There is so much fun to be had with a simple trolley. It can be a car, a boat, a train and even a motor bike! This trolley was particularly good at going up hill, over bumps, around trees and over bridges.. At first their was one passenger doing the rounds of the preschool bike path but this quickly grew to two passengers and a highly skilled driver.
The problem with this trolley is that it's wheels are fixed, this makes it difficult to turn.. The children experienced lots of crashes and often became stuck. Turning the trolley with two passengers was heavy work. Our driver handled this well and at the suggestions to turn left or right heaved the rope to make most turns! Sometimes when they became stuck the passengers were required to get up and work together.
The arm signalling was a good way to explain the direction in which the passengers wanted to go, this method is most successful if employed a couple of minutes prior to the turn point. Once the trolley had past the turn the only way to make it stop (as one back seat driver realized) was to use your hands to stop the wheels! The children made lots of decisions while playing with the trolley, this type of play supports children's confidence as decision makers. Children learn to make decisions by making them not by following directions (Alfie Kohn)
Soon it was established that the trolley was a very slow vehicle and that cruising on a balance bike is a much faster way to travel. Our driver also realized that it might be easier to tow the trolley rather than pull it. Soon we had a complete team of tow bike drivers, trolley passenger and rear support! Each child had a role to play, the driver anticipated corners and got speed up in order to swing the trolley wide so it would make the turn, the passenger had to navigate and explain where they wanted to go. They also had to hold on around those corners! The rear support bike had to bump the trolley along as it became stuck or had to dismount and move the trolley out of tight spaces..
Below is a link to a video of our trio exploring the use of this trolley. Watch how they work together to overcome obstacles and continue their game. There were no arguments about who got to ride/tow/help' each child played their part as they successfully navigated across the terrain. The children conversed as they went along and asked each other for help. At the end they went too quick down the hill for me to film I was too busy chasing them to make sure they were ok... All was well and they had several turns down the hill - children delight in taking risks and overcoming challenges..
