Goal Setting for Kids
About once every six months to a year, I sit down and make a list of what I would like to teach or try with our daughter. I keep these in a notebook so I won't have to do it again with the next kid. Making goals for your child isn't making goals for them... it's making goals for yourself to do WITH them.
For example, you're not going to write "get (child) to say alphabet". Instead, write "sing the alphabet song every day". The end goal is, of course, to get your kid to say the alphabet. But you can't take it personally if your child doesn't learn as fast as you want them to. The best you can do is teach and reinforce good things every day, and hope they stick. If you force "learning", you run the risk of killing your kid's natural love for learning.
With all that being said, here is a list of things I would like to finish teaching our daughter before she turns three.

Practical Skills
During the morning I try to focus on practical skills (some that we've slacked off on) including getting dressed, cleaning and cooking. Getting dressed and cleaning are actually more about habits than skill. We also get the mail and feed our chickens together before lunch. Sometimes I read a book to her before lunch, but since the weather is warming up we have been spending more time outside.
1. Getting Dressed: This takes a lot of patience for me. It is pretty much watching her struggle for a bit, helping as little as possible, and then congratulating her when she finally gets dressed. The reward is watching an episode of "Barney & Friends" (available on Amazon Prime) while I comb her hair. If you have any ideas on educational TV shows, let me know!
2. Cleaning: Another area I've slacked off on. I've trained our daughter to clean up her own spills, but I have not been very good at having her pick up toys. What helps the most with toys is having a designated basket or box for each kind of toy. We sing the clean up song to help things go faster. Ultimately, I would love to have her clean up her toys by herself, like she does after a bath. But we're not there yet.
Making the bed— There is a bedding product out there called "Beddy's" that is basically a combination sleeping bag and fitted sheet. Very simple and easy to use for small children. Toddler bedding sells for $129 per set though, so I probably won't be buying it. Until I figure out how to make a set at home, I will be making a simple duvet and duvet cover for the toddler bed. I hope that eliminating a sheet will simplify bed-making a bit.
3. Cooking: I try to let our daughter help me make lunch. Most of the time she just helps me pour things into the Instant Pot. I keep several spouted glass cups around so she can pour water, rice, eggs, chopped vegetables, etc. If there is something very soft (banana, avocado), I let her cut it with a child-safe chopping tool.
Right now we're working on spreading peanut butter, mayonnaise and butter. This task will be perfect for summer, when we do have a lot of sandwiches.
Free Grocery Toys
Our daughter's latest imaginary game has been "going to the grocery store". She loves pushing around her little pink grocery cart (or carrying around small reusable Walmart bags), filling it with canned goods and peanut butter jars from our pantry. Instead of throwing away food packaging, I've been stuffing bags and boxes with newspaper, taping them shut and using the finished product to fill her own little pantry.
In the next few days I will post part two of this series, which will be less about practical skills and more of your traditional "academic" preschool activities.
Til next time,
-Bethany