My Secret to Teaching Toddlers to Get Dressed

I have a three year old.  Do you have a three year old?

Goodness gracious...it is probably the toughest age to keep up with.  They walk, they talk.  (Boy, do girls talk!)  They actually can do A LOT of things.

And that is good!  

Your goal in parenting is to give them age-appropriate tasks to learn how to be independent.  

However, sometimes, they can do the task - just not in the neatest fashion.

For example, Summer can get dressed herself.  I would hope that she can!  Yet, in finding that outfit which includes a skirt, shirt, underwear, socks and shoes...some days it looked like the dresser threw up all over the bedroom floor!  Three year olds don't seem to have much common sense.  LOL!

This just created a disaster.  For now, it put us behind to start school since now we had to clean up the room.  It already seems to a mom that the cleaning NEVER ends, this just added to the feeling!

So this is what I did.

Five long sleeved shirts.  Five short sleeved shirts.  She has socks, underwear, tights/leggings and a few pairs of pajamas.

Four pairs of shoes.

The rest of the clothes went into storage bins.  

SIMPLIFY.  

The key to children is to make things SIMPLE for them. 

Of course, adults and older children can keep their items organized easily.  However, the goal in this is not for me or her older 6th grade sister to organize her items.  It is for the 3 yr old to be able to keep things organized and neat.  It is for the 3 yr old to be able to learn how to make a simple choice and learn a simple life skill 

- getting dressed independently.

And the peace of mind of a clean room versus wearing the same clothes over and over...I'll let you choose what wins out. :)

SIMPLE = KIDS.