Moms of Preschoolers

[linda_loo]

First topic: the one that is driving me crazy... how's potty-learning going? (it sucks eggs here)

[Sarah]

Ooh, goody, a preschooler thread! Not much to add on PTing- DD has been PTed for a while, but I wanted to drop in and say hi!

[sweetlady]

I was just about to create a thread about the dreaded potty-training (may be more of a boy issue I don't know). Any other moms from 2001/2002 still around? Have you all potty trained your kiddos successfully?

DS will be 3 in September and potty training is quickly becoming frustrating. We've been following his cues for about 6 months now, and it might be time to step it up. Right now I put him in his 'big boy' underpants and just take him to the potty every hour and praise him whether he goes or not. Still, 70% of the time, he won't tell me he has to go, he'll just tell me when he's peed/pooped. He knows what to do, but if he's otherwise occupied, he just goes in his underpants. Sometimes, if I let him run around naked, he'll tell me he has to potty and runs to it, but even then, we've had several accidents. I'm tired of washing underwear every 1/2 hour and hope he catches on soon!

[cdworkin]

Hi Ladies! We got nuthin over here. He knows what to do but every time he tries he tells me 'it not working, how you make it work'... I am at a loss on how to tell my son to make his penis work.;)

CD

[Littlelamb11]

HI guys!! Hooray for Preschoolers!

PTing thankfully came and went about 6 months ago quickly and successfully. phew. (she's still wearing pull-ups for night sleep) Since she's pretty much the youngest in her class and won't be three until a few weeks before school starts, i was so worried that come fall when preschool starts, i'd have to homeschool because she wouldn't be potty trained in time, LOL!

[Mickey&B]

Not a mommy of a preschooler but I am a preschool teacher with tons of experience with begining potty learning. Yes ladies boys for one reason or another are harder to get them going (afraid that may continue into adulthood :p )anyway it sounds like you guys are doing the right things. Remember their is no "magical age" when children are totally potty trained. I usually take my little guys who are having a harder time controlling their bodies about every 45 minutes or so, if they can't get "it to work" I try singing a song or talking about something as they sit their "waiting". Most importantly make going to the potty fun, for example sing on your way there (kids really respond well to songs for transitions) or march on the way, make up a funny potty song it doesn't have to make sense example (to the tune of high ho the dairy oh) " a potty we will go, a potty we will go hi ho the dairy oh, a potty we will go" or I chant as i do a conga line "were goin pee pee in the potty, pee pee in the potty" you get the idea.

Oh yeah another important thing is to try not to get angry when they have accidents because they will!! try giving them a warning "in 1 minute we are going to go potty" don't turn it into a power struggle, because they always win! And you don't even what to go there!! You also may not want to put them in "big boy/girl" underware until you see a pattern of dryness (maybe they just don't have the bladder control yet) and having so many accidents actually cuts down their self-esteem. Sometimes the telling you they have to go part doesn't come for a while, they get to busy and yes they don't want to stop what there doing to go potty.

Well just my two cents! Good luck ladies hang in there your little ones will get it!

[devil_kitty_1]

We got nada, zip and zilch here. He was interested at one time, now he's not. I'm not pushing the issue, but toddler poops stink! He'll occassionally sit on the potty or pee standing up :rolleyes: but thats about it.

[mamacita]

Any tips for nighttime? We're still about 50/50 at night (dd will be 4 next month), so she wears pullups at night. Otherwise, she self-trained at 2, regressed some and then re-learned for good at about 2y9m.

[Mrs. M.]

Hi!

I am so glad to see
newmommy,
Littlelamb11,
and cdworkin
over here! I always enjoyed reading your posts!

DD is 22 months. She will start preschool in 2 months. May I post in here? :)

She has been doing "kaka" in the potty (big toilet) for about 2 weeks now. Since it is summer, we let her be nude at home quite a bit. I just don't think she feels pee yet, since she will let it happen, and report only that there is "whatah, whatah" on the floor afterwards.

Is this the normal sequence of events in pt?

[Sarah]

I am pretty convinced at this point that PTing is at least 80% kid's personality and physical readiness, not anything parents do.

We bought a potty when DD was 18 months, and put it in the bathroom. We never discussed it for a few months, and then mentioned that she could use it when she wanted to, and offered to let her sit on it to read books, which she did for a few weeks before her birthday.

