Dressing Self

Lots of stretchy materials, elastic waistbands, slip on shoes, stuff like that. You can get him one of those dolls with buttons, snaps, laces and zippers to practice on, but he's probably still a few years away from mastering all of that. Just keep the clothing simple for now so he can do most of it himself.

What a fun question! I loved watching the little ones master these skills. so these are my tips.

1. Keep t shirts a little bigger than you might ordinarily.
2. Short sleeves are easier than long sleeves.
3. "Head through first" is a great thing to call out, while pretending to not look.
4. Pants should have elastic waists.
5. Shoes still need to be safe, so not too loose. It's easy to get the foot in, if he stands while having something to hold onto. Don't watch!!!!
6. Socks need to be a little bigger than usual. Shorter ankle socks are easier than long ones, although truly tube socks have not heel, so they're great.
7. Only mittens, not gloves, please, please.
8. Caps for fall and a winter hat with those side tassels that can be pulled down over the ears. Easy, breezy!
8. Buttons first, no zippers. Zippers are for 4's and 5's usually. The cruel thing is, that once he's mastered those nice big zippers, the manufacturers start using smaller zippers for older little ones. No toggles, ever! I don't care how cute the coat is.

Patience and a sense of humor help. As long as he's covered, he's great.

B.:

What I did for my kids was lay their clothes on the floor they way they go on.....this way they knew which way the pants went...zipper in front, etc. then have them sit down next to or in the middle of and start dressing themselves...worked for all 3.

The boots on backwards? Ohh man that must've hurt!! I have a pair of snow boots that it is REALLY hard to tell left from right until you put your foot in it! HOW UNCOMFORTABLE!!

He'll get it. He's got a smart mama!!

After a while, it drove be crazy when shoes were on the wrong feet so I traced my son's shoes onto cardboard, so he had to line up his shoes to get on the correct feet. Some shoes are harder to see as some didn't curve, so then I would say, "the superhero (or whoever would be on the shoes) needs to be out so they can protect you and see where they are going".
Fun age!

The first thing to do is organize the clothes so he can get them. I have nice storage cubes, one for socks, one for pants, etc. He is in change of collecting them from the laundry basket and putting them away. Then he just pulls out his clothes every morning. I don't comment on if they are appropriate. I may say, "it's going to be cold today, you may want to wear pants." But if he ignores me, I ignore him. My 5 year old asks for a weather report every morning. So we do discuss weather and appropriate attire. I do let him just get dressed, however, and let natural consequences do their tricks.

But mostly, make the clothes easily accessible, and only put out really appropriate stuff.

BTW, I fondly remember taking my son this summer to TJ's in snow pants and rain boots and it was 80 outside. he was in his fire gear, and he had fires to put out! I thought it was funny. It's a cute age, if you don't fight it.

I have no tips for teaching how to get dressed. My hubby starts this lesson with our kids at roughly 18 months. They need some help for another year or so, but hubby taught them at bedtime with their PJs, so I have no clue!

My daughter is 3 and she is learning to dress herself as well. What we are doing right now is having me do one side and she will do the other. And she also likes to find the tag on shirts, pants, undies and make sure it is in the back.

So she finds the tag on a shirt and I help her get her head through and then she puts her arms in. She does the underwear by herself and is extremely happy to have mastered that. Then she finds the tag on pants and says 'they go on this way' and kind of puts them on the floor in front of her. Then I help her get one leg in and she puts the other one in. I put one sock on her and she puts on the other one. She is pretty good about figuring out which shoe goes on which foot.

I gave her 5 minutes to pick some shoes to wear to pick up her sister from school. She never picks any so I chose green ones. Then she cried the entire trip and told me I hurt her feelings by making her wear green shoes. Sigh.

I think dressing just comes with practice and patience.

If the underpants have flys, then show him how it goes in the front. My DD learned that if she held up her underpants and could see through the legs, then that side was front. We put Ls and Rs inside her shoes, but Mabel's Labels sells preschool shoe labels you could try: http://www.mabelslabels.com/products/preschool+shoe+labels (side benefit, they mark the shoes as "his" when he is not in your care).

Mostly, I just taught her tags in the back and showed her the types of tags we encountered. If the socks have designated heels, then show him what part of his foot goes in that part.

I think it's adorable that he put the boots on. My DD loves her rain boots and they are rarely on the right foot. She'd wear them daily if I'd let her.

You can also start by putting things on the right way and letting him pull up the pants or put his arms in so he gets the idea. Or lay out an outfit like it was a little person on the floor, so he sees how it all goes together.

Shel Silversein has a poem in Falling Up about clothes not fitting right and DD laughs and laughs. We've discussed that his clothes weren't fitting because the pants were on his head, etc. Maybe your DS would find Silverstein funny, too.

My boys had a little Elmo doll with buttons, zippers, snaps, Velcro fasteners, buckles and ties that they could learn on.

We used mostly elastic waist pants (sweat pants from Old Navy and Childrens Place Khaki's) when they were three. These were easy for them to get dressed in and for using the washroom. They weren't really ready for jeans with buttons and fly's until they were four. The tag goes in the back was the rule for underwear, pants and shirts. We had slip on shoes and boots. I would tell them if they should wear pants or shorts, long sleeve or short sleeve, shoes or boots, or give them a choice of two outfits.

One of my sons would put one sock on inside out every day. I'm not sure why. The other son always wore his underwear backwards. When I tried to correct him he told me he wanted them that ways so that he could see Spiderman. That made sense. Why do they put the characters on the bum where the kids can't see them!

Hats were easy. Kids love to put hats on. We used mittens, not gloves. They weren't able to zip their own jackets until they were four, almost five, so I helped them. I would get it started and let them zip the rest of the way.

Really, there's no special songs or labels or poems. Just give him simple outfits and correct him when he does it wrong. The exception being shoes. Teach him left and right and put a L and R inside each shoe.

I saw a mom who had "I dressed myself!" stickers made for her kids. I've been tempted to do the same thing for when my kids insist on wearing 14 layers of varying colors and patterns. :)

You can always do the "limited choice" thing. It still works at ages 2 and 4 for my girls. You can wear the pink shirt or the yellow shirt. Now, would you like to wear the black pants or the striped pants? etc....

Our standard "getting dressed" mantra is "the tag goes in the back." Works for underwear, shirts, pants, skirts, etc. Elastic waistbands are awesome for bottoms. Have fun!

I always laid out the clothes on the floor....all ready to be picked up & pulled on. I avoided zippers, & made sure all of the clothes were loose enough to pull on easily. :)

& hey, rain boots are cool! Backwards had to hurt, tho'!

This is a time where everyone understands a little kiddo is going to be dressed oddly. If you can give them choices of 2 outfits that sort of match you will be way ahead of the game.

This way at least their clothes will be close to matching.

My 2 year old checks the weather with me in the morning and then picks out her own clothes. I don't care if they match or what shoes she wants to wear. She understands that a cold day equals long sleeves and pants and hot days equal short sleeves. If she likes a pink top and yellow shorts in the summer so be it.