My good - and super smart - friend Carrie - aka Oliver's momma - recently sent me a great idea she stumbled upon here, we'll call this the original idea post.
The basic idea is to use visual chore cards to remind your kiddos of tasks that need to be done. Cards are laid out or displayed, and as they do their chores, you put the cards in the "done" spot (or flip over the card).
I love the idea of giving toddlers - even as young as my 27 month old - some responsibilities. And I love the idea of having a VISUAL cue rather than hearing my own voice remind/ask/nag constantly; guessing my toddler could use a break from that as well. The cards will also serve as a reminder to me that these are tasks Natalie can do for herself, things I don't need to control. I am certain this will take some time (and training) to implement, but it seems like an idea worth trying!
My plan is to take photos this week (see the original idea post) and start one upstairs and one downstairs task ... just to see how it goes.
My List of Possible Toddler Tasks:
Upstairs (displayed in her room):
- put dirty clothes in the basket
- choose socks from the drawer
- put away bath toys
- brush teeth (with help)
Downstairs (displayed on side of fridge):
- take off shoes and put away
- wash hands when returning home / before meals (with help)
- park play stroller and cart
- put away Little People
- put away crayons / craft supplies
Carrie's List of Toddler Tasks:
- brush teeth
- put cars in the car bucket
- clear dishes
- put shoes and coat away after school
- clothes in the laundry
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What task is your toddler ready for? Is this an idea you can see yourself trying? Do you already do something like this that works great? Please share!
8 comments:
Ok, now THAT was the motivation I needed to put the plan in motion! I talked the talk, now time to walk it!!! I'll get Oliver's "task cards" done this week, and I'll post them on my blog with a link back to you. Can't wait to see what your's look like! I'm going to make easy pockets for the fridge with magnets on the back so he can move his cards from "need to do" to "done" on his own. I'm sure there will be a lot of playing with them too, so lamination will be occuring... Good idea on the upstairs/downstairs seperation too!
Wow! That sounds like a great idea. Though I do not have kids as of now, I think I can use this method when I finally have one or two and spare the kids of me-self yelling at them!
L kinda has two chores in the house:
1. clean up her toys which are all in one room and we sometimes help. She's really quite good at it and knows where everything goes. She asks for help when needed too
2. Put the dog in her crate. It's the funniest thing to watch. We have some video of it on flickr
We also have miscelaneous things, by request, too like:
go pick out your pajamas,
get your step for the potty and pull your pants down,
help set the dining table (we get the dishes/silverware out of the cupboard, she takes them to the right place on the table)
and then the non-chore, but helpful things like "please bring me the burp cloth"
In the car, she's mostly responsible for putting her shoes and coat on before getting out and taking them back off when she gets in. She also does her chest clip on her carseat. We've taught her not to touch the "red button" on it though so we always do the main buckle.
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B puts his cars to sleep every night in his dump truck, clears his dishes from the dinner table, puts his sippy cups in the sink throughout the day, puts library books in our special crate for library books only...most of these he does on his own with maybe one reminder, but most days he reminds me that he can do it!
what a great idea!! I love it!
That is cool! I guess we've kind of been doing just this, but w/o the cards. I'm finding that my munchkin is quite a copy cat. Some things we've worked at and some seem to be coming naturally for her. Here are some of the things we (S) has been doing:
-Washing hands (with me just making sure she doesn't fall off the stool)
-Taking shoes off when coming inside (need to work on placement)
Putting toys away in general (hit or miss - but I try to win the battle :-)
-Teeth brushing - the hubby usually handles all the night time stuff, so when he was gone last night I took over. I knew that I was supposed to start the teeth brushing and let her finish up, then usually (I thought) hubby puts the toothbrush away ... Well last night S takes the tooth brush, climbs up on the stool, washes it off and then dries it on a towel AND puts it back in its charger home (a gift from our Sonicare buddies). Whew, I had no clue she could do that!
-Putting books away.
-Getting out her diapering items and the appropriate diaper (daytime/nighttime).
-On her own, she'll bring me her shoes if she's ready to go somewhere
-If in our room to get dressed, she'll return the hanger to her room and hang it on the door handle of the closet.
Well, just some ideas for others that may give them some jump off points :-)
With all those tasks needed to perfectly take care of your toddler, brushing his/her teeth is the very important, since their smile is the first thing that people notice when socializing. Which is why my mother always took care of my dental health since I was a kid to prepare me for the future, and I thank her for that. Another factor that led me to have a good set of teeth was the cosmetic dentist (Los Angeles) I've been with on my adulthood.
Without the care of my mother and the dentist in LA, my social life would be in jeopardy, due to the nature of my work needs me to be totally presentable to the people.
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