Gathering...

[LollsMum]

My daughter (aged 2y2m) has recently started 'gathering' things. It started with toys, she would ask for various (usually specific) toys to be taken downstairs in the morning, and again at bedtime she gathered certain toys to take to bed with her. I've just gone with it (we're talking maybe 3 or 4 toys at most), however my husband tells her no and that she can take one or two. She's never wanted to gather toys to take out with her before, however today when we were going out for lunch she went off and got her handful of toys to take - and she also wanted to take the newspaper!? We let her take it, and she promptly discarded it in the car. Now this has become a bone of contention because my husband thinks this will escalate to the stage where we'll need a suitcase (melodramatic) when going out, and he is blaming me for encouraging her. I'm worrying this isn't typical/normal toddler behaviour? I should probably mention that the main appeal for her seems to be the ability to carry all these things herself, she attempts all manner of things ? tucking them under her arms, under her chin ? so that she can carry as much as possible.

Have you heard of schemas?
It's how some children make sense of the world and their environment by repeating patterns of play
Here is an excellent link that explains it all
www.leics.gov.uk/penn_green_schemas.pdf

mine have all gone through phases of doing this, when ds1 was little he was bought a bag of 7 pairs of pants, they came in a little plastic packet that did up with a popper, he took them everywhere with him! odd little boy, he is now almost 13 and perfectly normal

ds4 has had to take his blankets with him for a long time but has now grown out of taking them out but still carries them around in the house and my 17mth old does what your dd does and takes certain toys to bed, namely 'lamby' which also goes everywhere with her, she takes, cuddlies, books, etc out with her, its fine and very normal! :)

and yes carrying it under her chin, does she try and hold things in her teeth as well, that was a trick mine had! :)

I thought schema straight away too. That is a lovely link from insancerre.

I think your little girl is developing her transporting schema, i.e. her understanding of what happens when you are moving objects from one place to another. It's a very normal phase for toddlers to go through and you will often see little ones carrying what appear to be random objects round in little bags, baskets, toy lorrys, etc in Early Years settings.

Could you find some little bags for your DD to use? It would also be good to help her by talking about transporting, giving her all the words to describe what she's doing at a time they will be of most interest to her.

Your DH doesn't need to worry. She will work through it all and then move onto developing another part of her understanding of the world. Maybe he'd like it better if she was developing her rotational schema and became obsessed with wheels - I know my DH liked that bit.

My nearly 4 yo still enjoys putting random collections of things in bags & dragging them around the house. I call normal.

those back packs with reins attached are great, she could fit a few toys in there and carry it and then you have a means of keeping hold of her as well, my toddlers have always liked these :)

Schemas are fascinating. Mine has done enclosure in a big way, spent a week at nursery in and out and in and out of a cardboard box (she was 20ish months) and now developing her pouring water schema, and sizes. Messy but watching her is fascinating!

i have 5 children and have never heard of schemas it is interesting reading and yes its all normal development and nothing to worry about at all :)

Thank you all so much, glad I posted now. She uses bags, she has a variety of wee handbags ? so encouraging her to use a bag to take things up and down the stairs is a great idea. The schema stuff IS very interesting, so thanks for the link. I shall show it to my hubby. She loves pouring (she has her own watering can) too, and playing with water in general. My parents have a fountain in their garden and she'd happily splash around in it all day.

Encourage it and use it to your advantage.

"Here's your shopping trolley/doll's buggy. Do you think you could collect all those toys, put them in the trolley and take them back to their home?"

I attached a row of hooks to the back of the study door, hung all sorts of bags on them (DD's little bags,paper shopping bags, random canvas magazine-freebies) and waited for her to find them. Fascinating to watch her systematically fill them... and when we don't know where things are, that's the first place to look.

I love schemas too. i work in early years and it has given me a real insight into why children do certain things and it gives us lots of ideas for enhancing and developing children's play and therefore their learning.

my 4yr old and nearly 3yr old do this with their toyboxes with wheels on. I'm a mean mummy and don't let them move toys around the house much because they fall down the stairs when trying to go up/down with stuff in both hands.

Schemas are great.

2.5 y.o. DS does this when going to bed. He gets immensely frustrated when he drops one of the million things he's trying to carry. It hadn't occurred to me to get him to use a bag - great idea.

Definitely work on using it to your advantage. DS had a big tidying/sorting phase, and now him tidying and sorting his toys is a standard part of our pre-bed routine. In fact, I get him to do it while I do the washing up.