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January 27, 2008

Experiments in parenting

I am not sure where I read this but recently I saw something about "Success Coaches use visualization to help their clients achieve their goals." So when Andy told me that at Karsten's tumbling class he told the teacher "I have a stomach ache" when the teacher wanted him to do a backbend I had an idea to try my own version of this on Karsten.

"Karsten, close your eyes." Good, he closed his eyes. "I am imagining you in a tall field of grass. Now you are running, running, running. You spring forward with your hands in the air... now you tuck your chin and then flip, flip, flip, backward filp...then spring up in the air with your hands up. All of your friends are there clapping and applauding."

Next up, reading. Karsten thinks he can't read but I know that he has memorized every letter in the alphabet and all the sounds. He knows a gazillion "sight words." I am sure he can read but he just thinks he can't. I told him "I see you going through a secret door into a dungeon of books. You pick a stack of all of your favorites... find a hiding spot and read. You read about blah, blah, blah... all by yourself!" He really liked the dungeon of books idea.

Next I found him a book to read (on the bookshelf, not in our dungeon), and wouldn't you know it, he read the whole thing by himself. He can read!

So either this visualization thing might be working... or the lure of computer video games he can play once he's done reading works. I guess my experiment is flawed. We have yet to see if the gymnastics technique will work but I'm hopeful. Either way, having a guinea pig kid is fun.

Posted by jana at January 27, 2008 11:56 AM