I'm sharing this experience after reading an article on how 1 word can make kids more helpful.
Early this year when we were renovating our house roof, there was a stretch of about 3-4 days where I would bring our 3 kiddos to hang out at my sister in law's house during the daytime. We will go home when hubby finishes his work and fetches all of us home. One time, my SIL was cooking lunch and I was carrying our few months old Carolyn (who is really fussy and cries the moment I put her on a bed so I ended up carrying her most of the times) and I nudged our then not yet 5 years old boy to help out his eldest aunt. I told him to ask big aunty whether she needed any help.
To be honest, I can see her really busy doing everything alone and she hesitated when our boy asked her whether she needed any help. Then, she immediately passed some plates to him to put on the dining table, followed by cutleries and cups and etc. We were a bit worried as he carried those fragile plates from the kitchen to the dining area but he did it. With each tasks completed, she praised him for being such a good helper.
I was so happy to see him getting more excited and proud to be able to help out. Since that day, we uses the statement 'You're such as good helper!' It works, everytime and I'm glad this is working.
** Note: I have disabled the commenting feature on my blog engine thanks to all the spammers who happily spam my blog every day. If you wish to ask me any questions, you can find me at my Facebook page (I'm there almost everyday) or just drop me an email if you wish to maintain some anonymity.
