Capable Child

In my professional life I am a deputy head teacher of a large primary school. We encourage parents to toilet train their children before they begin school. Whilst we cannot and do not insist on it, we are aiming for children to be self reliant in this aspect of self care - providing that they don’t have a special need. At the nursery information evening, I am often approached by parents who have ‘tried everything’ with toilet training and are desperately concerned that their child may not be able to use the toilet alone by the time that they start nursery. Having been through the process, I feel a great deal of empathy towards these parents. The words ‘tried everything’ suggest why it hasn’t worked yet. I believe that switching methods, stopping, starting, different potties etc is not helpful to young children. I don’t think it matters exactly how you choose to toilet train your child but choose a method and be relentless. Have supportive friends around you, plenty of time and mo...

I do not have the perfect method for potty training. I am not an expert. I found potty training my daughter to be really, really hard work. This blog aims to share my experiences about how we prepared for potty training. I have found a great deal of support and encouragement from other parents, people who have been through similar experiences. Sometimes conversations make me think- ‘I’d never do that!’ or ‘Great idea’ or just reminded me that I needed to get on and do something. I hope that reading this is like having an encouraging friend. We started quite early for most children in the UK at 20 months. Back in the 70s and 80s this was pretty common from what I can gather so I decided to just get on with it. There were some reasons which influenced my decision- Little Lady wore cloth nappies some of the time and truthfully, I was fed up of the dreaded soaking bucket in the garage. She also hated having her nappy changed by this age and would cry and scream- I’d had enou...

I am passionate about developing a love of reading in young children. I read to my bump whilst pregnant and felt guilty for not taking books in my hospital bag during a hospital stay after giving birth! But as soon as I got home the reading started. To be completely honest, hanging around the home with a tiny baby is not something that I found easy- what would I do for hours on end? How would I fill the time? Well my time did get filled but between nappy changing and feeds we spent a lot of time curled up together in bed or on the sofa reading. We began with the black and white baby books and just kept going. Reading was and still is a cosy affair in our house. When Danish hygge books came out last Christmas, I knew that we already had it nailed. We have a big soft sofa, blanket and real fire in Winter and in Summer we take a picnic blanket on to lawn and cuddle up and read. Making it a special time makes it something that we love to do. We keep getting new books. Well, not re...