Toddler reasoning

piphigirl

Charlotte can now climb up on our dining chairs by herself, so she thinks it is especially cool to be allowed to eat a snack in the regular chair.

Last night, she was sitting in the chair and dropped her straw cup.  After the obligatory, "uh-oh!" she made a reach like she wanted me to get it.  I said, "You can get down from the chair and get it by yourself."  So she turned around and did her little backwards scoot off the chair, picked up the cup, and put it on the chair.

Then she started to climb back up, but the cup was in her way.  So she put her feet back on the ground, grabbed the cup, set it back on the ground, and climbed on the chair.

Then she looked down at the cup and was like, "Wait a minute!  My cup is still on the floor."

Before she could fully process this, my DH decided to be nice and hand her the cup.  Mean mommy would have made her try again and solve the problem of how to get herself AND her cup onto the chair all by herself.

(But then again, mean mommy teaches at a problem-based learning school and recognizes the value of guiding children through critical thinking and problem solving.)

Anyone else have funny example of a unique way your toddler has solved a problem lately?

cedenton

I think it's funny to watch him decide which thing he's holding to put down to pick up whatever it is he wants to pick up. I am especially amused when he thinks to put something in his mouth to hold and then he can have ALL THE THINGS!

sadeathe

I was impressed when Albert decided that in order to get something off of our dining room table, he needed to pull the table cloth towards him.  This usually happens as we are setting the table for a meal.  It sends dh and I running every time.

DaisyHeadMayzie

N has a giant Tigger stuffed animal that's about her size.  She wanted to sit inside the laundry basket with Tigger, but she wasn't strong enough to lift him up and over.  She looked at Tigger for a minute then crawled into the laundry basket on her own.  Once she was inside, then she lifted him up and over.  Problem solved.  I only wish I had gotten a recording of it!

rp-chicago-mom

My favorite child development professor used the quote by Piaget, "Every time you teach a child something, you deny him the joy of discovering it for himself," or something like that for every lesson.

I definitely think I have a problem solver on my hands. He figured how to climb up on the dining room table so I pushe the chairs away from the table. That didn't work because he just pushed them back. He also knows how to snap himself into his high chair. He's obsessed with straps.

zbeesma86

Part of our bedtime routine is reading and I will tell DD to go to her bookcase and pick a book- she goes and looks at them and will come back 3 mins later with a STACK of books. She hands them to me like, here you go- get your read on, ma! Plus she knows it delays bedtime a bit.

NeneCakies

B is good with switching hands to keep her stuff when we put her arms in her shirt sleeves or coat. She's not very nimble yet with climbing so she's not interested in things up high yet.

I do encourage her to try things again and again though but she gets frustrated easily. I have a funny video of her doing a stacking ring puzzle and when one of the rings doesn't cooperate she throws it down, smacks the rocking post with both hands, mutters something that sounds like "god!", and then starts over and finishes. I didn't "help" and I'm glad she did it on her own.