You don't know how shocked and delighted I was when my daughter, 13 months old, instinctively started rolling the mini lint roller on the carpet. I had given her the roller as a distraction and a moment of fascination, as I tried to eat my lunch in peace, but here she was cleaning the carpet for me. Ever since, my husband and I have been giving her little jobs here and there, and the look of satisfaction on her face every time she completes something is priceless.
These tiny tasks are easy ways your toddler can feel proud, accomplished, and self-sufficient. With repeated practice, your child's skills will explode.
So, I decided to compose a list of things that my toddler daughter does consistently over the past 6 months from age 12-18 months.
DIAPER DISPOSER
With us doing diaper changes at least four times a day, she figured out pretty quickly where the diaper pail was and what goes inside. Therefore, after every change, she takes her diaper to the diaper pail, drops the diaper inside, and then locks the lid. The diaper pail has a lock on it because it was hard for her to discern that it's only for diapers and not a storage bin!
WELCOME TO THE WASHING MACHINE
We have a front load washing machine, and in order to air it out, we keep the door open. The entrance is nearly a toddlers height, so she was naturally very curious about what could be inside that huge, dark, shiny chamber. So, to help satiate her curiosity, we allow her to walk to the laundry room and throw her own laundry inside. She has yet to start throwing other things inside, or trying to climb inside, but we are bracing ourselves for that one day!
LAUNDRY HELPER
After my daughter, the days of doing laundry had doubled, and we pretty much do laundry every other day. So, my daughter developed a natural curiosity about me hanging clothes out on the balcony when we choose not to use the dryer. Before, she would walk around with the hangers or play with the pinchers, but after turning one, she started handing me the clothes out of the hamper. It's great and helps my back tons!
WHERES YOUR SOCKS?
Refusing to be dressed or undressed is pretty natural for a toddler, and while she isn't full on tantruming, she does run away from me when she sees me coming with her clothes for the day. So, in order to teach her that getting dressed is a partnership, I have her get her own socks (She loves getting ready to go outside). To make it easy for her, I just taped together two milk carton bottoms, and I keep her sock "cubby" near the door. In order to help her learn listening skills, I tell her to get specific ones, like "Get your banana socks!", or "Get your pink socks!". She looks so cute toddling down the hall to go get her socks.
TRASH, PLEASE
Once she mastered throwing her diaper away, we started introducing throwing away actual trash. Here in Japan, we have to separate all of our trash, we have about four trashcans. Naturally, she was curious about them and wanted to play with the lids, and throw things inside (or take things out). So, at first, we did what any other sane parent would do and locked them. She lost interest after that, and even locked them herself, but one day she got a runny nose and I felt like I was going through a box of tissues a day! I wanted to keep the lids unlocked because they are seriously a hassle. After a few days, I had the bright idea to have her throw away her own tissues, and she loved it. She would walk back and forth, back and forth, and now when I saw "Trash", she knows exactly what to do with the item I handed to her.
WIPE IT OFF
While my daughter is not the messiest eater (yet), she still gets quite a lot on her tray, hands, and mouth. Before, my husband and I would wipe her off with mouth wipes, but she started resisting and trying to do it herself. Great! It was so cute, and maybe she learned how to do it at school, but we have her wipe her mouth, hands, and tray by herself as much as she can, which then allows her to tolerate us touching up afterwards.
LIGHTS OFF, DOOR CLOSED
One of my daughters first jobs was to turn off the lights. It started as a mere distraction while we transition, like from the bath or a diaper change. We have these push type light switches that light up when they are off, so she was naturally very curious, and I think "Turn off the light." was one of the first English commands she learned. After her bath, she turns off all of the lights (to make a dim environment) and closes any open doors. She even checks the door bell camera (It's also a button). She used to be so proud of herself, and it became a routine. One day, she'll be tall enough to do it herself, but for now I'm okay with holding her.
OPEN AND CLOTHES THE CURTAINS
This was one of the earlier tasks we had her do, and she's been doing this since she was about 8 months old. We have this huge floor length curtains that slide back and forth. What I would do is make her grab the end and while holding her, I'd just walk back so the curtains would open up. I really like this task because it symbolized for her the end of the day, so it's time to wind down or it helped her understand that a new day was about to begin.
HANG IT UP
We had went on a trip one day, and in most Japanese hotels there's some low hooks with shoe shine rags or shoe horns hanging off of them. My daughter was fascinated by them and was really proud of herself for being able to hang something by herself. Hanging is a great motor skill, so I installed some hooks around her place, and she loves hanging up her hand towel, and her coat. I am thinking about hanging up another for backpack and her tiny broom and dustpan I bought for her!
While my daughter does tons of other small things, these are some of the bigger tasks that help raise her self-esteem, and I love to encourage. She's becoming more and more independent each day, and I can't wait to see what new skills she learns in the next six months, as she'll be two years old!
Let me know what tasks and things your one year old is up to! I'd love to hear about them in the comments below.
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