In case it's not clear what you're seeing, I'll narrate. On the upper left is a board book that he ripped a page out of. On the bottom left, he actually ripped a small board book completely in half. The top and bottom right are lift-the-flap books that he shredded... He doesn't just tear out the flaps, he completely destroys the page. This is what happens when we let him play unattended. Whenever I catch him, I try to teach him about being gentle with books, but it clearly isn't sinking in yet...I'm actually a little concerned about this, so I'm hoping maybe you all can give me some thoughts. The reason I'm worried is that a lot of our books are hand-me-downs from his cousins, so that means they survived the toddlerhoods of other boys completely intact. This makes me feel like it's just my child who destroys books. I know that he's not trying to destroy them. He's just curious about how they work and so he tests, tries, pulls, and discovers that pieces can be ripped, bent, stretched, etc. I know it's a learning process and eventually he'll learn to be gentle with books. I guess I need to just be thankful that he loves books, even if this love isn't the kind I'd like to be on the receiving end of! But if anybody has any assurances or advice for me, I'd appreciate it!
4 comments:
I think Elias's "issue" is not really anything you can do much about at this point. He's just a big boy and probably really strong for his age. Which is why he's able to destroy more than most toddlers, and why the books left his cousins' hands intact. Carina will probably be 3 (or older!) by the time she weighs as much as he does now (although she is a bit of a peanut). Even she has ripped flaps out of books and gotten bindings on board books loose. She's never flat-out ripped one up, though, probably because she's not strong enough. Best thing to do is be consistent in your teaching, and he'll get it someday.
His cousins only handed down the books that survived. You didn't see the ones they destroyed. I eventually just stopped giving them books because I got tired of the mess.
Ethan is really hard on books too, his main attack move is closing them incorrectly, it breaks the binding. He loves to play with them so much, I have a hard time taking them away, but he has runied some of our favorite books! I have found one kind of book survives his curiosity- cloth books. I actually bought cloth book fabric panels at Walmart and am planning to make a set of books for Christmas (in my spare time?). He really enjoys the cloth books, but they don't tear and are washable!!
Good luck! Let us know if you come up with any solutions that work!
We had the same problem! Andrew would look at me and I would say "Don't rip it!" and he would say "Rip it! OK!" and it would go back and forth. Eventually he got better and now he even has (gasp!) books that are not hard pages!!!!
We also did cloth books and some that are waterproof that could go in the bathtub.
Hang in there! Elias is amazing!!!
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