Guiding a child gently through hand puppets

Hi folks!

Howdy? Lately I have been facing challenges at work (with my colleague on a 90 days maternity break and extended pre- and post maternity leave which comes up to about 4 months of absence at work.)

It wasn't easy but I managed to got through...phew..finally she's back at work now.

Back at home I am facing with another lessons to learn, trying to guide a pre-teen, a primary schooler and a (i prefer not to call it as Terrible-Two stage) Mr. DIY at home.

Truly an amazingly challenging time which requires a lot of patience.

I learnt to listen, to adapt and also to love deeply so that I have the patience to listen, the love to think of ways to guide the different stages of life of my lovely children.

Let's start with my toddler, two-year-old Mr. DIY at home.

At this stage, he wants to do everything on his own and he gets frustrated easily whenever someone goes against his wishes that is to DO THINGS ON HIS OWN!

He will have a meltdown and cry loudly till he cools down. I tried to explain to him but it doesn't work. I had to resort to letting him cry his heart out safely at his own space and then guide him gently when he could at least listen.

I found a good way to create similar stories of things which happens in his daily life with a hand puppets.

Using the hand puppets as a "third-party", I tried to guide him gently to learn how to voice out his opinion or his view without throwing his tantrums or throwing a big temper.

So far it seems to be working. Kids, I tell you...they are amazingly smart and pick up things very quickly...both the good and the bad.

So, our nightly ritual nows will involved his hand puppets which he calls him fondly as "yellow bear". Yellow bear will sing along with him at night, recite his scriptures or poems he learnt lately and then will be my way of guiding him gently by story telling with his Yellow bear.

I kinda like this nightly ritual when he's more calm and loving, blowing kisses to his yellow bear, and then to me.

Do you have any good ways to guide your "smart" child at home?

Do share your secrets with me!

Cheers!