Ages 2-4 Years | Mommy Points

July 20, 2009

Five Chore Ideas for the Under Five Year Old

Filed under: Ages 2-4 years, Chores, Ideas, parenting — Chris @ 8:28 am

Oh this is the age when they want to help you. More than anything they want to be your sidekick, to be useful and helpful. The reality is that once they are truly capable at doing the chore they want to do, they will no longer have any desire to do it. At this age you are just instilling in your child a habit of helping. The reality is that nothing they can do cannot be done by you more efficiently. So keep that in mind when they are doing their “chores.”

1) Help with the laundry.

Preschoolers are great at sorting clothes by color, stuffing clothes into the washing machine, pushing the button to turn the machine on. My 4yr old son will knock down anyone in his way to reach the washing machine and be the one to push the on button.

He also likes to help with the clothes after they come out of the wash. I will let him put the clothing into pilesbased on who it belongs to. He likes to match socks. He can carry towels to the linen closet and dishrags to the kitchen.

2) Unload the dishwasher.

I will remove the knives from the silverware basket and let him put the silverware away in the drawer. He loves doing this job. Depending on his mood it will take him 5 seconds or the entire afternoon. Not surprisingly the amount of time he spends directly correlates to how well organized our silverware is.

3) Washing dishes in the sink.

Pots, pans, and plastics are no match for my 4 yr old and his soapy sponge. This chore isn’t so much about cleaning anything as it is about keeping him busy. I am hoping that maybe when he gets to be the age of his teenage brothers he will remember the miracle of running water in the sink that one can– GASP– wash their own dishes in.

4) Setting the table.

It is never to early to start teaching them how to properly set a table. My son will put the placemats and silverware in each spot. He can also carry the plates one by one to the table and put them down.

5) Meal preparation.

Children who help prepare meals are much more likely to eat them. My son loves to help make salad. I swear that the salad spinner was the single best purchase I have ever made for the kitchen, in terms of being used my the kids. My lettuce has never been more clean.

And the most important thing… never let them see you redo their work. You want them to feel confident and proud.

Comments (4)

March 12, 2008

Co-operation

Filed under: Ages 2-4 years, Ages 5-6 years, Ages 7 -9 years, Children, Chores, Instilling Values, Making It Work — Chris @ 9:02 pm

Sometimes it is just the little things.

Instilling the helper mentality while they are little is so much easier than trying to fix it later when they are older. Even though sometimes it might not seem like help, let them do it anyway.

Comments (3)

February 22, 2008

She Works Hard for Her Money

Filed under: Ages 2-4 years, Chores, Humor Keeps Me Sane — Chris @ 10:47 am

This is just further proof of my long held belief that the only people who want to do particular chores are those that are not yet old enough to do them properly. It is a running joke in my house. One of my younger sons will ask, “When will I be old enough to (insert something here like use the snowblower, use the lawn mower, chop down trees with a chainsaw…)”

And the answer invariably is, “When you are old enough not to want to anymore.”

They laugh. But really it is true.

Last night my 4 year old daughter decided she wanted to wash the dishes that were in the sink. She pulled her chair over and intently scrubbed the plate and mug that were in there. In the process using up probably half the bottle of dish soap.

She scrubbed and scrubbed. Working her little fingers to the bone. I don’t think there has ever been a plate and mug so clean in the history of dish ware. In fact, they still had remnants of soap clinging to them. That is just how clean they were.
When she was done she got down from the chair, declared herself the best dishwasher ever, and said that she wished she could wash them every night.

I said to her, “Oh sweetie, you can! Just as soon as you are old enough not to want to.”

Comments (2)

November 20, 2007

Thankful Turkey

Filed under: Ages 2-4 years, Children, Humor Keeps Me Sane, Just For Fun — Chris @ 10:08 am

My daughter came home with this yesterday afternoon, a thankful turkey.

Don’t you love how conspicuously absent her entire family is? She is thankful for the tooth fairy (even though she has not ever lost a tooth), Santa Claus (well, who wouldn’t be this time of year), Miss Eileen (the lady who reads story time at the library), and puppies in the sky.

Yes, puppies in the sky. I really have no idea. Though I suspect it has to do with us laying on the grass and looking at shapes in the clouds. And we had recently read the book It Looks Like Spilled Milk I tried to find a link for the book but think it must be out of print. It is an adorable book about finding shapes of things in the clouds.

Of course when I picked her up she refused to say what she was thinking and kept saying, “Puppies in the sky!” in a baby voice. Because we all know how kids like to make you feel like you are the clueless one.

Comments (4)

October 7, 2007

Taking the Show on the Road

Filed under: Ages 2-4 years, Basics, Children, Humor Keeps Me Sane, Keeping It Real — Chris @ 9:25 am

Last week I went away with my children on a three day vacation. I threw in the “with my children” lest you think I returned home all refreshed and well-rested. Vacationing with children is hard work.

I had chosen the particular hotel I did because it had free broadband in the rooms. I figured there would be no late night partying and that while the kids were in bed sleeping, or at least enjoying the novelty that is watching television from bed, I could work.

