A 5 year old child I look after after school continues to do things that from the other children I mind and form my own children I wuld not expect at this age . I would like your thoughts on whether my expectations are too high or not.
The child has to be constantly reminded to use cutlery otherwise even hot food with sauce would be eaten with hands. Food is crammed into mouth in too large mouthfuls so the child has to literally hold food there in order to chew, talks with mouth like this and then as a result spits bits of food around the table.
Stops walking down the road without any warning to pick up elastic bands - he is obsessed with collecting them. When you have 6 children along a busy main road this sort of unannounced stopping has the potential to cause us to be separated if the older ones don't notice and I feel I am constantly calling to them to stop because of this.
culdn't understand why I did not want him pulling up the grass and making bare holes in our very sad looking lawn.
He is otherwise very intelligent and confident and chatty and a sweet bout to look after but some days I feel the niggles take over in my mind although I am careful not to let it show
His parents do not see these sort of things as problems - in fact as harmelss indiosyncranicities to laugh over how I have a problem with it -