Skipping Stages

Beanie wants to stand. She wants to walk. She's not sitting on her own yet, but she doesn't care. She wants to be mobile, not just sit passively and watch the world go by. She's going to grab the world and put it in her mouth!

My mother warns against letting her skip any of the traditional milestones. She needs to crawl before she can walk. She's got rolling down, but hasn't gotten up on her hands and knees yet. When we try to pull her up in a sit, she sticks her legs out straight under her, and pulls up into a stand. Yesterday, she took a couple of steps, hanging on to my fingers for balance.

Have I mentioned she's only 5 and a half months old?

One of the mom bulletin boards I frequent had a thread the other day about "gifted children." People were generally in agreement about not pushing your kids. No flashcards. Let them be kids. Some of them had stories, about themselves or their kids, skipping ahead and getting burned out.

Now, I'm not saying Beanie's a prodigy because she wants to walk. I'm just wondering, what's wrong with blazing your own path? The same board talks about child-led weaning. I'm all for child-led learning.

The plan: answer Beanie's questions as they come, as honestly as possible while being age appropriate. Expose her to the things that her father and I are passionate about. I learned when teaching high school that the teacher's personal passion for a subject goes a long, long way towards getting kids interested. Beanie will go to museums, and concerts, and watch movies that make us think. We'll discuss whatever she wants to disucss afterward. If she's passionate about something, we'll follow her too.

She gets so, so excited when she's standing. It's the easiest way to make her smile these days. I'm all about continuing that feeling.