One of the first things they teach us when I went to school was if you are working with infants and toddlers and designing a learning environment ~ do your best to have 'multiples' of toys you know are going to be popular so you can 'redirect' children to another similar or exact option cause infants and toddlers do not SHARE it is not a developmentally available concept for them ... they have no concept of time and are egocentric to having their own needs met .... so while some children might master this 'earlier' do to practice and personality and learning style ~ most infants and toddlers find this concept of 'sharing' very challenging!

Second off my suggest is to not use the phrase 'sharing' with young children at all .... they are too literal in thinking and when you tell them they have to 'share' something they think it is permanent and they might never get it back .... so for example if I share my bag of chips with you I am never getting them back at least not in the form they were, if I share my apple with you, share my blocks with you you are getting to KEEP some of them This is the imagery that comes to mind for most children when they hear the word 'share' ... I have to give it to Johnny and he is never giving it back and since they have little concept of time that is their reality it feels like NEVER to them .... which is why they tend to 'freak out' having to share things until they get past that 2 age group and start to grasp time concepts better and a better capability of 'reasoning'

Plus there are things we just cannot 'share' because there is only one of them so what we are actually doing is 'taking turns' with things like that but yet we assign that same 'term' to it of sharing ~ which further confuses budding language of young toddlers and you have them coming up to a child playing with the one and only Buzz Lightyear figure and demanding that they 'share' that with me you need to 'share' that with me Ms Teacher Johnny is not sharing the toys ... ummm no dude you need to wait your TURN

I choose to focus on the term TURN because this is the most accurate definition of our expectation here .... so if it is something that there is only ONE thing of than 'its Johnny's TURN with that and when he is done he will come find you for your TURN' ..... if it something like blocks that there are LOTS of than I would say 'there are room for TWO friends to have a TURN with the blocks' .... with some things I will actually use a visual 'timer' for determining the length of turns like a egg timer that beeps or the microwave and than have them choose someone else to be next.

I will also play games that reinforce 'turn taking' of things .... so when we do circle time each and every day they get a 'turn' with a something and than have to give it back to me at the end of their turn and so forth.

You can set up 'activity' tables that promote turn taking ~ so the play doh table has room for two children and you set up two of everything EXCEPT a rolling pin or something so they have to negotiate taking turns with that to practice and build the skills.

It is definitely a constant and consistent part of the curriculum that is for sure ... even with all the focus and opportunity to work on the concept in my program I have a set of 6 year old and 4 year old siblings in care who have still not mastered the concepts of sharing verses turn taking ~ they bicker all day long wanting what the other has ~ drives me nuts!