The SCORE
The Sandoval County Online Reporting Enterprise
Rio Rancho, N.M.
New Mexico's first totally online commuity newspaper was last updated on Monday, May 16, 2009 at 10 p.m.
The Sandoval County Online Reporting Enterprise
Rio Rancho, N.M.
New Mexico's first totally online commuity newspaper was last updated on Monday, May 16, 2009 at 10 p.m.
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071208.All.In.The.Family
Time in a child's mind
Time is a novel concept.
For adults, it seems there is never enough of it.
For children of school age, it passes at a slower speed than a snail crossing a street.
Then there are the lucky few, the toddlers and
preschoolers who don’t know the difference between a week and a month.
Over the summer my husband, my children and I went on a family vacation to a reunion of sorts. My brother, his wife and their son met us there.
All of our children fall into the toddler/preschool age, so of course time is relative. This was the first time in almost a year that our children were able to see each other, so the reunion between them was priceless.
My nephew, who was just under four years old at the time, is quite verbally gifted. My oldest son, only a year and a half at the time, was still working on the art of speaking English as opposed to the toddler gibberish language that had come out of his little mouth until then.
Their first few hours were filled with exploration of one another and the limits that could be pushed together. And inevitably the language barrier became an issue.
Out of pure curiosity, my nephew asked us why his cousin didn’t talk. We carefully explained that he was a lot younger and still hadn’t learned how to talk as well as an almost four-year-old, and that he would learn as he got older.
We could see the wheels turning in his sweet little head, but he seemed to understand.
The next day the boys were playing together. And in true child form, while poking him in the arm, my nephew asked my son in a serious tone, “Can you talk yet?”
The look on my son’s face was priceless. And since he was technically older, it stood to reason in the mind of my small nephew that his cousin had the time to learn how to do this one seemingly simple yet often troublesome task.
If only everything happened within the time in a child’s mind.
Time is a novel concept.
For adults, it seems there is never enough of it.
For children of school age, it passes at a slower speed than a snail crossing a street.
Then there are the lucky few, the toddlers and
preschoolers who don’t know the difference between a week and a month. Over the summer my husband, my children and I went on a family vacation to a reunion of sorts. My brother, his wife and their son met us there.
All of our children fall into the toddler/preschool age, so of course time is relative. This was the first time in almost a year that our children were able to see each other, so the reunion between them was priceless.
My nephew, who was just under four years old at the time, is quite verbally gifted. My oldest son, only a year and a half at the time, was still working on the art of speaking English as opposed to the toddler gibberish language that had come out of his little mouth until then.
Their first few hours were filled with exploration of one another and the limits that could be pushed together. And inevitably the language barrier became an issue.
Out of pure curiosity, my nephew asked us why his cousin didn’t talk. We carefully explained that he was a lot younger and still hadn’t learned how to talk as well as an almost four-year-old, and that he would learn as he got older.
We could see the wheels turning in his sweet little head, but he seemed to understand.
The next day the boys were playing together. And in true child form, while poking him in the arm, my nephew asked my son in a serious tone, “Can you talk yet?”
The look on my son’s face was priceless. And since he was technically older, it stood to reason in the mind of my small nephew that his cousin had the time to learn how to do this one seemingly simple yet often troublesome task.
If only everything happened within the time in a child’s mind.
Former radio personality Carey DeBeaux, who grew up in Rio Rancho, is now raising two sons with her husband Tim. Her column on family life will appear on a regular basis. Click here to contact her.
