10 Activities We Let our Toddler Do on His Own

We want our toddler to have some autonomy, so there are a few activities we let him do on his own. Things that I honestly feels he enjoys largely because we let him do them on his own.

1. Brushing his teeth – Cole loves brushing his teeth, but I was concerned he was missing the insides of his upper teeth. I didn’t force brush that because I didn’t want to traumatize him into hating teeth brushing… When I took him to the dentist, they said ALL of his teeth were incredibly clean, so I’m glad I decided not to force it.
2. Combing his hair – I still comb his hair sometimes, but any time I brush my hair, he wants to do his, so I keep an extra brush on hand just for him to use.
3. Picking up his toys
4. Washing his hands- I let him fill the sink and put a top in there, AND I put soap on his hands for him, often times, but he does a pretty decent job of rubbing his hands together and playing in the water rinses them off. He takes a lot of pride in this most of the time.
5. Wiping up messes (He has his own sponge)- even if there’s no real mess and I’m just wiping walls down, I pull out his sponge for him and he wipes the walls for me. This allows him to have not only autonomy, but the feeling that he’s helping. I love it.
6. Takes shoes off and puts them on
7. Takes his clothes off
8. Peels his own banana
9. Carries his own belongings (including his backpack) when we leave the house.
10. I let him start the dishwasher. I close it, but he locks it and knows where the setting is to wash the dishes. I call him from wherever he is, and I’m pretty certain he thinks I can’t do it without him.