My kid is learning inflection from play school

Inflection (noun) means modulation of voice or change in pitch or tone of voice (TheFreeDictionary).

Our kid is picking up few words and the accompanying inflection from play school. Although it is adorable seeing our 3 yo kid speaking like adults (i.e. in condescending tone to children), we are hoping that she is not deprived of fun while being disciplined at school.


It's really tricky teaching 2 to 3 yo how to behave the way we want them to. Sometimes I do understand that we need to be a little disciplinarian, but at times I prefer to treat them as little adults with rights to say no to us and best if they can learn to reason too. That is one way we would want our kid to grow up emulating rather than being terrified of being reprimanded if they break rules or expectations. Instead of waiting for a consent, kids should be thought to ask for them (consents) regularly and back them up with sound reasons (or assurance for safety or responsibility).

Some of the things our kid started doing are,

• Waving her index finger, she told us that we can't do this and that, e.g. "mama, don't do that", "papa, go away, don't come here".
• When papa was singing lullaby to her, she suddenly said to me, "papa, can you please stop singing now". Our girl loved to sing and sometimes, she would be carried away with singing and might not be paying attention to us or teacher, and we are guessing that probably one of the teacher had asked her to stop singing in order to pay attention in class.
• Out in the blue one night, she was saying to her lion kitty doll, "close your mouth now, one... two... three...". I guess that's what the teacher told her when she started crying in school and the count up was a time limit.

There was one time while sending our girl to school, I saw a little boy crying and was placed in a corner of the class in front for other kids to view. He was crying, "Mummy...... mummy....", while the rest of the class was watching nursery rhymes video. I felt bad for the crying kid and also for the class. I bet our girl must have been there previously, especially the first week. Fortunately, that stage is over now.

I just hope that our kid will start enjoying going to school and also share her experience there without being asked. Most of the time when we asked her what she is doing at school, her reply was "nothing" or "I waited at a corner for mummy and daddy to fetch me home". Of course, it wasn't true that she did nothing in school. Probably she is just too lazy to divulge details (or uninterested).