Toddler tips from an award-winning educator

Well, we are all spending a lot more time at home these days and while the internet is full of articles on how to beat the boredom and fill your time, those of us with young children consider boredom to be a luxury.

Preschool aged kids are a full-time job in themselves, which is why we decided to go and get some expert advice. Family Day care educator Emily Thompson has been looking after my own children for the past two years and last year was the well-deserved regional winner of the Family Day Australia 2019 Excellence in Family Day Care Awards.

So what are Emily’s top tips for people looking after young children?

“At first I wrote down start drinking at 10am, but then I crossed that off,” laughs Emily, who is not currently working as a carer, but home-schooling her two daughters.

“The sort of thing I would suggest is to follow your children's interests. There is no point trying to follow the school science lesson about bugs, when your child loves dinosaurs, so try to let your child lead you with what they want to learn.”

“The second tip is to have lots of movement and brain breaks, especially for little kids. So between every little thing we do we stand up and play Simon Says, little things like that. Just a little bit of movement or a song just to reset, so the child can come back down and concentrate again. Even my daughter Charlotte does laps around the back yard on her bike in between different things and she is almost 12, so it helps with all ages.

“My third tip — and this is the most important one I could ever tell another parent. For children under 5, reward them with chores. My Charlotte was seven before she realised moping wasn't a treat for good behaviour. And Matilda has been so good today she is allowed to wash up the dishes after dinner tonight and she is so excited about it. Even my little children will all fight each other to be good enough to vacuum after lunch. They all love chores and I highly recommend you use that! 

“And then the last thing I’d say is to be kind to yourself. Look, if you have days where you need to write them off, then you just write off the day and start again tomorrow.”