 times since starting potty training. She is 26 months old, day ~15, we are on block 3 (still commando) now. She pooped on the potty during Block 1 though. She really seems to dislike being bottomless but I would like to try to help her. Do you think that I should give it more time for the poop withholding to self correct or try going back to Block 1 at home as soon as possible? Or try something else?
She is pooping at least 1 time a day still in a nap/bedtime diaper. She had poop accidents for the first time the other day after eating a lot of prunes but otherwise she just holds it until she gets a diaper. 😕
I wonder if I moved on to Block 2 too fast. 🤔 (day 3.5) She was pooping in the potty in Block 1 though. She hated being wiped though and would ask for a diaper sometimes.
Also, should I wait until this poop withholding thing is resolved before moving on to underwear? I’m afraid that underwear may just make poop accidents more likely.
On day 13, block 3 of the Oh Crap Method. (Still commando). My 26-month-old daughter has pee down with no accidents since day 4. She is withholding her poop for nap/bedtimes. Some people have told me that this resolves with time, and I’m happy that she’s not constipated.
However, she has a friend's birthday party in about a week, which is during her naptime, 12:30-3:30 pm. I’m concerned that she’s going to try to withhold her poop during the entire party, causing her to either make herself sick and/or have a poop accident during the party which I think would make her very upset.
Can/should I do anything to help her get comfortable pooping in the potty in less than a week? Or should I let it go, and she will most likely be fine?
I’m on Day 13, Block 3 of the Oh Crap Method and my 26 month old daughter is doing awesome with pee. No potty accidents since day 4. We’ve resumed toddler activities and she uses our travel potty or travel insert if needed.
She’s only pooped in her potty ~3 times since potty training. She seems to be uncomfortable with pooping on the potty for some reason and saves her poop for nap/bedtimes when we rediaper her.
Is there anything we can do to help her get comfortable with pooping on the potty? My husband and I want to try to give her foods and drinks that will make her poop more. Is this advisable?
Should we just let it go and she should naturally eventually become more comfortable/confident with pooping on the potty?
Please tell me what you have all done and/or what is recommended.
My 2 year old daughter is scheduled for an early morning dental appointment the week we are planning to start potty training her. (Earlier than her regularly scheduled activities so we will be waking her up and starting her day earlier.). It’s later in the week (day 4+) but in the past she’s hated going to the dentist (although it could be different this time). We are planning on doing the “Oh Crap Method”. Should I reschedule her dental appointment? Or just offer her the potty before the appointment and have her go to the appointment comando or with underwear underneath her diaper?
I could potentially start on the Thursday/Friday of the prior week but then we’d have mass/church on day 3.
Has anyone started mid-day? Like if I wanted to take her to an activity the morning that she starts potty training but then diaperless at home after that?
I may be over thinking it. I appreciate your insight/recommendations, etc.
Thank you!
My freshly 2 year old has often started saying prior to each mealtime that she’s “not hungry” once in a while she will say she is hungry. Usually we serve meals when we serve meals and we haven’t been doing snacks in between for several months either. I feel like her saying that she’s not hungry is her not wanting to stop playing and sit at the table. I don’t want to force her to eat but I would like her to sit with us. Most of the time she does end up eating. My husband was bribing her with a favorite snack yesterday. I do not think this is the correct tactic. I don’t want to encourage over eating or her only eating if certain foods are present. I also want her to try to eat the foods that my husband and I are eating. I usually serve 1+ “safety food(s)” at each meal, normally pasta. I think just helping with the transition between play and mealtimes should help.
What is recommended to do if your toddler refuses to sit at the table for mealtimes because they say they are not hungry?
I’m getting my 2 year old daughter’s toyroom ready for potty training. We are planning on doing the “oh crap method”. I’ll be putting waterproof mats on the couches. One of the couches in her toy room has a lot of her stuffed animals. She loves to bury herself in them. Since most of them aren’t machine washable I thought we would have to temporarily remove them during potty training time. Is there another way? I am curious what other people did. I fear my 2 year old will miss her friends but I think I will get stressed out by the concern of her soiling her stuffed animals.
Please share what you all did particularly for the diaperless part of potty training.
