child breaking things....

[Rickers83]

Lo 2 1/2 has broken something every day hes been here this week.... First he pulled the flap so hard on a board book it ripped, so he tried it again on another page..... Then he started snapping crayons when we were drawing, & today hes pulled the door so hard on the toy campervan hes snapped it!!!

Thing is I'm not sure if hes being deliberately destructive, heavy handed, or if he did it once by accident & now thinks its a good laugh!!

Hes never sorry & looks at me blankly when I explain to him what hes done & why it was wrong

Should i/do you record it and tell parents?

Next week cant come quick enough & I'm outta here!

[childcareclair]

Hi,

Now bare with me as I am no good at explaining things and its a saturday night and a couple of wines down.

I had one boy couple of years ago who did the same sort of things, boys play differently to girls, could it be that he is seeing how things work? How much can I bend this before it breaks....... if I pull this hard what will happen...

Have you tried science type activities with him? Or taking something apart so he can see how it works?

Try explaining and then getting him to help you fix it things....

Good luck as I know it's frustrating!

[sarah707]

I'd speak to parents as well - what is he like at home?

he needs to learn respect for property but that's a slow job. maybe go for the 'less is more' approach with resources until he is able to care for them better x

[blue bear]

Lots of activities that need fine control, keys in locks, hundreds and thousand sprinkled onto icing, undoing zips, finger 'writing' in shaving foam....... To build up control and the feeling of how much pressure is required for the job in hand.

[yummyripples]

I think the problem is that sometimes we just have too many toys and we just expect children to play with them.
Even playing can get boring after a while, sometimes more stimulation is needed.
I had a little one who seemingly liked to destroy things but really she was just exploring boundaries - how far can I push/pull/bend before it breaks.
As someone said, it's like a science experiment. That little girl especially liked to pull sellotape off things and tear the paper off crayons I got her to peel her own tangerines and separate them into segments, also peel mushrooms to make mushroom soup. Something that satisfied her 'peeling' fixation.
With a child who breaks things, I would introduce them to things that can be built and broken. Main one that springs to mind is lego but you can go stick collecting and build towers etc to knock them down again.
Less choice of toys and books is also a key