Heads up: This post is 14 years old. My thinking may have evolved since then — read it with that in mind.
This morning we went to play at the park again. It seems like it was only a few weeks ago that L wasn’t able to reach these steering wheels machines, or at least wasn’t able to turn them, thus losing interests in them fast. Today, not only was he able to turn them, he discovered a new way to play with it, by hanging off of them like they’re monkey bars. With his feet clear off the ground, he looked at me triumphantly! As if telling me: “Look! I conquered gravity!”
Later on, L spotted the boot washing water tap and wanted to play . I told him I need to take off his socks and shoes first and then he’s off! I think because I had learned to be more hands off and just let him play by himself, he’s a little calmer and doesn’t rush through things as much as before. This time, he slowly observed the water, I only butt in to tell him to turn off one tap before turning on another. When he tried to tell me something, I walked over and he pointed to the stone surface where the water was flowing and said to me “Water! Fall down!” I was expecting him to be inspecting the hose or how the brush and the water interact, this once again reminded me that we never really know what toddlers are observing and thinking! If I had talked to him about the hose or the brush, I would’ve just disturbed him observing nature – water, flows, down!
In the middle of this, we got another old lady coming over to offer her advice, saying how he got everything wet and this is how you wash your hands! (by turning the water down.)
L only goes to 1 playgroup a week and it’s a Montessori one. Today, toward the end of the class, L took 2 bamboo oval balls over to play on his favorite wooden train rack. He had started doing that a long time ago but didn’t have much success due to the fact that they’re not round. Today, the balls stopped midway on the tracks as usual but then he put the train through and it pushed the balls along! It was a breakthrough! He immediately saw the connection and repeated the process many times, and then he tested something new – putting the balls at the tail end of the train! It didn’t work. Hypothesis broken, back to balls at the front.
One bad thing about the Montessori playgroup is that there’s still a little bit of singing and “learning” at the end of each class. The singing broke L’s concentration on the new train / balls discovery. But a funny first time happened here when he moved toward the singing group. He suddenly realized there exists a classmate! He stood behind a little girl and started touching her hair with both hands. Didn’t pay any attention to the other 2 classmates still. The girl wasn’t visibly annoyed but moved away after a little while nevertheless, turning around to look at L. L was really amazed at this point and moved in to touch her mouth and cheek at this point! The girl was really annoyed now and looked a little taken aback by little baby L’s actions. Unfortunately, I was laughing too hard and missed how the incident ended. :P