Friday, January 13, 2012

To Try or Not to Try? That is the question.

So I have been interested in the Montessori program since I started teaching preschool. There are many good ideas that I feel I could incorporate, and then there are some that I am not so eager to try. I recently have been reading about the Montessori method to toilet learning, and have been thinking a lot about trying it. They encourage cloth which we have/have used, and say to put them in regular cotton underwear when they are walking and 1 year. We are well past the one year mark (he is 18 months this Sunday) but I think he might be able to understand now. 
I am super hesitant to even start to try because I have heard if you start to early it will take them longer to learn and will be really hard. Also because people say boys train later than girls, and because I am worried people will think I am crazy for even trying to train my 18 month old.
I told Chris about these concerns and his response was that we are one of the few countries who waits so long to start potty training. So in response to his thoughts I have been doing research and he is right! We wait so long because kids don't feel they are wet in disposables so they take longer to be ready to potty train! We are like shooting ourselves in the foot, because disposables are super convenient, however they are expensive, and annoying and it is possible that we are adding years to the diapering process of each child because of them. Crazy thoughts huh??
Any thoughts? Am I really crazy because I am ready to go buy him some thick cloth undies and a few plastic covers and see what happens... We already have a little potty, he watches kids go potty, I have an almost 3 year old who may be starting the same process. It seems like as good a time as any to try.... but I still feel crazy and like I may be shooting myself in the foot. 
We have a steam cleaner and a washer and dryer though... maybe we can just see what happens.... ahhhh I don't know.

1 comment:

miriam said...

I've been thinking about starting with Sidney around 18 mo. She's pooed in the potty a few times when I put her on it. I don't think you're crazy! and I think Matthew is such a smart little boy he'll figure it out. Then you won't have 2 in diapers!!