I’m getting my 2 year old daughter’s toyroom ready for potty training. We are planning on doing the “oh crap method”. I’ll be putting waterproof mats on the couches. One of the couches in her toy room has a lot of her stuffed animals. She loves to bury herself in them. Since most of them aren’t machine washable I thought we would have to temporarily remove them during potty training time. Is there another way? I am curious what other people did. I fear my 2 year old will miss her friends but I think I will get stressed out by the concern of her soiling her stuffed animals.
Please share what you all did particularly for the diaperless part of potty training.
I haven’t officially begun potty training my freshly turned 2 year old. We are waiting until the mid/late June when we will both be home and we can be consistent with diaper free time, etc. (We are planning to do the “Oh Crap Method”.). I wanted to potty train earlier around 20 months (and in someways she seemed ready at 18 months because we were EC curious but only did it a few times) but it was hard scheduling wise. We do daily parent & me activities and I would like to spend a week+ or at least a few days at home diaperless so I’m waiting until our activities naturally end.
My daughter seems to know what a toilet/potty is for. We’ve also read lots of potty training books. She seems to know the poop feeling and has asked to go poop a few times on the potty, etc. She also seems to be afraid of peeing on the potty which I don’t understand. She sometimes withholds until she asks for a diaper or has an accident. She says things like “I had an accident. I’m still learning.” “I listen to my body.” “I feel a rumble in my tummy.”
Occasionally and more frequently these last few days she hates getting a new diaper on. She immediately wants to try to use the potty whenever we take her diaper off. She is usually fine with me taking off her diaper and cleaning her up but hates it when I put on a fresh clean diaper. I think some of the books we read talk about how diapers are soggy, wet, and dirty. She’s also requested “big girl underwear”.
Sometimes I allow her to be diaper free when I can watch her around the house. I can’t always do that though and I haven’t set up her toy room for potty training yet either. A few months back this led to pee accidents because she refused to pee in the potty too.
Last night it was time for dinner and she refused to be re-diapered stating that she wanted to “poop on the potty”. My husband and I were very hungry so we just set up the potty chair and her potty tent (a play tent that she likes to poop in) near our kitchen table. She kept on getting off it and asking us to read to her while she was on the potty. We kept on having to redirect her back on the potty. I think at one point she did look like she needed to pee and if I sat her on her high chair with a pee pad she would have gone pee (she has in the past). She didn’t end up pooping all evening. Was this a delay tactic because she “was not hungry”? This ended up contributing to a delayed bedtime. I would really prefer if she ate dinner with us when we all were eating.
What do I do? I feel like she is using “needing to use the potty” to get out of things that she doesn’t want to do and she’s trying to explore her power of “needing to use the potty”. Do I set time limits for needing to use the potty?
Please help. I feel like I have a two year old tyrant living in my house. I love her dearly but she can be a tyrant.
I’ve been collecting art supplies for my 2 year old. I’ve known about dot markers but I know Montessori typically frowns upon "coloring inside the lines". This evening she had an opportunity to play with her friends dot markers and their dot marker books and she loved them.
Are the dot marker books harmful to her later creativity? Or just a positive fun creative experience for toddlers?
My mother wants my husband, myself and I to go camping with her and her adult friends for a few days/week in a little more than a month in Cape Cod, MA. I believe biking will be the main activity and we have a Burley.
My freshly turned 2 year old has never been camping before. (It would be tent camping too.). I think this could be a fun family experience. However, my LO kind of needs sleep in order to be on her best behavior, etc. she can have terrible meltdowns if she’s overtired, hungry, or overstimulated. (In the past my mother hasn’t been too compassionate if she has these meltdowns 🤷🏻♀️). My LO currently does 12-13 hours of sleep a day with a 2.5-3 hour nap in the afternoon. One of my concerns is that she won’t be able to sleep/nap well which could sour the camping experience for everyone. Also, then my husband and/or I are also committing ourselves to staying with her at the campsite for 3+ hours so she can nap. I don’t think sleeping in the Burley is supposed to be safe. My husband wants to get her a blackout tent which isn’t cheap but he hopes that will help her nap/sleep. We currently roomshare so I think she would like sharing the tent with us.
Part of me wants to skip this trip because I don’t think she/we are ready plus we will be missing some activities at home that I already paid for but part of me thinks that who knows if/when we will have this opportunity to do this with my mother again. My mother does come visit us every other month so we do get to see her but not a lot.
Anyone have a high sleep needs toddler and has had success with tent camping in the summer?