Sunday, January 30, 2011

Logic for 4 year olds

I'm very impressed by Patrick's growing thought processes. Here's just a few.

1. We have to-day and to-morrow (t'day, t'morrow), so P has invented to-morning and to-now. eg: "No mummy! I don't want to wash my hair t'now!" or "Can we go to the party t'morning?"

2. Using the 'legal system' to his own advantage.
For example, sharing is good. That means that it is good if Oliver shares his toys with Patrick. However, like a certain superpower, if it is good, then it is worth enforcing by might. That is, if Oliver won't share, Patrick has the right to 'make' him share :"Patrick, did you just snatch that from Oliver?" "He wouldn't share it. He has to share his toys". Or, another example- we bought a toy train (of course) for his friend (James') birthday party. Initially Patrick was loath to part with it. Until he started getting very, very eager to get to the party and give James his present. "That's lovely, Patrick". "Yes". Nods sagely. "James will share his train wiv me".

Rules are rules, and non-compliance is not tolerated. "Ollie is being very naughty. Naughty boys don't get cupcakes", "Yes, that is true". "If Ollie is naughty, I will have to eat his cupcake FOR him".

3. Punishment doesn't prevent crime.
We have a 'time-out' chair. When Patrick has crossed the line and ignored the warnings, he goes there for 3 minutes. A few weeks ago whilst we were eating dinner, Ernie was sitting on the chair. Patrick was eating some tofu and then opening his mouth and putting his tongue out to show off the mushed up food. I told him if he did that revolting thing one more time, he would have time out. He considered this for about ten seconds. [I could hear the cogs turning over in his mind]. He then got down from the table, lifted Ernie off the naughty chair and marched over to me. I told him I could tell what he was thinking. He looked disappointed that he didn't get to try and gross me out again.

1 Comments:

Blogger E. from Pot o' Gold said...

Yeah, everything in the past is "last morning" over here. He's starting to get the hang of tomorrow, I think. He uses it in the right context. I like Paddy's logic re: the cupcake. Oh, and the grossness and silliness at mealtimes must be universal at this age.

30/1/11 20:28  

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