I recently had the joy of having my sister and her adorable little boys over to visit. It was so much fun to see them and play with them. While on their visit, Sam, almost a year old, loved to explore the house. This was a new place for him, and he felt it was his duty to explore every inch of it. It wasn't long before he found the spring door stoppers. I remember playing with these as a kid, so I was delighted to watch my nephew learn how to poke it to make sounds. At one point, my little brother, about 17 years old, groaned at begged someone to make Sam stop making the "obnoxious sound". I refused, suggesting that he simply leave the room. I have a picture of Sam here:

This occurrence got me thinking. How often do we stop children from learning new things and exploring simply because it bothers us. To my brother's perspective, all he could understand was that a child was making an annoying noise. But to Sam, this was a completely new device that he could interact with, and it would make sounds in response. This was fascinating to him. What right did I have to take him away from this learning experience? Since then, Sam has gained amazingly stable hand-eye coordination and motor skills. He loves building tall towers from blocks because he is able to keep them balancing. So I say, let the kid play with it. Let them explore and try new things. Of course, we need to supervise to keep them away from danger, but we also need to let them learn what the world has in store for them.