Stand well back or show them how it's done - which are you?

[bobbybob]

I have a lovely friend who insists on showing my ds all the things that they toys at her house do.
Ds watches her and then just copies what she has done, loses interest quickly and walks away.

When I get toys from the toy library, I just put it in the middle of the room and let him approach it when he is ready and then praise him for making various bits work, he seems to play with the toy for longer and more importantly wants to show me what he can do.

So which camp do you fall into?

with you on the standing well back! DD often spends days discovering the toy - although she is still at the age where the string to pull it or the ring that holds things together are still the most interesting!

i'm a leave them to it person even with my daughter who has SN, as she does work out things for herself usually (if not i show her)

Yeah, i just think it's a real waste of $100 if you are just going to explain it to them. It also stifles creative play. She gets a bit miffed if ds finds something new, or if he tries to be creative - ie, remove the car from the garage and drive it along the road on another toy.

Leave em to it here too... was sooooo pleased when it took DD a month to work out how to get roly mo to speak to her

Oh, you've caught me. Those dratted things where you have to press an ear, a toe or a hand for a tune. My parents always buy them and I do press those so they can see ds's reaction.

DS is a demon at finding the on/off switch and has been since 4 months old. He now turns his toys off when he's finished with them.

I want yours!!!! Mine has no idea how to turn them off, and they suddenly start playing halfway through the evening for no reason!

Scares the cr*p out of me!!

Did you see the "Child of our Time" episode where the mums and the dads had to help the kids draw a house with an etch a sketch? They dads made the kids do it just so, and the mums helped the kids "discover" how to do it themselves. They argued that both sorts of parenting are necessary in that the kids felt a greater sense of achievment after doing the task properly with dads (better outcome) and probably learned more with mums. I imagine that it not quite as cut and dried in RL but you know how child of our time likes to simplify things.

Oh goodness me, I won't go near her with an etch a sketch, she'll probably give me marks out of 10.