Andrea has been in day care since she was 8 months old. Now at 13 months old she is at a daycare with the "big kids" aka 1 year olds ;) her daycare is equipped with a webcam so i can monitor her from work. I've noticed that andrea probably spends a total of 1/4 of her day playing independently. If the kids are doing centers with the teacher you will see all of the children gathered playing and participating in the center activities. Then you will see andrea on the opposite side of the classroom playing with a toy by herself.
i think for the most part her teachers try to redirect her to the center activities they'll hold her or sit her on their lap but that doesn't always happen. Therefore shes spending a good chunk of her time by herself. When she started in this classroom i figured it was just due to the change or possibly because the size difference between andrea and her class mates... however now a month into it i haven't really seen a change.
.At Home.
Andrea is stuck to gustavo and i like glue at home... independent play doesn't exist which is so odd considering i know she does it at school. Even if i put on mickey or dora or any of the other popular childrens cartoons she has interest in the intro and end songs but thats about it. and this is not a new development. Shes been this way probably since 6 months of age. I tried baby genius and all of a sudden she sits there sucking her thumb dazed by this baby show. >>ok this is new<<
When she sees her cousin she plays with her without a problem.
But for about 7 months now i've been saying to myself.. ok it seems like she's never stimulated enough... and now after observing her at school i can't help but wonder if she really is under stimulated?
I try to get a hold of this by trying to work one on one with her but i haven't been able to find something that shes interested enough in. I try flash cards... she eats them... puzzles? she throws the pieces across the room... i've tried shape sorters and she takes the lid off ... none of these things seem to work.
Her tantrums have gotten worse over the past month and i'm wondering if that could be attributed to this possibility of under stimulation.
I'm just unsure of what's going on... i dont think anything is necessarily wrong i just dont want her slipping through the cracks either... ie: if she needs to be challenged i want to meet her needs.
Do you have an iPhone or Android powered phone or something? I downloaded some apps to mine for Brooke - they spell the color, say the color, and show a picture of the color (or alphabet or letter etc.) and she learned to touch the screen to change to the next one....
ReplyDeleteI think what Andrea's going through sounds pretty normal (at least going by Brooke). Brooke just started to learn to really play with other kids at daycare, and she's been throwing tantrums at home if we're trying to feed her something she doesn't want, get her to go to sleep before she's ready, or taking something away from her. I think it's just part of growing up and how they exert their "independence." Oh, and Brooke has been especially clingy to Jim and I, too.
Good luck!