"Yes... but I want to play with the telephone"
"I know you did, Ava, but when our friends come round to play its nice to share, isn't it?"
"Yes, Mama. I also like to play with the Etcha-Sketch"
"I know. But your friend wanted to play with the Etcha-Sketch and we have two Etcha-Sketches. You got to play with the other one. It is really kind when you share it Ava..."
"I like Evie..." she smiles up at me
"...but I want to play with the Etcha-sketch"
Oh boy. We've got fun times ahead!
With my girl it was good old positive praise, the second she shared even if it was with me, or silly things like gave me toy tea cups and things just full on praise. Wasn't long and she was piling toys on my lap, and then would do it with her cousins and everyone would go crazy on the praise (the cousins she sees often are only 12 weeks and then 6 weeks older than her and both girls, imagine the crazy sharing fun!) and she became quiet good quiet quickly. She was just over 2 I think when the undesirable behaviour started and wasn't 2.5 before it had stopped. She's still possessive over special toys like her cabbage patch but I think that's normal =) x
ReplyDeleteThankyou for the encouragement. I'm sure this is a long term battle, but positive praise it definitely a good shout! Ava was two at the end of August so we're right in the heat of the battle now! Hope you're well!
DeleteI always found that a good lesson was sharing my things with the children. If I had something to eat, I would share it with them and explain as I was doing it. Or I would sit and play with something and when they wanted to play with me, explain that I would share with them. They will get it ;-)
ReplyDeleteModel it. Some parents concerned about social justice snatch a 'stolen' toy back off the thief and return to rightful owner with a harsh word - but this just models snatching. We verbally negotiate a return even if it takes a few minutes thinking time, and talk a lot about how not sharing/sharing makes people feel.
ReplyDeleteI think we are still like it as adults we've just learnt not to say our thoughts out loud so much!
ReplyDeleteYou might find this helpful, look up helping little hearts overcome sin lovingmylot.com.
ReplyDelete