Practical life, practical ways

One of the advantage of not having a helper at home is that you would naturally (or more like forced by circumstances) train your child to acquire self help skills as quickly as possible.

Before babydoll, i used to (i am very ashamed to say) do everything for sonshine. From putting on his socks, school shoes, shirt, carrying his school bag etc and even taking them off for him. But now with the baby, i couldn't nanny the boy any longer. Hence, i started to take every opportunity to teach the boy how to put on his shirt and then how to take it off, and now button/unbutton his own shirt. I don't know about your child but sonshine isn't very good at practical skills (which is also why i didn't introduce this earlier as i felt it would dent his confidence). It took alot of encouragement and time to get his ego going. I am glad we persisted. So now, the boy goes to the toilet on his own, washes his own hands, put on/take off his own clothes, take off his shoes & socks and put them in the shoe cabinet, carries his own school bag, helps himself with his milk & snack from the refrigerator (we prepare it for him the night before), even climbing up and down the car (LOL!) etc.

I can finally say he's self help skills have went up a notch. I feel great that all i have to do is to give instructions and not be the one who acts on it! LOL. Perhaps his life skills are not as great as the kid next door but i'm still very proud of his acheivements. Well done my boy!