X Marks the Past

We had a sudden attack of *autonomy-seeking* in the past few weeks that has left the adults in the house nearly breathless.

Where! Oh Where! Did my sweet preschooler go?

So, a bit of secret parent rendezvous-ing and we hatched a plan. One phase is less fun and involves quicker follow-through on statements that begin with "You have a choice.." or "If that happens one more time...". The second phase is more fun and involves digging up ways to bring responsibility and agency to said preschooler. And, that is where this here calendar comes into play. Its shoddy construction is just a disguise for its high-grade potency. As he isn't reading yet, we draw pictures of upcoming events and then talk about them and when they will happen. The most exciting part, for him, is marking off the day. It is even helping him learn to write the letter X.

The most exciting part, for us, is seeing how good he feels just having a sense of the week and what is upcoming. Made me realize how annoying it must be to not have any idea of where in the week you are...what's a monday? how is it different from a friday when you are on a tuesday? Now we can see it and discuss it. It seems to be helping a little bit.

A few details, my uptight tendencies wouldn't allow me to create the calendar, as I did, in mid-July without x-ing off the previous days in the month. The green days are weekends, otherwise known as 'family days' in our house.

So, X now marks the past and here's to the future!