I think it’s easy to not give our kids as much credit as they deserve. It also easy to make excuses because they’re young and must not understand. Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s important to determine what is childish irresponsibility vs. willful disobedience. Knowing your kids well is the key to this, and it takes a lot of thoughtful response to their behaviors. However, your kids are far more capable than you could ever imagine. I figured that if my kids could learn the word “circle”, then they could learn the word “sphere.” Their brains are sponges right now, so you can have fun teaching them big words and languages. You want to be very careful to not try to push them to a place of frustration that may get in the way of their confidence. Test things out to see if they’re capable and if it all remains fun for them. This concept applies to behavior as well. They learn young whether they can manipulate you. It’s easy to make excuses, but when you really play with it, you can see how much they understand. You see them testing boundaries and looking for answers. Give them those answers. I have a video I’m going to share of the first day I was working with Corban on our happy heart technique. He is about 15 months in the video.
I know kids progress at different stages, and I’m not saying that this is what your 15 month old should be able to do. The point is that I thought this technique wouldn’t work with him yet. I thought he’d be too young, but I decided to try it. He was able to grasp the concept. Try things out on your kids and try and figure out if it’s something they can handle.
