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5 Chores That Teach Work Ethic Principles to Toddlers

September 12, 2016 | Leave a Comment

“Chore” is a curse word for some kids. Perhaps you dreaded them, too, in your youth. What your parents, grandparents, and teachers were really doing was instilling work ethic principles in you as you learned what it means to grow up.

Now it’s your turn to pass it on.

Why start when your children are just toddlers, you ask? Isn’t it a bit young? They may be a little too young for learning how to file taxes, but they’re absolutely not too young to learn about helping out. Chores for 2- and 3-year-olds teach work ethic principles in the following ways:

Kids learn to be part of a team.
They learn responsibility.
They form good habits.
They learn listening skills.
They learn that they’re not entitled to “all play and no work.”

5 Chores That Teach Work Ethic Principles to Toddlers

Each of these chores is simple enough for a toddler to do, even though some may require a parent’s help. Supervise each task. Focus on your child’s obedience in doing the task more than how “well” he or she actually did it. Then, celebrate the completion immediately and enthusiastically. If you pay for chores, then pay your toddler right away.

Clean up toys.

Setting a brief time at the end of each day to pick up toys can help children learn a new habit. I typically choose one area of the house and assign my 3-year-old and 2-year-old to specific items. For example, I’ll ask them to just pick up all the books or all the trains or all the puzzle pieces. That helps them hunt for exactly what they need to pick up.

Bring dishes to the counter after meals.

One day, I was sitting at the lunch table, surrounded by bits of food and dirty dishes. The kids were racing around the house, energized by their meal. I realized that the only way for me to get some help clearing the table was to teach my kids to do it, too. So we implemented a new rule that each family member should carry his or her own dish to the counter. I shadow my youngest to make sure he doesn’t drop something on his foot, but the kids took to it right away.

Make the bed.

Can we all agree that this is an awesome, lifelong habit every kid should learn? Consistency is key in all work ethic principles, but there’s something universal about starting the day with a made bed. Plus, for whatever reason, my 3-year-old gets so excited to enter her room at bedtime and find her bed all nice and neat, waiting for her.

Put away shoes.

Do you have a designated place for shoes in your house? We have a coat closet. The moment the kids walk through the door, the oldest knows to take off her shoes and place them in the closet. The youngest can’t usually take off his shoes by himself, but he knows how to put them in the closet – which counts as a win in my book.

Dust the furniture.

You know what my kids love? Dusting the house with one of those Swiffer Dusters. It’s the kind with the handle and the fluffy guy on the end that looks like a Sesame Street character.

Not only does it dust much better than my previous duster – a rag made from an old tee shirt – but the kids get a kick out of it. It’s light-weight, is easy for toddlers to use, and pretty much gets the job done.

You can even make it talk while your toddler works, if you’re feeling especially ridiculous.

(I highly recommend any toddler activity with “ridiculous” in the description.)

Find it here.

How old were you when you started doing chores?

Share in the comments below!

Image Credit: Ben White (UnSplash)

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Encouraging Good Language Development for Toddlers

September 9, 2015 | Leave a Comment

Since my daughter is the only child I’ve ever really been around for any length of time, I really have nothing else to compare to in terms of development. People often comment though on my two-year-old’s language development. Other parents, teachers and people who have way more experience with kids than I do. Recently a friend of mine asked if I did anything ‘’special’’ to teach our daughter how to speak ‘’so well’’.

Given that this is my first go-round with this parenting thing, my answer is always no, but when I think about it my daughter’s day-to-day life is surrounded by opportunity communicate, effectively.

Starts with communication at home

My husband and I avoided ‘’baby talk’’ from the very beginning. We didn’t have silly names for things, ever. If we were giving her a glass of water or a bottle we wouldn’t call it ‘’wa wa’’ or ‘’ba ba’’ instead. Traditional ‘’baby talk’’ has always seemed unnatural to me, so this wasn’t exactly something I deliberately didn’t do but after being around friends with other young children I realised how different my day-to-day language was with our daughter, it was more ‘’grown up’’ somehow.

Though I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad thing if you want to communicate in easier tones for your child to understand, I do think expecting them to suddenly stop using these words at a certain age is then unfair.

