Part of the usual morning routine is that the Monster starts asking for Sesame Street somewhere along the way.

Depending how early he’s starting, we either do or don’t have an issue with putting on a “Play With Me Sesame” for a bit, which probably is not the best thing for him really.  It’s usually a factor of whether we think there’s enough time to see the episode before the bus arrives, or if he’ll disengage from a preferred activity cleanly without a fuss.

He does, occasionally, surprise us in good ways.  Depending on the morning, he’s been willing to disengage if the bus comes early (or the episode isn’t quite done and the bus is on time) and go out to get on with his day.  More often, he throws a fit… and occasionally, he has to be carried bodily to the bus, kicking and screaming.

So this morning was one of those mornings where it was clear that any episode would be still running when the bus arrived – he started asking around half-past, with eighteen minutes till the ‘on-time’ arrival of the bus… and even with a weather delay due to the rain, it would still be running.

The wife, though, had a good idea to ask if a Sesame Street book would be sufficient – it would placate his want for Sesame, and make him practice his sight reading.

And, surprisingly, that worked.  He was quite okay with the idea of it, and they spent a good fifteen minutes reading from the book before it was time to start watching for the bus.

It’s a good first step.  Now, if he’d get to the point that he could decide to do that all on his own…