I forgot that I have a 2.5 year old who shuns sleep. Sleep, ha! He laughs at sleep. That is for wimps, the infirm, and those they do not have doors to open and slam repeatedly. With no ~~cage~~ crib to restrain him it was a free for all.

And so at 10:00pm when my other child roommates were happily laying in bed, in their pj’s, enjoying the Disney channel, my 2.5 year old was bouncing on the bed, running in between the beds, and making breathy phone calls to other hotel guests.

I did little more than download my photos to my hard drive when I realized that my grand plans would have to be re-evaluated before a) I went hoarse from my incessant shushing, or b) we got thrown out of the hotel for unruly toddler behavior.

I shut my laptop. Turned off the lights. And ~~restrained~~ snuggled him until he stopped resisting and fell asleep. By then I was exhausted and decided that I would get up early to work.

I am sure you already know how that went. The tap tap tapping of my keyboard was too noisy for him. And at 6:00am he was raring to go.

Of course he would later nap for over three hours in a stroller while we strolled through downtown Boston, people shouting, horns honking, the stroller bumping along the sidewalk– none of that hampered his sleep.

They call it the terrible twos for a reason.

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September 15, 2007

A Book of Healthy Food

Filed under: Ages 2-4 years, Humor Keeps Me Sane — Chris @ 1:37 pm

On Saturday mornings my husband usually makes big breakfasts for the kids. Eggs, bacon, toast, fruit salad, pancakes…all the stuff that I am too busy to make during the week.

This morning while he was busy doing all his prep work, my daughter got out her pad of paper and began making what she called “A Healthy Food Book”

It was too good to keep to myself.

This drawing is of me. Recognize me? The resemblance is uncanny really. And I am posing with a healthy loaf of bread. I hope it is a wheat free loaf of bread.

Oh, here I am again posing with my healthy pineapple. Apparently ditching my arms and nose and shaving my head a la Britney Spears. I also seem to be lacking clothes. But then again without a body finding clothing that fits is difficult.

Oh yes, here I am once again posing with my salad and “very, very big tomato.” I appear to have gotten some bad hair extensions and had a nose job. My eyes still have a crazed looked about them, but that is no doubt due in part to the trauma of losing body parts.

Comments (7)

July 30, 2007

Little Helpers

Filed under: Ages 2-4 years, Ages 5-6 years, Children, Ideas, Work Ethic, parenting — Chris @ 11:18 pm

Sometimes we forget that our youngest children can be good helpers. I really hate shucking corn. It is just so messy.

But guess what? My little kids love to do it. For them it is like unwrapping a present. My 2 yr old always seems surprised that there is corn inside, as if it is just pure luck. Each one he holds up and exclaims, “CORN!”

And so the job gets done quickly. They feel like they had an important part in contributing to dinner. And they don’t even complain about helping to clean up all the corn debris on the floor.

It is win win for all of us.

Comments (4)

July 3, 2007

Why Didn’t I Ever Know About This?

Filed under: Ages 10-12 years, Ages 2-4 years, Ages 5-6 years, Ages 7 -9 years, Children, Just For Fun, Teen years — Chris @ 12:18 pm

Did you know that during the summer select movie theaters offer free admission for a children’s movie, or two, per week? You probably did.

I, however, have been nice and comfortable here under my rock.

AMC Theatres offer a free movie on Wednesday mornings all summer long.

Regal Entertainment Group Theatres offer selected G & PG movies start at 10AM each Tuesday and Wednesday during the festival. First-come, first-served seating is limited to theatre capacity. This group of theatres offers two movies simultaneously.

I wish one of these was close enough to make it worthwhile for me to bring my children on a regular basis. Such is the curse of living in the middle of nowhere.

I think things like this are especially appealing to those of us with children who might not be quite old enough to go to the movie theater. My 2.5 yr old might sit through an entire movie without leaving his seat. But he is also might be just as likely to get up and try to run up and down the aisle. At these free showings there is a lot of young children, no one is expecting complete silence, and if it gets so bad you have to leave the theater, well you haven’t lost any money.

Remember to check out your local theaters too. It is always possible that they are doing something similar to lure you in their doors where you will buy the overpriced concessions.

Comments (10)

June 25, 2007

Rediscovering a Bedtime Ritual

Filed under: Ages 2-4 years, Ages 5-6 years, Ideas — Chris @ 2:32 am

When my oldest children were small, we had a definite bedtime routine. It was something that we all looked forward to, including me. And not just because it meant they were all going to bed and I could finally relax before going to bed myself and beginning the madness that is a several children who can not do a single thing for themselves.

It was a time to reconnect and let everything that had happened during the day slip away. It is hard to be exasperated by a toddler in jammies, whose head smells like baby shampoo. It is actually more difficult not to take a bite out of their adorable freshly scrubbed cheeks. Somehow all the tantrums, coloring on the walls, food throwing, or what have you seemed unimportant in those minutes before bed.

