Lead Toddler teachers, Ms. Johanna and Ms. Meghan, encourage all parents to invite and involve their children in daily tasks.
Food preparation- Dusting
- Laundry sorting
- Putting clothes into the washer/drier
- Scooping the detergent
- Sweeping
- Mopping
- Spraying down and wiping the table or using soapy sponges
- Putting groceries in the pantry
- Helping to make the bed
- Helping to set the table
- Rinsing the dishes after dinner by pulling up a chair to the sink (put a beach towel on the floor)
These activities give children great opportunities to spend quality time with their parents or caregivers, allowing for conversation, impressing a child with a sense of order, encouraging independent functioning, increasing their sense of self worth and deepening their sense of belonging. The tasks then are no longer about getting them done but about collaboration, problem solving and contributing to the family life. The growth in stamina and the “can do” attitude that a child is able to gain from these practices is of enormous value. Not only is this, but the window for wanting to help is greatest during the toddler years. Habits established now will last a life time.
[…] cardinal rule in the home, as it is in the school, should be: Never do for a child what he is capable of doing for himself. […]