Sometimes I feel like I just get too caught up in directing my children in HOW to play and forcing my closed minded views upon their open little minds.
For instance, in my mind, tea bags are used for making tea and on the odd occasion they are used for making pretend tea by some imaginative little minds. Little D is often seen wandering over to the cuppa cabinet to grab a couple of jigglers, so when I saw him heading over that way the other morning, I thought nothing of it and turned my focus back to my morning cuppa and junk mail stash.
The next time I looked up I saw D working away at his train set and forgot all about his visit to the tea and coffee cupboard.
The next time I looked up I remembered.
At this point I really wanted to give him the usual "tea is for teacups" type of redirection then I thought, is it? Why couldn't he play with the teeny tiny ground up particles of tea leaves that he was spreading all over my floor? Was it because of the mess? We do own a vacuum cleaner so that problem had a solution. Was it because of the cost of replacing the tea bags? The cost of paint, glue and other craft materials is more so that was a non issue too.
I had to decide, do I, A - tell him to stop, B - join in or C - sit back and see where he goes with it. At this point after realising in my own head that it really is okay to let your two and a half year old spread tea leaves from one end of the house to the other, I really actually wanted to go with option B but the observer in me won over and I sat back to see what he'd do.
He played for well over an hour, focused and constructive, never asking for help or input, fully immersed in the world he was creating and I got to wondering if he would have been so self sufficient in his play had I butted in and started imposing my rules and limitations on him. My guess is probably not.
I finally jumped in for a go a couple of minutes before I wanted him to clean up and it was so much fun having something to fill the trucks with. I can really see how it helps his little imagination soar. When it was time to clean up, we tapped all the tea out of the engines and trucks and packed them away as usual, then it only took a few minutes to wiz over the carpet.
And I had the perfect little helper for that task.
