No!

I don't know about your children, but my 3 year old likes to say no; sometimes just for the fun of it, sometimes in anger or frustration, and sometimes with a smirk. Well, the other day I read the back of one of his books, Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus, and it talked about how this was one time it was ok to say 'no.' If you haven't seen this book, the premise is that the bus driver ask you, the reader, to watch his bus and make sure that a lurking pigeon does not drive it while he is away. Said pigeon then appears and pleads and cajoles you to let him ride the bus. I always thought it was kind of a boring book, not written for kids and more of a wink wink nudge nudge to parents.

Well, with my new tactic I now love this book. I took that idea about it being ok to say 'no' to heart and read it to my son. For each attempt the pigeon makes to drive the bus, I had my son tell him "no" or "sorry, pigeon," or some other appropriate response. He loved it! I read the voice of the pigeon with melodrama and he had full permission to say "no!" as many times as he liked. We read this book 4 times in a row and would have had to read it 4 times more if I hadn't convinced my son we could read it again at bed time.

I have a sneaking suspicion that this interactive approach, though not explicitly stated, was actually the author's intent as it turns out his background is with Sesame Street.


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