Wednesday, November 29, 2006

A Question About Blanket Training

Hi, I have a friend who is dying to know about this blanket training thing. I just want to see if you have anything to add to the way I described it to her:

"I watched Lisa train her one year old (he's now 3) to play on the blanket. She just put him on the blanket with some toys and she sat near him (off the blanket), holding a wooden spoon. She tapped/hit all around the edges of the blanket with the spoon. He just looked at her-it was funny. Then, she said, "Are you having fun on the blanket? Jason is playing on the blanket" very calmly and and happily. Of course, when he did the inevitable, put his hand outside the blanket she gently tapped his hand and said, "stay on the blanket". She only left him there for very short time and then did it for about 5 minutes the next day and so on. She said the older they are the faster/better they learn it, but every child is different, probably. Hope it works well for you. Again, she didn't even hurt his little hand, just basically touched it with the spoon to get the point across. I'm sure you could use a thump with your hand if you didn't want to use the rod. "

Thanks!
Kerry


Kerry,

I had a whole booklet written on the subject of blanket training, but it's been so long ago, it got lost in some other hard drive crash and the hard copy disappeared with one of our many moves. Ugh! It goes into great detail on the why's and how's, but...

Much could be written on the subject. I think you described it in a nutshell, though. Little children find it very amusing to see me tapping the spoon around the edges of the blanket. They think it is a game at first, and, really it sort of is. They are very surprised when they first put a hand off the blanket and receive a little swat with the spoon. But with patience, perserverence, and brief training periods, even a very young child can learn to willingly stay on the blanket.

This is very helpful for times when you just need junior to stay put for a bit. I practiced during daily family devotions, so when we needed to stand up in a church and sing, the child would sit contentedly on his blanket. It's really very effective, or at least it was with my little ones *until* they figured out how to slide the whole blanket across the floor! Well, then we had to change tactics a bit...

Hope this helps. I sure have enjoyed answering. Makes me feel like I know something. :)

No comments: