As your children grow, so do your roles and responsibilities as a parent. From their very first day and for all the years to come, your children will need the correct guidance and for you to provide an environment which will help them develop their many skills. It is a huge responsibility and they do not have a set of instructions attached when they arrive in this world. Many parents look to the Internet for guidance about how to help their children evolve as decent human beings.

Parenting is the most difficult job, however, we can provide a few simple tricks and tips, and life- hacks if you like, to help. This is not a definitive guide but we can lend a hand. You are your child's first teacher and we believe that if you incorporate the following values into your daily routine, you will be well on the way to making the best of parents.

Working together with your child will teach them how to work with others. Let them help you with the things you are doing in the kitchen for example. Show them how you plan their meals based on what foods are in season or on sale. Help your child list seven breakfast, lunches or dinners on index cards and work together on a shopping list for each meal. Get a good child's recipe book and let them be head chef.

By modeling how you work to their instructions they will be able to work to yours. There is nothing better for a child that the self esteem boost that comes with family and friends complimenting them on their cooking. Remember when you are working together tell them which skills they are developing. Feedback is very important.

Encourage your child to be independent; they will need to be able to toilet themselves properly, flush the toilet, and wash their own hands etc. before they start school.

This is important for their self-esteem. Let them become responsible for their own belongings and carry their own things when you are out together. Also, make sure that they can feed themselves and know how to use the correct utensils for eating with; polite table manners go a long way towards your children feeling good about themselves. 

A small garden or plants growing on a balcony or window box is a good way to encourage your child to ask questions and become environmentally aware at the same time. Look together at how seeds grow into plants, what they need to grow and how to support their growth.

If your child is into cars, explore the vocabulary or a car together and help them understand what makes the car go. Lots of young children are willing to become immersed in a topic be it from dinosaurs to space. Go with them and be prepared to not know all the answers yourself but to find out together. 

Go with your kid to find all the answer together

How many times as a child did you hear from your parents the phrase "in a minute"? 

Talk to your child about time in a realistic and sensible manner. Encourage them to look at time when you are planning a trip or activity. Discuss how long a TV programme might last or a trip to the shops. This awareness of time will help them start to manage their own time, which will lead into organization. For example as they get older they will learn to do their homework at a set time each week or day to help get it done. 

Talk to your children about their own feelings first and use lots of vocabulary to describe different levels of emotion. If you only have one word for happy, how can you be joyful? In making your children aware of themselves you are preparing them to be aware of others. 

Try to spend meal times together as a family, talking about everyone's day. It is the best thing you can do for your child's social skills and to bring them up with high levels of self-esteem is to take an interest in their day. Really focus and listen to what your child has to say, even if it is describing, at length, a leaf they have picked up from the ground. If you listen to them talking about the small things, they will always tell you about the big things too.