The Power of Inclusion In The Home With Toddlers
Is It Possible To Do XYZ With Toddlers?
Inclusion is EVERYTHING!!!
Yes, that is how I wanted you to start this reading today. I wanted you to understand how inclusion is everything, so that you can keep that in mind for everything that follows.
How is Inclusion EVERYTHING?
Because you, Mama, are blessed to have a toddler who wants to be involved in your world, taking away your own shadow and replacing it with their own shadow. You are blessed to have a toddler who wants to be the biggest, happiest helper and assist you. You are blessed with a toddler who just enjoys your company and wants to be wrapped around your finger, and vice versa, and why not? Why do we, Mamas, get caught up in taking care of a home for our children and going to work to provide for them, yet we forget to grow and connect with them along the way to fulfill those priorities?
I am a firm believer that we Mama’s can have it all if only we learn to slow down at our toddler’s pace and include them in our everyday life. If we learn to have them involved in a healthy and safe environment, then we can feel less stressed, impatient, and guilty about our thoughts and behavior. Through inclusion, we can actually feel more joy, peace, and gratitude for our day.
What All Can Toddlers Be Included In?
Glad you asked! There are MANY things that toddlers can do around the house with you. Though it may take time and slow you down, Mama, see this as a blessing in disguise. This is the time when you can slow down and teach your toddler basic everyday life skills, bonding with them as you go. This is also the time that you will grow closer to God as you realize that you need His help and guidance with patience, peace, self-control, and many other fruits of the Spirit that you may have started to lack over the years of ongoing fast-paced chaos that turned into your character and life all around you.
Here is a list of Inclusion Ideas for you and your toddler:
1. Cooking/ Baking
Children LOVE food! What better way to get meals done than by having assistance along the way? And trust me, I understand that you may feel like there are some meals that they wouldn’t be able to make, but they can still assist in many areas of your cooking/ baking process. Honestly, this can be very helpful for a Mama who has a busy toddler that you cannot take your eyes off.
From washing fruits and vegetables to pouring water into a pot (that is NOT hot). There are many tasks in the process that your toddler will enjoy. Additionally, this instills in them a love for cooking and baking, and hopefully a heart for serving, as well as a valuable life skill that they should learn early.
For any meal ideas to make with your toddler, please be sure to click here: Fun Meals & Recipe’s – where I would have a list of meals that my toddlers love being a part of creating.
2. Cleaning
Laundry: Loading their clothes in the washer and dryer is a simple chore that toddlers want to do, no matter how many times you tell them to leave that area alone. So why not embrace and teach them?
I suggest you assist in pouring in the soap and watch every garment that you put in both the washer and dryer to be on the safe side. (And if you use pods as soap, please keep them stored in places out of reach for your toddler for safety.)
Washing Dishes: Now, you may not be ready for your toddler to wash fine China just yet, and that is okay, but you can start by allowing them to wash their dishes just for the learning and experience. If you are not comfortable with them standing on the child safety stools with a back guard to wash dishes in the sink, then grab a bucket of water and toddler skin-friendly soap with a sponge to wash their dishes. Again, you may want to rewash their given efforts later, but this is just a fun learning and skillful activity for them to enjoy.
Cleaning Toys: A simple bucket of water with toddler skin-friendly soap and their toys on a mat takes off two chores on your end while you tackle the surrounding area that they are not in.
(What I like about this water activity is that they always want to wash dishes when they see me do it, and now they get to experience a fun chore and be a part of what I do daily.
It’s just two simple Dollar Tree bowls with water and soap. Where can you go wrong!?! Plus, if the mat gets wet, then it has already taken my chore of cleaning the mat off later.)
Making Beds: Do you remember making a bed as a child with your parents or older siblings, and they would grab the big blanket or sheet and lift it in the air to fall on you as you were making the bed? Wasn’t that fun? Chores don’t always have to seem boring, making an unwanted task seem like a chore for your child; they can be fun. Making it a routine for your toddlers to help you make your bed in the morning, leading up to you helping them make their beds. Task checked off with an early morning connection!
Yard Work: Gardening is one of the most useful skills to learn in life, especially as a child. This teaches patience, as well as the importance of sowing hard work for a harvest season. You can also teach about how God called us to take care of the Earth, so that the Earth will take care of us.
If you are not into gardening and that is not a chore/hobby of yours, then maybe the work you have left is just to maintain a clean yard. Allow this outside time to be a time for the children to play while you do the major work. In the end, they can help you rake/ pick up the leaves, pull weeds, and clean up their toys.
3. Quiet Time
Reading time: soft spoken stories being told, or the two of you reading separate books together, is another form of quality time.
Bible Study: A great way to have that time with God and your little buddy is just by simply reading the best book ever and allowing God to teach both of you what He wants to teach you. To include the bible gives your toddler the awareness that you love God and want to spend time with Him, and are willing to allow them (child) to join in and grow that same love in a comfortable environment, where they would later on feel free to express their love for Jesus in their own home.
