My 5.5 yo ds tends to not play with his own toys in his room & treats it more like a museum. This would not bother me, but I'm finding that instead of playing with things of his interest he instead plays w/ his 3 yo sisters things roughly & annoys her & breaks her things on occasion. He has a huge amount of "boy" energy and I am not understanding why he doesn't play with things of interest to him, like his new pirate ship, etc.
Any thoughts of how to encourage him to actually *play* with his toys rather than keep them up for display? This also becomes a problem when we have friends over...as he doesn't let them play with his things either. And it is a huge meltdown when things are touched or moved, etc by anyone or the cat.
Is this a developmental change? I am trying to find new challenging interests for him - but he is one to always find something to entertain his mind. He still seems to enjoy the toys he has but only wants to play them w/ his Dad and even then doesn't want to touch the "special" pirate ship, or dragons, etc.
I just want to redirect his energy to something other than terrorizing & scaring his sister - as his fallback all the time activity...maybe that's not possible...
TIA
Any thoughts of how to encourage him to actually *play* with his toys rather than keep them up for display? This also becomes a problem when we have friends over...as he doesn't let them play with his things either. And it is a huge meltdown when things are touched or moved, etc by anyone or the cat.
Is this a developmental change? I am trying to find new challenging interests for him - but he is one to always find something to entertain his mind. He still seems to enjoy the toys he has but only wants to play them w/ his Dad and even then doesn't want to touch the "special" pirate ship, or dragons, etc.
I just want to redirect his energy to something other than terrorizing & scaring his sister - as his fallback all the time activity...maybe that's not possible...
TIA