At the end of last year we wrote about the different developmental stages of the children in Quartz room.   We compared the needs and skills of the children who entered our room at 19 months to those children who left our room at 30 months old.

Today, we would like to celebrate various milestones of individual children in our room.

A few of our friends have recently acquired “Big Boy Underwear”, skipping the pull-up stage altogether! Successful potty training has given the boys so much pride in their accomplishments.  Big boy underwear is also so much fun to talk about because of the branding and characters printed on them.  They are also fun because of the different things you can do with them – like wearing it on your head!  This experience has given us the opportunity to build closer relationships with these children.  We work together through the emotions of disappointment and humility, and then balance it off by celebrating successes through each progressive day.

While some children are acquiring new items, others are being coaxed to leave some items behind. “Bye Bye Soo-Soo” is a phrase that we are hearing often in our room.  Being asked to give up a pacifier is challenging on so many levels.  Together with parents, we have been working on various strategies to help a few children reach this milestone.  Some children have given up their pacifiers “cold turkey” and others have been given modified exposure during the day.  We are so proud of these children who are demonstrating ways to self-sooth by other means, who are learning some simple rules, and who are becoming independent, problem solving citizens.