Classical or soft background music with light non-noisy activities such as puzzles, coloring, and a plain old rocking chair for them to rock in, or for you to rock them in. (The rocking chair is a highlight in our home for every toddler. Being able to just relax on the couch while they rock or to be able to rock them in the chair and just be still is such a moment that you and your child can embrace together, allowing connection and mood regulation from any stressors the day has brought early on.)
4. Intentional Outreach
Praying for loved ones
Writing Letters (in their case, if they cannot write, then they can draw or color a picture to add to the letter.
5. Worship
Imagine not being able to find an excuse for why you could not worship this week by creating an atmosphere in your home for worship as much as you want, any time that you want to. Worship is so beautiful and was made to be done naturally, almost as if genetically, because of the Holy Spirit yearning to worship in your gifted body. One thing I have learned over time is that when I crave a worship session in any way and fail to follow through with worship, I can feel myself grieving the Holy Spirit, which only deprives my inner soul.
Mama, set up your home so that you and your children can worship freely. When you allow yourself to fully express yourself to God in front of your children, they, too, will aspire to have that freedom of worship that is not limited to one-way worship, but that is truly uniquely beautiful in the way the Spirit expresses Himself in them!
I can promise you that when the Spirit of the Lord is present, it will set the tone in the whole home and over you and your children, allowing peace and making your day feel more manageable to get through.
*Again, I want to say that when you make it known in your home that your child has a safe place to worship, then you allow them to have a safe haven in the home to be themselves and fully worship without embarrassment and shame, but to really be moved to express themselves in their own home!
6. Running Errands
I know many of us mothers can get stressed at even the slightest thought of having to run errands with our toddlers, and if we have many toddlers! It might as well be a million tasks in one just to be prepared to walk out the door, and that doesn’t even include loading up the car for you to unload and reload. BUT… Again, this is the time to pray to God and ask Him for the fruits of the Spirit, including patience, kindness, joy, self-control, peace, and more, for each errand or thought that arises as you approach these tasks.
Going to the Grocery store is a time to allow your toddlers to learn the different foods that you are about to purchase. Shapes, smells, quantity, size, texture, and whether it is healthy or not are the beginning of learning time for your little one, which you get to teach!
Going to the Post Office is a fun experience because you can excite your little one with meeting the postal carrier that they may have seen every day on the other side of the window. They can interact with the postal carrier and learn where their mail actually comes from. What’s even better is that you can explain to them how letters travel around the world from friends and family, displaying love and an act of kindness through letters and packages. This can become very exciting as you explain to them, realizing how simple things can still be an interesting and exciting thought, imagining what is being shared and the journey it has taken to reach the receiver.
Going to the Hardware Store and seeing Mama attempt to purchase anything from this store is maybe a shocker and intense for you, Mama, but for your baby, they think of you basically like a confident superhero who can do anything! So, don’t be discouraged if you don’t know much or what you are looking for. Show them that you, too, need assistance and need instruction. See the various colors of paint and examine the many items on display in the store. Show them books on how to build, with pictures included, and allow them to imagine what they can create. Allow yourself to join in and imagine what you could build with them for your family or yourself in the future. (You will be shocked to hear what they can imagine themselves building and how they will remember when they are older), I promise that starting this early can really build confidence through their imagination of what they can do, and that this will become more ambitious, leading them to be proactive and make it happen.
Oh, and if you come across a birdhouse kit or any other DIY kit along the way, try to make that a project so that they can associate the kit with the experience and the store. You would enjoy this too!
Going Shopping for just about anything or running any errand is a time to get out of the home and explore and learn for your toddler. It is exciting for them to see and learn about the world around them, and you are the driver who, for the most part, determines what they are being taught. Let that sink in a bit! So next time you feel, “ugh” approaching from your chest, just remember this.
THINGS ARE GETTING DONE AROUND HERE,
EVEN WITH OUR TODDLERS!
7. Exercising
I know that exercising often comes with a book of excuses for why it cannot be accomplished with raising a toddler. Still, it is highly important to instill healthy habits in your children, and this can involve including your toddlers in your daily workouts. You can try by putting your kids in the wagon or stroller and taking them on a nature walk as you get your steps in. Or one of my favorites, outside of a 15-minute YouTube toddler-friendly workout (which can be challenging for me at times), but I would have to say that having the toddlers ride their bikes as I follow them is by far a good workout for us all.
At one point, for a long time before I moved, I was able to work out under a large shaded pavilion and allow the boys after playground time to ride their bikes as much as they wanted, as I would walk/ jog around the pavilion, doing self-body workouts with a bench that was available to me.
The point for me was not only to remain healthy and exhibit healthy habits that the boys loved watching me do and being involved in, but it was also a long season of training myself in self-discipline to be consistent in that area of my life. (Especially as our bodies are changing with age.) I told myself that I want to be around to see my children grow up with zero complications if I had control over my health.
In the end, my heart wants to express and encourage you, Mama, that Inclusion is a very powerful tool that can teach and grow your toddler into a well-experienced adult. This powerful tool will allow you to not stay in that chaotic fast paced environment that allows the bad thought of, “my child is bothering me,” or “ugh, please! Just let me do…” and allows you to have a perfect and legitimate excuse to slow down and really enjoy your toddler and join their world as you teach them about yours.
