Education within Boundary and Outside the Boundary

You may think your toddler is relatively dependent and that the things they do around the house don’t matter, but you’d be wrong. Simple actions parents take at home can have a long lasting impact on the way your child enters and is in their first years of school.

Here are 80 life skills you can allow your toddler to carry out at home, setting them up well for their transition to school. Some of them will require a great deal of patience from you, but I promise your patience will pay off in the long run. See how many you can try out this week;

Dressing

• Choosing their own clothes
• Getting dressed
• Collecting clothes from cupboard
• Putting on shoes
• Putting on socks
• Putting on a jumper
• Zipping/buttoning a jacket

Bathing

• Using a flannel to clean body
• Using soap correctly
• Brushing teeth for 3 minutes.
• Squeezing and opening toothpaste
• Brushing hair
• Applying moisturizer
• Drying body with towel

Toileting

• Choosing underwear
• Wiping bottom after using toilet
• Folding, sealing and throwing away nappy
• Flushing toilet and putting seat down.
• Washing hands with soap
• Refilling underwear supplies
• Indicating when to use the toilet
• Placing dirty underwear into laundry

General Cleaning

• Wiping up spills with sponge. (Anticlockwise)
• Using and refilling a spray bottle
• Sweeping with brush
• Mopping using soap
• Dusting shelves
• Using a vacuum cleaner
• Organizing and recycling
• Getting something from another room
• Organizing cutlery
• Watering a plant
• Cleaning up books and toys
• Restoring items to shelves
• Sharpening pencils for art and craft.

Laundry

• Collecting dirty laundry
• Placing laundry into basket
• Putting laundry into washing machine
• Moving wet laundry to dryer or to a line
• Matching socks
• Folding own clothes
• Sorting laundry into categories (colors, whites)
• Putting clean clothes where they belong

Eating

• Opening a juice bottle
• Pouring a drink
• Setting the table
• Starting to use utensils
• Drinking from a cup
• Choosing when/how much to eat
• Gathering food from fridge
• Choosing a healthy snack

Cooking / Preparing Food

• Gathering ingredients
• Placing ingredients in bowls
• Spreading butter using butter knife
• Chopping soft foods
• Using a spoon to stir
• Taste testing and watching you cook
• Pouring liquid or dry ingredients from one container to another

Other Kitchen Work

• Putting away shopping items
• Wiping down counter or table
• Throwing composting foods
• Bringing dirty dishes to sink/dishwasher
• Rinsing dishes
• Cleaning dishes
• Drying dishes
• Loading dishes into dishwasher or drying rack

Outdoor Activities

• Pulling weeds
• Caring for animals – gathering eggs for example.
• Sweeping garden
• Watering plants
• Helping to plant seeds or young plants
• Scooping dirt into wheelbarrow
• Collecting rocks
• Washing car

These activities may seem difficult but just by involving your child in them in some way will model to them exactly how it’s done. It will enable them to learn from your example.

Remember that all the time you spend with your child modeling these activities, use complex language (talk through everything and understand that what is work for you is play for the child).

The greatest moments of education occur through experimentation, conversation and modeling.

Have fun.

 

Image Source

https://www.friendshipcircle.org/blog/2015/11/16/21-stress-free-tips-for-teaching-your-child-with-special-needs-to-dress-themselves/

https://2rdnmg1qbg403gumla1v9i2h-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2017/11/BabyEatingSolid-650x450.jpg

https://raisingchildren.net.au/toddlers/development/development-tracker-1-3-years/18-24-months