Sigh. Worksheets Mom? For my 2yo? Really?

[vaptek]

So I'm talking to my mom on the phone and she was telling me she got a preschool workbook to go through with Evie. Um really?

She keeps DD twice a week and I seem to have absolutely no influence on the woman w/o direct manipulation. They watch TV, she buys her princess stuff, and now worksheets. I signed them up for gymnastics and a music class and afterwards they go to lunch together, so that pretty much sucks up most of the mornings. Then she's got nap, so that really only leaves about an hour for TV. I got her to stop buying princesses by telling her that anything that ends up in my hands gets thrown away.

How to I get her to stop with the worksheets? I guess it's better than the Tom & Jerry (!) that they were watching.

[LuxPerpetua]

I have had issues with my parents over the years (dd is 4.5 now). For me, I have had to pick my battles. When at their house I allow whatever toys are there and even some limited junk food, but absolutely NO television. We have gone head-to-head on a few occasions and now they're good about it. When my dd was 2, my mom also got some dot-to-dot books and mazes and such. I wasn't thrilled but in the big scheme of things it didn't take dd too long to lose interest. If they ever get sent home I hide them. Perhaps you could ask your mom to send them to your house and then you could get rid of them??? To be honest, I have also limited how much "alone" time my parents have with my child. She gets to spend a couple of hours with them once a week and the rest of the time we're either all together or dd's with me and dh. I figure that I can only really control what happens on my turf, kwim? My sanity and level of happiness greatly improved, though, when I just accepted that I cannot raise my child entirely in Waldorf bubble wrap. I do my best at home and try to maintain balance outside of that.

[Kindermama]

I have to admit, fun worksheets sound better to me than Tom & Jerry! As long as she is not forcing your dd to do them but offers them as fun activities, I don't see the harm!

This is coming from someone who has let go a bit over the year without feeling like I've compromised my ultimate hopes for my children!

[sofysmommy]

I would just let dd doodle all over the worksheets.

DOH I did not realize your mom is planning on sitting with her to go over the worksheets.

[WednesdayO]

IMHO as a former teacher and current early childhood college student, worksheets are not really developmentally appropriate learning for any young child, even if they aren't being raised the Waldorf way. Although there are some people that argue the pros, why would you want a child to sit and push paper when they could be actively learning with their senses and having meaningful learning experiences?

I'd simply explain that young children are active learners and there are much better alternatives for learning... plus that fact that she's only 2 and has years to learn that stuff. There are articles online you can find to help. There might be some Waldorf info out there, but here are a few non-Waldorf articles I quickly found.
Early Childhood News
Education.com
one more!

My own daughter turns 6 later this year, and people have given her lots of coloring books and activity type books over the years. I abhor them for her, because I know how extremely creative and out-of-the-box she is without them! For younger children, blank paper and a variety of media allow for creativity and problem solving etc etc blah blah blah.

Good grief. I could go on forever. Can you tell I started out to become an art teacher??

[dogretro]

HAHAHA!! Good luck to your mom! If your kid is anything like mine, she will demand that your mom read the workbook to her like a story book and then FREAK THE EFF OUT if your mom tries to write in it.

For fun, and because we are unschooling, I bought dd1 (who is two) the Kumon tracing book (for ages 2-4). It looks really neat & you get to trace all these different full-color tracks. Well, dd1 thought it was a new story book and absolutely would not entertain the thought of writing in it & I had to really convince her that it was okay. We were able to do one page together before dh insisted it was time to hide the book b/c all dd1 wanted to do was have us read it to her! But she would get mad b/c there really wasn't anything to read! I would not say a single word about the workbook except to ask how it is going and just let things work themselves out