Sophie decided soon after her second birthday that she didn't like diapers, and wanted to wear panties. This may be because she was in CDs. It was summer, so I just let her go bottomless, and she told me whenever she had to pee. SHe would run to the potty (which I put in the kitchen for a few weeks) and she wold go. I would make a huge fuss and give high fives, etc. We called Daddy at work and told him. So this went on for a few days. We never really used pullups, except for naps and night. She used pullups at nap until about November (so she was almost 2.5) and then only at night until about February, when she started waking up 6 night out of seven totally dry. She has been night trained since then, basically. I think she's had maybe two accidents.

I really think she was just physically aware of the sensation long before most kids. Weird, because she's not physically or emotionally or intellectually "advanced" in anything else. I do think that having the potty around before she was young enough for it to be a power struggle may have helped. And also maybe just putting all the diapers away and telling her she was wearing panties now may have helped, too. Wet panties aren't much fun.

[linda_loo]

I am pretty convinced at this point that PTing is at least 80% kid's personality and physical readiness, not anything parents do.

I'll up it to 99%, which is why I'm beginning to get bugged about this (I don't feel like I can do much about it). She'll have a dry week, and then say "you know what? I want my Mickey Mouse diaper, like Rissa has. Thanks, mommy."

Out of ideas/patience, she and I spent 15 minutes in Build-A-Bear today, discussing how she could pick whatever animal she wants with whatever clothes she wants when she starts using the potty all the time. She pointed out the unicorn 10 times, the one that she got from BAB on her birthday.

Her response to my shameless bribery? "no, I cannot use the potty and wear panties all the time. I have a unicorn at home, I not need a bear."

*sigh*

Last year, I joked that my younger one (19 months) would be trained at the same time. I don't joke about it anymore. She wakes up dry and asks to use the potty, she tells me when she needs to go, she gets most upset when there is something in her diaper. Maybe she should be the one that I send to preschool in a couple months? :p

I'll tell you, it's a real scene in my house, with 2 toddlers fighting over the "little potty", the "Blue's Clues potty" and the "Daddy potty."

[linda_loo]

Any other moms from 2001/2002 still around? Have you all potty trained your kiddos successfully?

Sorry, I didn't say how old mine is; my oldest turned 3 in May, a girl (I was linda-and-evan at WC). So, pretty much unsuccessful. ;)

[Orange]

I'm reading along with great interest. My DD turns two in a few days and has all the sudden developed a huge interest in the potty. She wants to go constantly, but rarely produces anything. She does try to go - she even says "push hard" (not sure where she got that, I don't say that to her) and I hear her grunting.

She also will not sit on her potty, only the regular toilet. She also won't stand for anything to be over the seat that wil keep her from falling in, so I have to stand there and hold her. She also wants to go through the whole ritual of putting TP in the toilet, flushing and washing her hands. I don't want to discourage it, but on the other hand I don't want to be flushing the toilet 10 times an hour.

At her age, I'm not interested in pushing her yet, but if she's ready I'm all ears for advice!

[Mrs. M.]

I have to stand there and hold her. She also wants to go through the whole ritual of putting TP in the toilet, flushing and washing her hands. I don't want to discourage it, but on the other hand I don't want to be flushing the toilet 10 times an hour.

DD is the same way. I taught her we only need to flush if there is kaka, and she is ok with that (she has not peed into the toilet yet).

[T&M'sMommy]

We're slowly working on it. He will pee in the toilet, but he fights having to pee even if I give him a warning(I just peed in the toilet mom!!!) and it was an hour since he peed last. The poops are definitely not happening either. I have tried everything. Buying expensive Thomas Trains, marshmallows, stickers, chocolate, candy, etc...

[T&M'sMommy]

I opened a fall 2002 mommies board in ATF...

[linda_loo]

Dead thread, huh?

OK - here's a conversation starter... tell us about your child's preschool.

[mindy]

Hi,

Joining the thread I have two daughters Alexis is 4 and Sabrina is 6. Alexis is starting her second year of preschool she will be going 5 days a week for 2 1/2 hours at the elementary school. Last year she want at a church for 3 days a week for 2 hours. I am really nervous about her going the 5 days a week but we have all day kindergarten here so I figured it would be easier for her to adapt to just longer days because she will be used to going the 5 days. Its the second year for the preschool program at school and I am really happy that it will be the same school as kindergarten so it should be a easier adjustment. Plus I have to drop my older daughter off so it takes my trips from 4 down to 3.

