Heads up: This post is 14 years old. My thinking may have evolved since then — read it with that in mind.
Today, there was a “July babies 2 yr old birthday party”, about 40 ~ 50 families cramped into this little Chuck E. Cheese minus the food & giant mechanical rodents store in the mall to have a great party! L had a lot of fun because he loves those ball pits and they had 3!!
It was interesting to see that there wasn’t 1 family who would trust their children and let them explore and figure out how to play. What I witnessed most were parents holding their kids, helping them slide down slides or ride on carts, and taking pictures of their kids w/ their huge DSLR cameras, sometimes asking them to redo something because “Daddy didn’t get the picture!”
Anyways, back to today’s main story. L saw these ramps when we asked him to come with us as the organizers were calling everyone to gather up. There was nothing going on at the gathering, just a cluster of chaos trying to sit their kids down. Naturally, L chose to check out the ramps! There were a bunch of carts in that area and at first he grabbed one that he liked (I think?) but it wasn’t designed for the ramp, the wheelbase fits but the seats were a bit too high. L could ride past the first bump but got stuck in the middle ditch. After trying to ride up to the top and failed a few times, he gave up and tried the other ramp with a different cart. This yellow cart was a little lower, but the result was the same he couldn’t ride up to the top.
Then, he saw an older boy playing with a much nicer looking car (it has a steering wheel!) and he abandoned his yellow cart in the ditch, walked over to the bigger boy and tried to take that nice car! The older boy is, well, older! So he has learned how to deal with other kids fighting for toys. (“I can’t fight back, and I don’t want to bother negotiating! The car seemed to big for the ramp anyway, alright I’ll just move on to play the next thing!”)
L got control of the nice car, he tried to sat on it but it was too unstable up there and it finally fell off. L got on it and rode it to the end of the ramp. He tried to ride it up but this car couldn’t even get past the first bump! He was a little tired and so he just sat there, watching the gathering on the other side of the room, (but didn’t look like he was really paying attention, he looked like he was daydreaming :) An old Chinese lady had been looking at him and at this point she came over smiling, wanting to pick up the yellow cart L left in the middle ditch and help him put it on the top of the ramp. Both my wife and I yelled: “don’t help him… Don’t Help Him!… DON’T HELP HIM!!!” (Together, 6 times!) until we startled the little old lady, stopping her in her tracks! (Sorry old lady! I know you thought you were doing something endearing, but it’s bad for the children!)
It was also interesting that L had seen the other boy push the car up to the top, but he didn’t imitate the boy right away. After sitting there daydreaming for a while, he finally got up, and with a fresh mind he stood beside the yellow cart and pushed it to the top of the ramp! SUCCESS! He didn’t celebrate though, instead he hurried to sit on it! And even though he had his back facing the slope, he pushed off and weeeeee… backwards roller coaster ride!! (I was worried and stood beside him, just in case he fell off.)
He repeated this again and again! Then I think he went away for a while. Next time he came back, he figured out to push the cart up backwards so that he could roll down facing the front.
By the way, while this whole learning story took place, the majority of families were sitting at the gathering watching a clown magician hybrid thing perform. This means the parents had successfully taught their 2 year old children to sit docilely watching their teachers! Sad. Now I’m not saying teaching 2 year olds to sit quietly is bad, there are situations where it’s good, even necessary, to set that boundary! (Like during car rides and meal time).) But I personally don’t think forcing them to sit still to listen & learn from a “teacher” is one of those good situations.