Parenting a toddler is a mix of handling their ever changing needs, responding to unique situations you never dreamed of, and teaching and guiding them to help prepare them for their future. All parts of the equation are important, but the teaching aspect focuses on their future while the others are purely in the present.
It is never too early to start teaching your toddler about the environment and their impact on the environment. After all, the decisions we make today in regards to the environment will most likely impact our kids and their kids more than it will impact us parents.
Now I wouldn’t expect a toddler to understand the global warming or the greenhouse effect, but you can begin building habits in toddlers that are environmentally friendly. Since not many of us will be able to single-handedly make a big difference for the environment, we can focus on doing little things that cumulatively make a small difference. Some ideas for getting your toddler involved in doing the little things are:
Teach your toddler to recycle. Toddlers are definitely capable of learning which items go in the recycle bin and which should go in the trash even if they don’t know why.
Start a garden. Your toddler will enjoy working in it with you.
Make a game out of turning off lights when you leave a room. You’d be surprised of how effectively you toddler will remind to you that a light is still on when it shouldn’t be.
It’s never too early to teach your toddler about values that are important to you. If the environment is one of those important values you share the ideas are endless…
This post has been a contribution to
Blog Action Day where many bloggers write about this year’s topic which is the environment.
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When all else fails ask… There are times when your toddler decides to be a handlefull and not want anything to do with what you are offering. Maybe it is dinner and they won’t eat anything you offer. Maybe they are playing and you can’t tell what toy they want so they just bob and cry.
Sometimes it is better to give your toddler the choice of what they want. However, it usually works better to give them two to three options. Toddlers have trouble answering open ended questions such as “What do you want”. Instead bring two to three items you think they might enjoy and let them choose which one they desire. This also gives them an opportunity to make their own decisions and express their independence…
Parenting toddlers during their picky eater stage is a rollercoaster. Toddlers go through phases of eating well, becoming picky eaters, eating only one kind of food, eating everything, and eating nothing. These swings can lead to frustration for both the parent and child. This article’s focus is to try and shed some light on tactics that might not be appropriate for many toddlers.
When your toddler is not eating well and ruining your dinner (we’ve all been there), it can be very tempting to get frustrated and begin to dictate what your child will or won’t do. Toddlers need and benefit from firm rules, but flexibility is also a key component of successful parenting. Following are some methods for dealing with a picky eater that might not be realistic for a toddler during meal time. These are things to evaluate for yourself, but keep in mind that you know your toddler better than anyone.
Insist Your Toddler Finish Their Meal: Forcing a toddler to sit still and eat until their food is finished might not be realistic. The amount of food a child needs to eat will fluctuate from day to day and depending on what they have already eaten, they might not need to finish everything in front of them. I also don’t think children in the early toddler years can fully understand negotiation tactics such as “You can’t get up until you’re done”
Insist Your Toddler not Make a Mess: Asking toddlers to be neat and clean during meals and not make a mess is probably not going to happen. They don’t possess the coordination to not drop food, but they will learn. I’m not recommending letting your child get away with throwing food, but dribbles, drops, and spills are a way of life.
Make Them Eat Only What you Have Prepared: Again, flexibility is key here. You want to encourage them to try new foods and eat what you have prepared, but it most likely won’t happen. The reasons for this range from their developing palette to the food texture. Offer a variety of foods, but don’t offer everything under the sun.
Keep in mind that toddlers are not hungry on the schedule that adults are accustomed to. They are more active than adults and require more than three set meals a day. Flexibility with limits can lead to a more pleasurable dinner experience for you and your child.
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