Over and Over (and over) Again

The following is a post from Tabitha

My youngest (not for long!) baby girl is now 2 years old. She is learning everything she can through observation, trying it out, and constant repetition.

Yes, that same book over and over (and over) again. Yes, she wants to that puzzle over and over (and over) again. She wants to test that every time she says “up! up! UP!” her dad will still lift her up high in his arms and set her down again. Yes, that shape sorter needs to be dumped out and redone again. Ok, let’s read that book one more time. Two more times. Ten more times.

It’s a continuation of the ‘let’s drop my toy out of my bed and see if they’ll pick it up’ game where she learned that her family can be counted on to help her. This is a little more complex, though. She has learned (and is still learning) that things are constant. The words of the book don’t change, and it’s so neat! Look, the baby will say “mama” again on the second to last page. The turkey will put shoes on his head again instead of on his feet! The train puzzle piece fits in the train shaped hole in the puzzle, every single time. Even better, she can remember how to put it there and get it right with all those puzzle pieces! Every single time! Her shapes all have their own place on the shape sorter, and she can put them all back if she just keeps trying.

Now, as a parent, we can get rather annoyed reading “Go Dog Go” for the hundredth time, or helping our child open up the shape sorter to dump out the shapes again.

It can be frustrating when you are trying to get things done to be asked to do something again (like lift up a heavy little girl to touch the ceiling when she says UP UP UP”).

I remind myself that she will only be this little for a short time.

She will only need us to help her with these things for a little while, until she figures out to do them for herself. She will only want us to read to her until she reads for herself. But each of these things are so important to her. She will always remember that she can count on her parents and older siblings.

These thought processes are building tools for her brain. Those puzzles and shapes are making connections that will help her learn when she is older and working with logic and thinking. That book she loves will help her sound out phonics and even some grammar, even while it is making her laugh now. Repetition is an important part of a toddler’s learning career, as well as precious time spent with a child who still needs us to help her grow “up!”

Tabitha (wife to Tom, homeschooling mom to 8 kids ages 14 to 1, learning something new all the time)