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At Home with a Child

How to spend time at home with a child

By Alyssa DayPublished 5 years ago 6 min read
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Get dressed

Encourage your children to learn to dress themselves. Take a look at their wardrobe and show them how to make simple combinations and color coordinations that they can understand. Begin with the basics like underwear and continue to dress them with explanations as you go along. Finish up with socks and shoes. Then get them undressed again and have them start to get dressed by themselves. Help them along when they need it and encourage and compliment them when they need it. Once they have the basics of dressing have them choose a school outfit each night and put it out so that in the morning they can dress themselves for school. Soon it will be routine and they will be able to do it all themselves.

Wipe their nose

Using simple and understandable language explain to your child why they should always have a tissue or handkerchief with them to wipe their running nose. If they have a running nose let them look in a mirror and give them a tissue to wipe it. Show them how good it looks when they do not leave their nose running or wipe with their hands and make their hands dirty. Then make sure that when they get to school they have a small package of tissues with them so that they can wipe their nose when they need to. Remind them to throw away the dirty tissues and to tell you when they run out of tissues. Make sure they know to wash their hands after they have wiped their noses.

Set the table

Setting the table is usually a task that many little girls are fond of doing since they enjoy making tea parties with their plastic dishes. However, it might take some doing to get little boys to help set the table. First teach them to set a place for themselves with a cup, a plate, and a fork. Show them how to carry the dishes to the table with both hands and place them in the spot where they sit. Both girls and boys can learn to do this easily. Once they do it tell them you’ll make their favorite spaghetti casserole for dinner and ask them to set some more places at the table the same way for other members of the family. Once they see that they have set at least three place settings they will be more than glad to help when you ask them to help set the table.

Clean the table and floor

When your children make messy spills at table teach then to ask for a wet rag or paper towel and show them how to wipe up the mess. If they spill things on the floor have them take the rag and wipe it up rights away. If they spill crumbs or dry stuff give them a broom and show them how to sweep up the mess onto a dust pan and carefully take it to the garbage can and throw it away. After a few times they will get the idea. While they are growing and learning you might consider getting a child’s broom and dust pan so that they can do their chores and be proud of helping you.

Put away their own toys

Teach your children to put away their own toys. Let them look around their room and show you where their favorite toys are. Then ask them to bring one toy to you and when you have looked at it tell them to put it back in its place. Doing this several times will give them the idea to put their toys back in their proper place. So that shelves don’t get cluttered and toys don’t topple down consider getting a big toy chest into which they can place many toys. That way once they finish playing for the day the bigger toys and those with different parts can be picked up and placed into the toy chest.

Help prepare food

Children are often curious about what moms do in the kitchen. They enjoy processes like washing and cutting up vegetables and fruit and putting things into bowls. You can get special cutlery just for children so they will have their own kitchen tools. Start them off with preparing salads where they have to toss everything together in a bowl and mix in the dressing. Show them how to make simple lunches like zucchini grilled cheese or grilled chicken breast. Explain to them that once the prepared ingredients are put together and cooked they’ll have a delicious meal. Let them understand that they cannot do the cooking process themselves but they can help with the preparation and they will be ready helpers in the kitchen at any time.

Problem solve with a friend

An important lesson for children to learn is to manage to solve problems on their own between their friends and their siblings. When you hear and see an argument occur between your child and a friend or sibling take the time to watch and listen to what is happening. If you see one child hit the other stop them and reason with them. Explain that hitting one another won’t solve the problem and in the end someone can get hurt. Then let them tell you what the problem is and show them how to solve it peacefully and rationally so that both of them are satisfied. This will help greatly in the long run at school and as the children grow. If the problems are among siblings it will help to create a better bond between the siblings being able to confront each other and work out problems without any violence.

Play independently

It is important to encourage children to play independently at home. If you have only one child show them that playing independently by themselves can help enhance their imagination. Let them see how much fun it can be to pretend and play with toys as if they were real. Encourage them to play creative games that can help develop different skills. If there are sibling not always will each of them agree as to what they want to play. Show them that for a while each day they can play independently and when they are ready they can come together and play games with each other. In this way boys can be boys and girls can be girls and when they come together they can play interactive games.

Take care of a pet

Often children want to have a pet at home. Most of the time they ask for dogs but cats can be fun too. However while the child is still quite small if there is no pet at home it might be good to start them off with some goldfish. In this way they can learn to take care of the fish and learn to feed them and be happy just to watch the fish. Once they get older you can consider a pet like a dog, but right away teach the child how to give the dog food and water. Teach them to keep the pets bowls clean and to keep the dog groomed. Take the child with you when you take the dog for a walk and so on. In this way, the child will learn what it means to take responsibility for a pet.

Think through a problem

When a problem arises at home and the child approaches you with questions help them think the problem through. Say something is missing. Ask the child where they saw the object last and have them show you. Ask them when they noticed it was missing. If there are siblings get them involved and show the children how they can think through a problem together. Then once the problem has been solved the children will be proud that they could do it on their own and they won’t be as anxious or worried when another problem comes up.

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About the Creator

Alyssa Day

The author and Creator ofhttps://club.cooking/

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