[Littlelamb11]

Annabelle's preschool is a Reggio Emilia program and she's going M-W-F in the AM. I'm so thrilled after all that searhing and all those observations last fall, that i not only found a Reggio program but that i found a non fluffy, down to earth, play-based and child directed program among all the overpriced, overstimulating and overly impressive to the uninformed parent preschools in my area. AND i'm so relieved that the waitlist game is over. ugh, stressful.

Anyway, I don't know what i'm gonna do with my mornings free (at least until little lamb#2 is born!) And Annie's so excited to so to big girl preschool with "just the teacher and the kids and mommy picks me up at the end."

[linda_loo]

Digging us up from the depths...

QOD How is preschool going?

QOD2 How is potty learning?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ana seems to really enjoy her preschool. It's a multi-age preschool (think Montesorri, w/o the M price tag), in an old farm house. I love that there are so many varied and exciting activities for her, and that it's such a nurturing environment (dh calls it a "hippie school"). She goes 3 afternoons a week, and is usually too beat to give me a detailed account of her day. But, I usually hear about some art project, some time with the animals, something physical (lately she has been playing "balance beam" all over the house) and the snack, of course.

She is almost completely there on the potty, just pull-ups at night. It has taken a LONG time and I sort of had to forget what the usual word is on PT'ing. It's been about 6 weeks, and I can honestly say that about 3-4 weeks of it were all about me being trained. "Ana, time to use the potty." While she always went while on the pot, she took absolutely no initiative and didn't care if she made a mess. But, in the last 2-3, it's all her. We had to establish a no-poop: no-preschool rule, however, after she had a major blow-out at preschool. I know there is probably some bad parenting going on here, that I make this demand. But, the kid usually goes 3 times a day, most often 2 of them in the morning. So, I think it is reasonable that she has the goal of pooping before we go to preschool.

That's all here... how is everyone else doing?

[Sarah]

My 3 year old's not in preschool. I thought it was just too much this year, and it was expensive. She went all last year, 5 days a week for 3 hours a day to a school much like the one Linda described- multi-age, lots of animals, play, etc. I just checked out a nearby private school's preschool for next year. As long as she gets in, she'll be going 3 days a week, either half or full day. I'll probably do full day, as Kindergarten is full day, and she'll be 4 then.

Right now I feel a little bad about not having her in school, but she gets a lot of activity. On Wednesdays she takes a dance class, Thursdays I have Bible study so she goes to the children's church to hang out with other kids and do structured activities, Saturdays she plays soccer, and Sundays we have a playgroup.

Potty training is done- she's day and night trained.

[linda_loo]

Potty training is done- she's day and night trained.

yeh, yeh. I have been jealous of you for that, for a LONG time!

:D

[Sarah]

yeah, well at least both of your have had hair since they were born. :P

[firefly]

just found this thread.
My Soph is pt during the day but at night well we're still a pull up's family.. I stopped getting dora thinking that was egging it on...why can't they make borring plain white pull ups (do they?) if she goes to sleep after 10 (which thankfully is very rare) she'll be dry but if I put her to bed at her usual bed time (7 - 7:30) and take her potty at 11 she'll STILL be wet in the morning it drives me NUTS...) but she doesn't know.


preschool sophia goes to a montessori 5 days a week 12:30 - 3:30 I think seh'd do better in the morning. she is wiped out at the end of the day. and we only cut out her afternoon nap about 3 weeks before school started so on weekends she sleeps and sleeps and sleeps it's like having a teenager. lol
she has found her first 'true love' a little boy in her class who also wears glasses. His mom is really nice and I'm enjoying meeting more adults with kids... oh and I'm the total joiner mom. I started the book drive for Katrina. I'm in the volunteers group the parents commitee thingy ma bobber and 2 other organizations... I love it. sophia is always excited to go to school too so that's good.

[Orange]

I'm bumping this thread up to look for advice/ideas on potty-learning. Just this week, my 2.5 year old decided she's doing it. At daycare, she just started telling her teachers every time she had to go and has pretty much stayed dry all week! I'm amazed because even a week ago I thought she was regressing.

Obviously if she's ready I don't want to discourage her but at the same time I'm nervous about taking her out in panties. The few accidents she's had at school are when she's in a different room, gets distracted and forgets to pay attention to when she has to go. She's also got a little ways to go on pooping, she's only gone in the potty once - usually she at least starts it in her panties.

What can I do to encourage her during this transition phase without staying in the house all day? I'm not huge on the idea of pull-ups since they are essentially diapers and I worry that they will not help her learns. Does anyone know about those feel-n-learn ones?