Activity for a super fan for lifts...

[Crabsmile]

My son is 3yo,he is crazy for lifts in last few months. When we go shopping, he would insist taking the lift and stay there for hours! As a spirited kid, I found it really hard to get him out of it without fierce screaming and struggling, and the bad moods from then on. So I always come up with going home with nothing but a satisfied kid.

If we go out for a walk, he would definitely stop in front of any high buildings such as a hotel or an apartment. I had to make every effort stopping him from going in and disturbing others.

The teacher in his preschool told me that most of the time,he like to act like the doors of a lift with his 2 hands. He had least interest in other toys. And his topic with other kids are always: Do you have a lift at where you live? Which floor do you live?...

At weekends, when I excitedly ask him: Do you want to go to the Zoo or go to play the slides and swings in a new park? I always come up with a disappointing answer from my excited son: I only want to take lifts! I want to go to the shopping mall?

What else shall I offer to give him fun?

[We Three]

 I have known so many little boys with "obsessions" for things....like fire trucks, or trains, or dinosaurs!  The problem with your lo's obsession is that there are elevators everywhere, which isn't the case with some of those other things! So he sees them all the time and they are so accessible that he wants them all the time!

 If it were me, I would designate a time, say, Sunday afternoons, to go to the mall, and ride that elevator a set number of times, say....20 times, or a block of time, say, 15 minutes.  I would wrap that trip in other errands, (do some shopping while there, etc) and that way he has that to look forward to all week.  So then when he says he wants to ride, you can say "Sunday is lift day, we will do that on Sunday".  He might still get angry, but in time, with Sunday (or Friday or whatever) being "Lift Day", he might settle in to that routine. I would make a good time of it if this were me, ride the lift, get an ice cream, go back to the lift, etc.....and then maybe his cup would be filled.    ?

[Mashi]

Do you have any sightseeing elevators in Shanghai? Like, in Shanghai Tower or something, where you can take him and he can ride to the 66th floor and you can go to an observation deck and so on? Instead of trying to encourage him into other things, feed his interest and knowledge that he has at the moment.   When my DS was in his little "obsessions" at this age I found that feeding them and allowing him to love them helped more than anything. So my DS was obsessed with marble runs and we watched them on youtube, we built them, we drew them, we went to the toy store that had a large one and played with it almost every Saturday.  We spent hours answering his questions about how they worked and explained them and he never stopped talking about them.  Until one day he had moved on to something else, and did not care so much about marble runs. But any new things that he becomes obsessed about, he sticks with it until he has learned every little thing about it and then moves on to something new.

I'm thinking that in Shanghai he is probably in an elevator at least 5 or 6 times a day? Like up and down to your apartment and to get into preschool, and shopping and everything, yes?  I lived in Seoul for many years and until then had never realised how much your life revolves around elevators when you are in such a "high" city.  All of the elevators always had children's steps inside them so the kids could reach the buttons for the top floors.  To be honest I think he will outgrow his excitement of them after a while, once he realises that they are a permanent part of his life!

[creations]

Along with everything pps have already said, how about some home activities based on his obsession?  When mine has obsessions I try to think of lots of other things I can do with those obsessions to make them into a range of activities.
A couple of examples
- make a cardboard elevator
http://www.ehow.com/how_5025646_build-model-elevator.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mrs_p_dQB3c
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjYnByB6Qyo
- look out for toys with an elevator (mine has the Little People garage with a lift for the cars to go up, he loves that lift, there are more grown up toys too if you look around, lifts for cars, grain elevators, hotel with elevator)
http://www.breithaupts.com/totc332.htm
http://www.he-man.org/collecting/toy.php?id=1390&image=2723
- make a 2 dimension picture on card with a sliding elevator and numbers marked for the levels, get him to decide what is in each room on each floor. Take it a step farther and make cut out people who can ride it up and get out on different floors.
- look out for books on elevators
http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/book/9780064467094?redirected=true&viewCountry=UK&selectCurrency=GBP&gclid=CNH1yJL-yb0CFdShtAodlm8AJw
Charlie and the great glass elevator
- look for songs and nursery rhymes with elevators in them.

My DS was obsessed with numbers, colours, letters etc and trains, trucks and if I wanted to encourage any activity I used those things as a starting point to come up with some ideas as sometimes his obsessions were, well, too obsessive! Hope something triggers an idea or two for you.
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