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Up a tree - As high as the branches will hold
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<blockquote data-quote="Marguerite" data-source="post: 148573" data-attributes="member: 1991"><p>Adrianne, difficult child 3 is very cautious, to the point of his anxiety stopping him from doing a lot of things I judge to be safe. But he has always been a climber. As a baby he would climb out of his cot. I put the side down permanently when he first climbed out - the side down was safer than him falling from the top of the cot.</p><p></p><p>But he never fell. Even as a baby left on my bed, he never rolled off. I would leave a mattress on the floor beside the bed so if he fell he would have a soft landing - he never fell.</p><p></p><p>easy child 2/difficult child 2 is also very wary when climbing or balancing, although it doesn't look it. As a little girl in elementary, she would walk along hand rails (these were round tubes, not angular wooden ones) and in fact would try to walk and balance on some rather narrow and tricky places. At after school care she had a chance to learn circus skills and chose stiltwalking - she was a natural. She was 8 and has been working professionally as a stiltwalker since she was 11. I've seen her walk up and down a flight of stairs, while on stilts.</p><p></p><p>difficult child 1 also climbs. If he is upset, he climbs the big tree in our front yard. He's also climbed it in the dark, especially on Halloween nights when our house is getting egged. He puts on his black ninja outfit, complete with the black hood that makes his face look like it's not there, climbs about 6 metres up and waits for any kids to come along who are up to no good. He then makes spooky noises, or similar, to scare them away. Even with a torch you can't find him in the tree.</p><p></p><p>The only one to have ever fallen from the tree was difficult child 3, once, after another kid actually pushed him. He was 5 or 6 at the time and fell headfirst onto a rock from 2 metres up, gave himself concussion. But all he wanted to know, was where he'd dropped the icy pole he'd been eating!</p><p></p><p>I've found that while they seem to take risks, their natural caution protects them a lot more. And from my own memories of climbing trees, the more you climb a particular tree the more you know your way around it, what weight a branch can bear and where to put your foot or hand for the next hold. You also get a good feel for how the tree behaves in response to being climbed, so even as you get older and heavier, you still naturally compensate for this by noting how much a branch moves when you put your weight onto it. If I ever climbed to a dangerous height, I generally only did it once. After that I would go to the height I could handle; if I grew taller and could then more safely reach a higher branch, it would still be a carefully calculated move based on my previous experience of that tree.</p><p></p><p>I wouldn't worry about his climbing - at least he's outside getting exercise! And safety equipment - I don't think it's applicable, for that sort of tree climbing.</p><p></p><p>But I wouldn't put the shell collection in the tree - trees are designed to move with the wind and those shells won't stay there. As they fall down, they will either break, or could break someone else's head.</p><p></p><p>We collect shells - lots of them, because we live near the beach. We have a bowl where we put them. If we're collecting different kinds of shells, sometimes we have different bowls or jars. I've put them in a bottle sometimes and filled it up with water, which makes them look even bigger (lens effect). Or you can use shells to decorate a garden, or make a collage. I collect shells with holes in them and make necklaces out of them. When difficult child 1 was about your son's age, he made a desk ornament by using cornice cement (or similar slightly flexible wall repair goo) to glue shells to a glass jar. You can do the same with a terracotta pot, to make something decorative to put a plant in. All of these ideas are much safer than putting the shells high up in a tree!</p><p></p><p>Marg</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Marguerite, post: 148573, member: 1991"] Adrianne, difficult child 3 is very cautious, to the point of his anxiety stopping him from doing a lot of things I judge to be safe. But he has always been a climber. As a baby he would climb out of his cot. I put the side down permanently when he first climbed out - the side down was safer than him falling from the top of the cot. But he never fell. Even as a baby left on my bed, he never rolled off. I would leave a mattress on the floor beside the bed so if he fell he would have a soft landing - he never fell. easy child 2/difficult child 2 is also very wary when climbing or balancing, although it doesn't look it. As a little girl in elementary, she would walk along hand rails (these were round tubes, not angular wooden ones) and in fact would try to walk and balance on some rather narrow and tricky places. At after school care she had a chance to learn circus skills and chose stiltwalking - she was a natural. She was 8 and has been working professionally as a stiltwalker since she was 11. I've seen her walk up and down a flight of stairs, while on stilts. difficult child 1 also climbs. If he is upset, he climbs the big tree in our front yard. He's also climbed it in the dark, especially on Halloween nights when our house is getting egged. He puts on his black ninja outfit, complete with the black hood that makes his face look like it's not there, climbs about 6 metres up and waits for any kids to come along who are up to no good. He then makes spooky noises, or similar, to scare them away. Even with a torch you can't find him in the tree. The only one to have ever fallen from the tree was difficult child 3, once, after another kid actually pushed him. He was 5 or 6 at the time and fell headfirst onto a rock from 2 metres up, gave himself concussion. But all he wanted to know, was where he'd dropped the icy pole he'd been eating! I've found that while they seem to take risks, their natural caution protects them a lot more. And from my own memories of climbing trees, the more you climb a particular tree the more you know your way around it, what weight a branch can bear and where to put your foot or hand for the next hold. You also get a good feel for how the tree behaves in response to being climbed, so even as you get older and heavier, you still naturally compensate for this by noting how much a branch moves when you put your weight onto it. If I ever climbed to a dangerous height, I generally only did it once. After that I would go to the height I could handle; if I grew taller and could then more safely reach a higher branch, it would still be a carefully calculated move based on my previous experience of that tree. I wouldn't worry about his climbing - at least he's outside getting exercise! And safety equipment - I don't think it's applicable, for that sort of tree climbing. But I wouldn't put the shell collection in the tree - trees are designed to move with the wind and those shells won't stay there. As they fall down, they will either break, or could break someone else's head. We collect shells - lots of them, because we live near the beach. We have a bowl where we put them. If we're collecting different kinds of shells, sometimes we have different bowls or jars. I've put them in a bottle sometimes and filled it up with water, which makes them look even bigger (lens effect). Or you can use shells to decorate a garden, or make a collage. I collect shells with holes in them and make necklaces out of them. When difficult child 1 was about your son's age, he made a desk ornament by using cornice cement (or similar slightly flexible wall repair goo) to glue shells to a glass jar. You can do the same with a terracotta pot, to make something decorative to put a plant in. All of these ideas are much safer than putting the shells high up in a tree! Marg [/QUOTE]
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