A lot of great sensory activities for babies, toddlers, and young children.
Adapt your home to your child, give them appropriate sized furniture and activities for every room to encourage independence. For example- their own corner of the kitchen for their dishes at a level they can reach, a small desk in the office, child sized watering can and rake to help with yard work, a specific spot by the door for their coat and shoes.
Focus on teaching small children life skills:
- " Children who feel respected and competent develop a far greater sense of emotional well-being than children who are doted upon." (Corresponds with data presented in Nuture Shock by Po Bronson and Ashely Merryman.)
- "Perhaps one of the most difficult things to as a parent, once we have taught our children a new skill, is to then allow them to practice this skill as part of their everyday life without interfering. While we would never suggest that a child who has learned to ride a two wheeler bike goes back to training wheels, how often do we find ourselves continuing to bundle our children into their coats or shoes long after they are capable of managing to put them on by themselves.
Behavior:
-"Our aim is to take our children beyond simple obedience, where they do what we ask in hope of a reward or to avoid something unpleasant. Ultimately we want to help them to develop an internalized sense of polite, caring behavior and of what is right and wrong. This requires that children develop a social conscience and a sense of self-discipline, which can only happen as they slowly mature.
"Learning is not a race! Children learn at their own pace and, in general, the more parents push, the more children resist. Pushy parents see children as an extension of their own status as adults: if they have a child who reads at three, then clearly they have done their job as parents well. But if a child ends up quietly resentful of lessons, tutors, work books, and tests, then what have we really accomplished?"