My daughter 3 years old is always coming up to me to ask for tools to take things apart. I consider each thing for the risk analysis, but most things I do let her take apart with what I consider to be a fair amount of supervision. There are a few things that I tell her that if she wants to take it apart she needs to keep asking me until I am convinced she really really wants to take it apart. An example is one of her favorite toys when I know the way she wants to take it apart will destroy it. I make sure that she understands there is no putting it back together, and if she keeps insisting... well we have a broken toy.
I will say that I try to neither encourage, nor discourage this drive, therefore the what gets torn apart is largely her decision, but she has to ask if it is not hers, and she has to ask to use grown up tools.
I will also add that I do encourage constructive activities like helping assemble things. She did a lot of the work on putting her big girl bed together.
Last edited by it_is_2day; 04/09/15 10:32 PM.