We would all snuggle into into one of their beds and I would read stories. Sometimes one or two, sometimes several, depending on the evening. I have fond memories of working my way through a Mother Goose nursery rhyme book with my oldest two. I would do different voices depending on the rhyme. They still laugh when they recite :

Fee Fi Fo Fum
I smell the blood of an Englishman
be he alive
or be he dead
I’ll crush his bones
To make me bread.

Ah yes, those loving and nurturing nursery rhymes. I am not sure why, but this particular nursery rhyme requires that you talk in a low grovely voice with an English accent. You know those English are known for being cannibals.

Thankfully most of the nursery rhymes were a bit less disturbing. If one can call locking one’s wife inside of a pumpkin shell or whipping your children soundly before bed not disturbing.

As time passed though, and our lives got more hectic, we moved away from the bedtime routine. Evenings became a stressful time of juggling the often conflicting needs of different aged children.

Recently I decided to reinstate the bedtime stories with my youngest two children, ages 2 and 4. With several older siblings I have found they seldom have time geared just for them. And when they do, they eat it up. I told the older children that I would be doing bedtime stories with the two youngest. Surprisingly on any given night quite a few of them will wander into my room to listen. Even if they are pretending they are not listening and it was just happenstance they came by my bedroom at that specific time.

The older ones will reminisce about hearing the bedtime stories when they were little, like it was eons ago. I can’t believe how quickly time has flown by. To me it was just yesterday my eleven and twelve year olds were the toddlers snuggled with me, as cliche as that might sound.

In the process, I have rediscovered some of my favorite bedtime stories. These have been on heavy rotation the past couple of weeks.

This is a board book, which is perfect for toddler hands. My two year old loves this book. It might have something to do with the fact that I allow him to jump on the bed while I read it.

This is another board book with rhyming text that any parent will have committed to memory after a few readings. This one has been a hit in our house this past week after we spotted a brown bear of our very own in our yard. YIKES! We have also had fun with this book by adlibbing our own text.

I love this story and not just because I have seven children. It is one of those books that appeals to the harried mother in all of us. The illustrations are perfect and the children find new things in each page that capture their attention.

My four year old daughter is at the age where she is obsessed with princesses. I find it painful, to put it mildly. Even though for her it is all about the costumes and accessories, the message behind some of the stories bothers me. This story is the perfect antidote to all the ones of princess who need to be rescued.

What about you? Do you have any bedtime stories that are being read over and over again at your house?

Comments (8)

June 19, 2007

Pulled From the Comments, a Question About Allowance

Filed under: Ages 2-4 years, Ages 5-6 years, Allowance, Children, Ideas, Saving — Chris @ 9:21 am

Jodi left this comment in this post and I thought it was worthy of pulling out for a post of it’s own.

Do your younger children understand the concept of the “bankstatement”? We are doing handipoints with 5 and 6 year old boys and I don’t know if they will understand the concept of the paper being tied to a sum of money. We too have decided that half of their age is perfect, but have “strongly encouraged” that a certain amount be saved and a certain amount be for charity. What age do you start allowance…just curious…as we have a 2 year old son also:)

Jodi

All of my children get an allowance.

Yes, even the two year old. Though for him it is just about being part of the group. I talk about his allowance and he see his “statement” but I am sure he is clueless. Happy, but essentially clueless.

My 4, 6 and 8 yr olds do understand. We explained to them that it is just like the bank mommy and daddy use. The paper tells them how many dollars they have saved. We meticulously track it all on their statements.

I think this is one of the ways that handipoints excels, frankly. For children who are young, you might want to decide on a percentage for them to spend on rewards or allocate handipoints in addition to the allowance money. I don’t have my children contribute a portion of their allowance to charity. I prefer to have them do service oriented charity works, where they can see the direct results of their hard work. But that is just me.

With young children it is important to have smaller goals for them to achieve so they don’t get discouraged. My 11 yr old is perfectly happy and capable to save his money for months on end to make a large purchase. He is also capable of deciding to make smaller purchases along the way, knowing exactly how that will impact his account total. I still have to give final approval for all purchases, though I find at this age I rarely have to say no.

Think of the younger years as working towards this goal. You want them to be responsible. But in order to learn responsibility you need to allow them some freedom. If you turn down every item they want to purchase, they will not believe you that there really is money but more importantly they will never have that feeling of post purchase anxiety. You know the one where you realize you just wasted your money on something you really don’t want afterall.

For example, for younger children you might decide that having a family movie night every Friday night would be fun for your family. Everyone can stay up an hour late, watch a movie in the tv room with popcorn. This could cost 7 handipoints, a handipoint a day that is earned for doing daily chores. (This is just an example, you can use whatever feels right for your family… a family hike, a day at the beach, making huge ice cream sundaes and eating them for dinner. Try to do something fun and inexpensive (or better yet, free!) and don’t forget to add some variety so it doesn’t become expected but instead is anticipated.)

By using handipoints they can track their progress toward some of the non monetary goals.

I’ll admit that I frequently ask my children to help with an extra project to get a reward like one of these pictured above. I might say something like, “Hey, if you all help me with washing windows, I would be all caught up on Spring Cleaning and I think we could have extra time to go to the museum on Friday.” I have yet to have someone turn me down.

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