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4 for Fun
Creative Toilet Training Tips That Lead to Smiles
By Keath Castelloe Low
"She would fall in line and dance and sing with me," Mondale says. "When we arrived, I simply asked her if she would like to go first, or if she wanted me to go first. No stress, all fun!"
There may be no better way to make your child laugh and get your point across than drawing pictures related to toilet training. If your child is comfortable with crayons, you can each draw pictures. If not, have your child participate by telling you what to draw. Create several drawings and staple them together to make a book!
Another idea is to hang a dry erase board near the potty. Use colorful markers to draw happy faces when your child sits on the potty and when she is successful with the mission. Encourage her to use the markers, too. Just make sure she keeps them on the dry erase board!
Melissa Bone of Spring Glen, Utah, helped her son make personalized potty training pants. "We got some plain white thick potty training underwear and some fabric paints," she says. "At the time, my son was really into Veggie Tales, so I painted a 'Bob' and a 'Larry' on the front of his underwear and then wrote his name on back." Bone's daughter is now going through the potty training process. "I let her paint the front of the underwear herself," Bone says. "It's very colorful!" Not only have her children had fun making their special underwear, they have also been very careful not to wet them.
Dr. Sonna suggests another fun-with-color activity: "Put red or blue food dye in the toilet, and tell your child that when she pees in it, the color will magically change to orange or green." Of course, boys have fun with this, too, as well as with the old "Sink the Cheerio" game. "Drop a Cheerio in the toilet, and suggest your little boy try to sink it," she says.