Is your toddler busting to get up in your business all the time? This probably means they are trying to make sense of what you are doing and want to join in.

After all, no one wants to be an observer all the time. Sure when they were a baby they may have been content to just watch, everything was new and they were trying to get their bearings. However, as they enter the toddler stage around one year or so they are starting to get it. They can identify basic sequences and they start to recognise and understand the processes that make up their everyday life, such as into the high-chair for a snack, then a hand wipe after food and so on.

Toddlers are busting to learn to do everything that you can do. It is part of human instinct to learn independence so that we can survive and children look to their parents and other adults to learn the skills that they need to do this.

As a parent this stage is so exciting as you get to watch your child literally and figuratively taking their first steps towards independence. However, it is also insurmountably exhausting as they loudly proclaim that they absolutely must take part in every single thing you are doing. One of the more frustrating (albeit gorgeous) things that Finn is currently insisting on doing is pushing his pram, which involves me holding him up while he pushes the giant pram in front of him crashing into anything or anyone that gets in his path!

How can we encourage our children’s learning during this stage of development?

• Let them join in where possible. Finn enjoys putting clothes in the washing machine and pressing the on button, putting groceries away on shelves, sweeping, vacuuming and wiping surfaces.
• Give them opportunities to practice and model the task.

As I washed the dishes, I gave Finn his own dishes to wash next to me in a small tub of luke warm water with baby-safe bubble bath and a dish brush.

He was very pleased with himself to be doing his own dishes and I made sure to give him lots of encouragement. After months of just watching mum and dad do dishes, finally he got to get his hands wet and have a go! If only the excitement of doing dishes stayed with us always!!

How do you include your child in chores around the house? What do they enjoy doing most?

Check out Finn helping his uncle move house a few months back. (Was he really that tiny only 4 months ago?!)