Getting to Know Liam

This is a write-up I gave to Liam's new home daycare provider, Kim, his first day with her. I thought I should post it to kind of freeze time January 17th, 2011:


Getting to know Liam Peterson

Liam is a very lively and extremely smart 5 year old. He loves verbal quizzes on simple math, alphabet sounds, 3-letter spelling words, and any other fun kid trivia. (Ask him what a tadpole grows up to be or what comes next in a pattern.) He also loves bantering back and forth on rhyming words. These are all great things to redirect him if you see him headed south in the attitude department.

He loves drawing and coloring if given the assignment. He colors in the lines if you praise him for it and scribbles outside the lines if he’s in a hurry to beat someone at the task or if there is another fun activity waiting for him. You’ll see some really amazing freehand work when you ask him to really think about it.

Liam loves contests and may turn anything you or the other children do with him into a contest. He is driven by incentive like any child, but charts work for him if you find he needs a visual on progress. He has a daily chore chart at home with his 5 jobs he does each morning. Get dressed, eat breakfast, exercise (he goes up/down the flight of stairs five times), get on shoes, and say morning prayer.

Liam currently does not nap, but there are times when his body will fall asleep in the middle of the day during a movie or a drive in the car. Most days you’ll see him wide awake during quiet time.

If he does fall asleep, he will wake up needing to be held or given a nice rub on the back. He’ll bounce back within 20 minutes.

Liam has year round allergies. He will sniff and you’ll need to remind him to go blow his nose. He does it willingly and is very used to doing it on his own. He takes a prescription, Singulair, every morning before he leaves home. He is not allergic to any foods or animals.

Liam uses the bathroom by himself and will need wipes on hand for the dirty business. If you don’t have them, I will provide them. Please remind him to flush and wash if you suspect it didn’t happen. He’s about 50/50 on remembering these things.

Liam is a mood eater. He will say he’s hungry and then eat practically nothing. He’ll say he wants a treat even though he only ate a fourth of his lunch. We save his meals for when he is “hungry” again. He has to finish that sandwich or noodles before he gets a snack or treat. He’ll try to con you, so watch out. He likes making deals so work with him as you see fit. We trust you and understand another strategy may work at your house.

He will have breakfast at home and some of the leftover may travel to your house if he doesn’t finish.

Favorite foods: Pizza, quesadillas, cheese macaroni, scrambled eggs, bagels, strawberries, apples, mandarin oranges, pasta salad.

Strong dislikes: Beans, green salad, green beans – will tolerate broccoli/peas if hidden in casserole.