How Jan Brett Helped Potty Train My Child

Meet Aloo-ki. You may recognize her from Jan Brett's retelling of Goldilocks and the three bears, The Three Snow Bears. My two year old, Caroline, loves this book because of Aloo-ki's sled dogs. She loves to look at the side pictures of the huskies. We read it a lot during the winter. 

For Christmas, my dad gave us some ornaments from our trip to Alaska. Caroline decided that the Alaskan girl ornament was Aloo-ki from The Three Snow Bears. "Aloo-ki" joined the family of small people at the farm. By chance, she was the nearby toy that I grabbed when I needed someone else to encourage Caroline to go potty, "Aloo-ki says, 'It's time to put your pee in the potty. I used to pee in diapers, too, but now I put my poop and pee in the potty.'" 

Caroline went along with it and took Aloo-ki with her every time that she went to the potty, "Aloo-ki hear something in the potty!" Aloo-ki also peed in the potty many times and got wiped with tiny triangles of toilet paper. I worried about her getting dropped and broken, but she survived many falls, even a spill into the full potty. Then, she got a bath. She lived in the plastic tank behind the tiny potty for several weeks until Caroline got comfortable enough to go without her. 

What did I learn from this? Children form strong connections to characters they read about. Sometimes it's easier to use a character to give instructions and advice than to give it yourself. Aloo-ki was our third party who helped decrease power struggles around the potty. Thank you, Jan Brett.