One thing that I've been working with Nathan on lately is helping him to understand how he can help contribute to keeping our household up and running. Thinking of these as pre-chores, I'm trying to teach him responsibility and to have a sense of pride in what he does. Is it too early to help boost intrinsic motivation? Granted, Nate generally requires complete supervision and it takes a heck of a lot longer to do, but that's the tradeoff for teaching little ones and starting them off right!
Nate's current 'jobs':
- Feeding the dogs: they love him because he always tries to give them extra food
- Cleaning up toys: every night I have him clean up his toys before he's allowed to watch an episode of Magic School Bus, Curious George, or Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood before bed
- Helping throw away trash: to include putting trash in the can, as well as helping to take the cans to the road for trash day
- Getting the mail: he loves this doing this anyway
- Being my big helper: grocery store, vet office, Costco, you name it - any time that there is an errand to be run, I tell him that he has to be my big boy and helper. Most of the time it makes a world of difference!
This afternoon we took one of our dogs to the vet for her yearly check-up. The whole way there he sang the Doc McStuffins song 'Time for Your Check-up' to her, which was incredibly sweet. By far, Nathan's favorite way to be picked up from preschool is with a dog in the car!
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