Independent is berdikari

Bismillaah

One afternoon after school, Adam came to me and proudly said," Ibu, today my teacher at school let me wash my cup after I've finished my milk."

Since then, I'll let him play with the dish soap and wash his cup and utensils himself. The same goes to Hajar. Maryam has not shown any interest in that area yet.

Hajar get to wash and clean her school shoes by herself after a few times of training..ehehheehe. She surely enjoyed playing with the brush and kapur kasut!, and to see the result:shining clean shoes!

I also let my syurgawan help me with the laundry. Whenever they offered to help, I'd give them the space. They sometimes raced to put the soiled clothes into the washing machine(which is fortunately a front loading washer), to put the detergent and softener into their respective compartments, to turn on the dials, and to push the buttons. I would be standing there to answer any questions they might have, and to manage any dispute between the siblings..ehehe.

We also had fun hanging the clothes to dry, and picking up the clothes at the end of the day. My syurgawan would ask "how to this and that?", "where to put this?", "should I do this?", "am I doing this correctly?", etc.
Adam enjoyed the 'you get the dried clothes from the rack, and throw them at me. I'll catch the clothes and put them into the basket' game. Ahahaha...an effective way to replace the 'throwing ball' game. I get my job done and my children had fun at the same time.

My syurgawan also get to have their hands on the mop, broom, vacum, etc. We do the cleaning chores together.

To sum up, this is not a child labor activity. This is to let them know I trust them. This is to let them be independent and be confident of themselves. I hope they will be responsible even for the smallest things around them, and do the things they can do themselves without putting the burden on others: their friends, colleagues, spouses, etc. InsyaAllaah. Ameen.