How does a child learn to be infatuated with perfection?

I was very much a perfectionist growing up and know what a difficult habit it is to shift towards allowing things to happen without judging myself so hard. I made it a point to be aware of this so that I could circumvent this behavior with my own child.

He is now 5 years old and signs of perfectionism are beginning to show in his behavior. For example, he recently had a school exercise to complete. Part 1 was to write the word “like” with his eyes open, then write it again with his eyes closed. Amazingly, he did a fantastic job with his eyes closed, although the letters were not in a straight line and the dot for the letter “i” was not directly above the letter.
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So the time continues to fly by. My child is now 5 and learning at the speed of sound and light. I am continually reminded of how amazing a human being really is.

He only started Montessori Preschool 5 months ago. We chose to keep him out of school for as long as we could so that he could hone in on his language skills. I was a little concerned about how he would adapt once he started school.

Fear. . . oh yeah. Even though we had brought him there two afternoons to play with the kids after school, when the day came for him to stay for the whole day, it was traumatic.

He was amongst the older of the class. Being Montessori, the kids ranging in age from 2-5 are all in the same room learning together at their individual pace.
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Well, my son has finally reached the age where it is time for him to begin experiencing school. So many asked if I would home school him, but I don’t think that it would give him enough worldly experience if I were to do so, unless I was a world traveller.

So, after much time spent looking into all the different pre-schools in my district — there are over 100 to choose from — I finally found one that I felt would be a nice fit for him to begin his new experience.

The first day was traumatic. He had always said he didn’t want to go to school, even when he was alone at the park and all the other kids had already started school at 2 or 3 years of age. To this day, I still don’t know why he had this aversion to going to school.
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The other day on our daily walk, we noticed that our neighbor had just cut back her roses. These are the roses we stop to smell together every morning. Pink, red, white, yellow and — our favorite — mauve, which gives the most incredible scent.

Well, this morning there lay a pile of stems, flowers, petals, leaves. My son was sad, looking at this pile as he questioned why they were cut off. It’s not like he hasn’t seen this before, but at each stage of his life he sees it with a new set of eyes.

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Whoa! Are you feeling the shifts?
I certainly am. My attempts to keep myself grounded have been like dust in the wind,

The days are flying by like particles. Particles that I cannot grasp and, on the off-chance that I do grasp a few grains, it’s only momentarily before they fall out of the palm of my hand. (more…)

My little one has a habit of saying “I need this Mummy”, and I always shift it by reminding him to say, “I would like this please” or “may I have this please?”.

I ask myself where and how he captured the word “need” in his vocabulary? It’s a very strong statement to make. (more…)

Have you ever had to make decisions and choices that affect others’ wellbeing?

Not easy, is it?

I just realized recently that I have been blinded yet again in my life. Maybe not so much blinded, but I’ve put blinders up on either side of my head so that I could not use my peripheral vision. (more…)

That is what my three-year old asked me the other day when I told him that we were finally going to take a vacation together. I realized at that moment that in the three years of his life we had never taken a vacation. It’s actually been three and a half years since I’ve taken a break from work. (more…)

We’ve been having a wonderful time with our friends and their two children from Edmonton. It’s their first visit here, so we’ve had fun spending time with them and showing them around our beautiful city – even the weather has been cooperating with our sightseeing expeditions. (more…)

I had a revelation the other day. I was invited by some friends to join them for an event. I thanked them and replied that I had a very full schedule with the upcoming Virtual Yoga Conference, which is less than a week away. (more…)