Skip to main content

The Spirited Child

Lately I have been trying to read "Raising Your Spirited Child" by Mary Sheedy Kurcinka. It has been helpful, mostly in reassuring me that 1) Eleanor is more spirited than most, and 2) she's within the bounds of normal. Ever since she was a baby she has been demanding, energetic, intense, and so on. I remember that my brother and sister-in-law would come over to walk her around the house from 10 tomidnight for her first 8 weeks. She started climbing things before she could walk.

So far I've read the descriptions of the temprament traits that determine spiritedness---intensity, persistence, sensitivity, perceptiveness, adaptability, regularity, energy, first reaction, and disposition. Eleanor is higly intense, sensitive, perceptive, energy and irregular. She's just average in persistence, adaptability, first reaction and serious disposition. So when I send her up to get dressed in the morning and she ends up looking out the window for 10 minutes instead, that because she's very "perceptive". The fact that she won't eat anything I make for her (unless it has cheese in it) reflects her "sensitivity" to smells and tastes. This is useful, but I really can't wait to see how I actually make her get dressed and eat breakfast before she needs to go to school...

It does make me feel better to know that some of the reasons I find my husband attractive are precisely these temprament traits that are so very annoying in a 5 year old. His parents seem to have survived the adventure of raising him, which also gives me hope. Luke is clearly headed towards being a "spirited child" (he should be crawling within a few weeks...) but I had been congratulating myself on the fact that Amanda was clearly more laid back. Then I realized that although Amanda is less constantly in motion than Eleanor, she has quite a few of the spirited temprament traits... I think I'm in for an interesting time.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

My hero, Helen Parr

Otherwise known as Elastigirl , a.k.a Mrs. Incredible. She is a stay at home mom ( SAHM ), she clearly feels that what she is doing is important and is willing to give up a lot to do it (remember her comment in the intro: "I'm at the top of my game! Leave saving the world to the guys? I don't think so.") But she is finding fulfillment in leading her family from day to day, in doing a hard job well. She also knows that she is very talented, and that knowledge helps her see beyond the repetitive drudgery of staying home. My favorite scene is from the deleted introduction, where she talks with a "career woman" who is of the opinion that staying home is fine for people who can't do anything else. She responds that taking care of her kid is at least as hard as saving the world, and is valuable contribution to society. The point for me is that someone has to do the job that I'm doing, and it's not something that you could pay someone to do. I see...
8 comments
Read more

Kindergarten Fashions

I was informed the other day that Eleanor wants to get a new thermos. She lost the o-ring from her purple Tinkerbell thermos, and I have so far resisted buying another one for her, on the theory that you shouldn't just replace things that are broken since it doesn't encourage being careful with one's things. I have been sending her with the sippee cups that she has been using since she was a year old, which she has resisted giving up to the point of becoming partly dehydrated when I don't let her use them at home. Here's how the conversation went. Eleanor: Anna and Jane said today at lunch, " Kindergartners don't drink from sippee cups!" Me: That's very interesting. Eleanor: They are supposed to drink from thermoses. Me: Eleanor, would you like a new thermos? Eleanor: Yes! Get the purple one, please. If there is a crayon one, that's the one I want.... Who knew that peer pressure started in kindergarten? The sippee cups are perfectly f...
4 comments
Read more

Why you should study the history of math

  Why you should study the history of math In the mid 1300s a fad made its way around Italy. Mathematicians would challenge each other to “mathematical duels”. They would post problems for their opponents to solve, sometimes along with their solutions in coded poetry. The winners would get support and funding from rich patrons, the losers would descend into obscurity. One such contest, between Fiore and Tartaglia, involved a new method for solving the cubic. In order to win, Tartaglia worked day and night to find Fiore’s method---unfortunately, Fiore did not do the same and only knew his own method and no others. (*Recall that the formula for solutions to quadratic equations of the form use the quadratic formula, Giorlamo Cardano---physician, philosopher, astrologer and mathematician---convinced Tartaglia to share his method and promised never to reveal it. Then Cardano figured out a more general method, and wanted to share it, but was blocked by his promises. Fortunately (for Ca...
Post a Comment
Read more