Teaching Toddlers // Paije Baumert

The importance and benefits of pre-teaching ourselves and our children is discussed with parenting expert Paije Baumert, a mentor from Teaching Self-Government. Paije gives a brief overview of 4 basic skills every child and adult need to understand and shares the skill she utilizes most in her daily life as a mother of an 18-month old (giving no-answers). This episode is part of the Connections within Motherhood series, airing May 2023.

Call to Action:

"Choose this week not to take your toddler's behaviors personally! And do a self pre-teach every day before you interact with any of your children. There, I guess I gave you two, but they go hand in hand." - Paije Baumert

Resources: 

Learn more about Teaching Self Government: https://teachingselfgovernment.com/

Listen to Paije & Nicholeen on the TSG podcast: https://teachingselfgovernment.com/podcasts/

Connect with Hey, Sister! Podcast: https://heysisterpodcast.org/

Show Timeline: 

0:00 Guest and topic introduction

3:15 How teaching self-government (TSG) has helped Paije in her relationships

6:00 The four basic skills: following instructions, accepting no for an answer (and criticism), accepting consequences and disagreeing appropriately

8:30 No-answers are a crucial skill for toddlers, teaching breathing to calm down before receiving a no-answer, getting out of emotional back brain into logical front brain 

12:15 Using cue phrases to calm a child, “we don’t talk like that”, pre-teaching, emotional manipulation not a healthy response, 

20:00 Pre-teaching explanation: telling someone what needs to happen before it happens, examples of skills to pre-teach

27:00 Skill permanence in toddlers, similar to object permanence in babies

31:30 Pre-teaching brings anxiety levels way down, role-playing is form of pre-teaching, TSG courses and mentoring calls

36:45 Call to action, concluding thoughts, outtakes