Lessons from Two-Year-Olds at a Playground

I’ve learned a lot lately when taking our two-year-old grandson to the playground. We’re fortunate in Lakewood, CA, where we live to have a number of excellent playgrounds for little kids. Our favorite is at Bolivar Park. It’s a new playground with excellent climbing, swinging and sliding equipment designed for two to five-year-olds in a fenced-in area with both sand and soft rubber material to protect when children fall. And best of all for a grandpa, there are many benches and shade.

Since our grandson is an only child, playgrounds are a good place for him to interact with peers and learn how to share toys. Two-year-olds are at that age where they start interacting with other kids and are learning to communicate. Several observations:

1. They always want to play with the other kids’ toys. No matter what we bring, our grandson is attracted to a ball, car or truck of another kid.
2. They like to chase each other. Great exercise and lots of enjoyment.
3. Sometimes they want to play together and sometimes they want to play alone.
4. There are altercations, at times, when two kids want to play with the same toy. This leads to trying to grab a toy away or stalking the other kid until he puts the toy down. All the kids are starting to learn to share, some more successfully than others.
5. Most of the kids are well-behaved with supervising parents or grandparents there to encourage sharing. Once in a while there’s a bully and typically the “responsible” adult is on a cell phone.
6. The kids play with everyone no matter the gender or race. A real demonstration how biases are taught and not inherent.