Four year olds are known for their epic imaginations. What if you were to discover that these epic imaginations are driving far more mental development than any of us realize?
This book series, Misbehavior is Growth, documents the age-related stages that children go through. These are times when children “act up,” becoming demanding, clingy, whiny, or aggressive, but on other side of this “stage” is an astonishing new skill set. Their brain was going through an “upgrade.” This book offers the popular summaries of these milestones, as for four year olds, as found at the Observant Mom website. In addition, it offers, for each age-related milestone, ways to handle the difficult behavior and nurture the growth.
In this book, for the first time in the Misbehavior is Growth series, a theory is presented that children’s imaginations drive the formation of consciousness itself. Innate, hardwired images seem to be inside the child’s mind already, which are released at age-related times. They are projected out into reality, somewhat like a hologram, as they aggressively go do the work they need to do. This process kicks off new mental development itself—with all of the curiosity, experimenting, play, and, indeed, misbehavior, that this entails!
The idea behind Misbehavior is Growth is that these age-related behaviors are an instinctual call from children so that others come to them at developmentally critical times. Thus, don’t “ignore” the stages: lean into them as the investment opportunity that they are. It’s not misbehavior: it’s growth!