Read to your child, look at pictures

I can’t stress this enough. You can never read too much to your kid, it’s just that simple. We read all sorts of different books to encourage the diversity. Everything from simple picture books that are fun to longer books, that, I think, encourages focus. It’s the simple picture books (with busy pages) that we have the most fun with though. When she’s really young they’re fun pictures where we can point out all the different things on the page and as gets older I can ask everything from ‘’count the balloons’’ to ‘’who is closer to the boat?’’ to ‘’where’s the octagon?’’ type of questions. We also like flash cards.

Have basic expectations

If our daughter mispronounces something, we correct her. Not in a military drill type of way but we will usually say ‘’I think you mean this’’, just once. After a few times (or correcting her) she’s usually got the proper pronunciation down.

Be selective with screen time

We do allow our daughter to watch a little TV and movies but we’re very selective about what she watches. We follow her lead as to if she’s into a show or not but if we as parents don’t like it we won’t allow it. There are a lot of really dumb programs for children. Ones that speak in dumb languages and words. The first red flag for us as parents is the clarity of speech.

Play Games With Your Surroundings

Something I started doing with her when she was young was count the stairs as we walked up. We also sing songs like ABC’s when we’re driving in the car to keep her distracted from an otherwise boring car ride. From these things alone she has been counting and singing her ABC’s for many months now.

I am by no means and expert of any kind, these are just a few things that we’ve done that seem to have led to a pretty decent vocabulary and pronunciation for our two-year-old.

Do you have any tips for encouraging good language development for toddlers?

How I Prepared to Potty Train My Toddler

October 29, 2014 | Leave a Comment

I’ve been thinking about how to approach potty training with my two year old for months. It’s funny, motherhood relies a lot on intuition but potty training was leaving me stumped. I mean how do you teach a small child how to just stop using a diaper and start using a potty (or toilet)?

Today I am discussing how I prepared to potty train, next week I will break down my step-by-step about how I had my daughter from diapers to full-time underwear (including overnight) in less than a week.

Mentally Prepare Yourself

I knew one thing for sure, regardless of how I was going to approach it, I wasn’t going to initiate anything until I was ready. Most things I read focused on the readiness of the child but in my mind I was mentally preparing myself for what could be a struggle and mommy needed to be prepared more than child. If mom (and/or dad) isn’t on board do not attempt anything until you are. Once you start potty training do not stop, so if there will be foreseeable interruptions (vacations, large life changes), wait. Children are much more flexible than we give them credit for sometimes.

Get the Right Supplies

I chose to use a toilet seat insert over that traditional child potty since I felt like it was saving a step with the lack of transition needed between potty and regular, large toilet. My niece was taught on a child potty and is still terrified of toilets, especially in public, so I was going to do what I could to avoid this. I bought the seat months before I started so she could see it and become familiar with what it was though I don’t think this is a necessary step. Use whatever is easiest for you and your family.
I bought new underwear for her to see and get acquainted with, they were her ‘’big girl undies’’. Though I didn’t have her present when I bought them, I can see how some children would be excited to be involved with this step and may be beneficial, use your own judgement.
Buy a travel potty seat insert if you plan on going in public! Their bladders are small and when they need to go they need to go! Some public toilets are larger than residential and falling into the toilet even once will be enough for you and them I’m sure. The travel seats I’ve seen fold up to the size of a change pad and are pretty cheap (less than $15.00).
Rewards, if using, need to be on hand. Again this is child dependant. Before I started I knew if it came down to it my child would do just about anything for a Smartie or M&M so I had a few on hand, if I needed. I chose to not start with much reward in the beginning and see how it worked out. As I suspected my daughter was excited to just have me clap and be proud of her, she didn’t need a chocolate treat or sticker but again, have whatever you think you child will need for encouragement, on hand.
An audible timer. This could also likely be an app on a smartphone but something that makes a noise loud enough for you and child to hear.

Because I was prepared mentally for the worst, you can imagine my elation for how easy the process actually was for us. Though I mentioned mom (and dad) being mentally prepared it goes without saying to check for readiness with your child as well. There is no ‘’perfect’’ age to potty train. Every child is unique and for some being potty trained at 18 months is do-able where others are past their third birthday. You know your child better than anyone or any expert, unless there is a time sensitive issue (passing fourth birthday and needs to be out of diapers for pre-school), don’t rush the process!