Works for Me - Toddler Hand Washing

Today's post will be brought to you in honor of Works for Me Wednesday over at Rocks in My Dryer. Today's entry from me is a parenting hack that I read somewhere while learning about potty training. I am not taking credit for coming up with this, so if you know where this came from, please let me know so I can give proper credit. Maybe it's a tried-and-true method that all experienced moms know about, but it was new to me when our potty-training journey began and it works with Little Nespy.

In order to stress the important of thorough hand washing following the potty experience, Mr. Nespy and I began the training process with Little Nespy by having him go through ALL of the motions, even if there was no activity at the potty. We'd sit, flush, and then wash hands. Most toddlers are not going to spend the time to wash hands as well as they should on their own, so this was the tip I am giving you:

Have the little one sing the ABCs while washing. Of course at first you will most likely have to sing it for them while rubbing their hands together (front and back), but they will quickly catch on...and Little Nespy thought this was always fun. We wash the whole time we're going through the alphabet and when we get to the "Now I know my ABCs" part, we turn off the water and dry hands. It serves a twofold purpose: firstly it makes sure that we don't just get a quick rinse. Secondly he learned his alphabet song about 3 months before he was 2-1/2. Hooray! Clean and educational!