Parenting Tips
By Myrna B. Shure, Ph.D
For the WHYY Children's Service

Learning New Skills at Holiday Time

What a great opportunity it is at holiday time for your family to do new things together, and for your children to learn new skills.

Here's some possibilities:

• Take your child with you when you buy the food for the big dinner. Let him pick out something in the store to add this year.
• Invite him to help you prepare the food, even if just stirring the sauce, or measuring the salt, shaping the cookies while they're still soft, or make decorations for the frosting on the cake.
• Let her make cards for people with pictures she draws and help her write special thoughts on each of them.
• Let him pick out some decorations and make them together - such as artwork in African motif for Kwanzaa, Hebrew letters and paint them on dradles for Chanukah, or decorations for the Christmas tree. This will help him learn about how others celebrate holidays too.
• Plan with your children how they'll spend their time. Needed now more than ever. How much to do - and when. And at some level, your preschoolers can participate in that too.

Learning how to participate in and plan their time for the holidays can help your children learn how to participate in and plan their time for important endeavors in life.