Trying a hands-off approach and it's working

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I've mentioned before my son's school is doing all homeschooling right now. Our university is the major factor in this reasoning. Ever since it has been back our COVID numbers have started to sore because despite being told no parties that's exactly what they do. They don't social distance and they aren't remotely careful and I'm fairly sure a decent portion don't know how to wash their hands. I get we need to live our lives but I think there needs to at least be a little consideration for others. College kids have never known boundaries from my experience dealing with a lot of them. Not all of them because there are some I like. They're a blessing and a curse really. That being said I've realized since I started this homeschooling thing I've found that I have come to this point where I really am not as hands-on as I started off being. I help him when he needs it but other than that I let him do his own thing and I've really found him picking up the slack. It's not that a hands-off approach is necessarily better but it definitely gives them a chance to prove what they're capable of. My son has even taken to picking out his own clothes and I no longer care that much about what he wears since they only see his shirt anyway. I just want him to get dressed every day for routine sake. I sometimes have to wake him up but other times he's up before I am. He gets his own breakfast and sometimes his own lunch. I have been teaching him how to do things and he has really learned how to become more self-reliant. He'll be ten in a month and I want him to know basic skills. I was doing a lot of things earlier than he is. I was doing a lot of basic things in kindergarten and first grade like I knew how to make my own sandwiches and heat stuff up in the microwave and I poured my own cereal when I was in kindergarten. My dad made dinner but we were responsible for our breakfast and lunch. It's just how it was. He'd sometimes prepare stuff for a week and put it in the freezer and it was our job to heat it up in the microwave. I am not quite that bad with my son but I have been teaching him to do some more minor things. I will make him lunch from time to time and other times he gets his own. Over the summer we worked on teaching him to do the laundry and how to mow the yard. We don't have a dishwasher so we aren't fully onto dishes yet since my family has a tendency of sticking knives in the sink and that makes me leery. I did show him a bit on how to do it. He now rinses his stuff off and puts it next to the sink instead of just throwing it into the sink. I guess I just want to see what he is capable of without me hovering over him. I don't want to hold him back from learning how to do things on his own. I have also noticed since I have let go his anxiety seems to have gotten a bit better and he complains less about headaches and stomach aches. He's learning to take control and I think that gives him a sense of peace he didn't have before. He feels like he is in control of some things and that can help tremendously with anxiety. His sleep schedule is better now too. I don't know if everything is related but I do know this hands-off approach is working better than I thought it would. I'm still here to guide him and help him when I need to and I do help with bigger things. I am not like leaving him home alone to fend for himself I'm just giving him some room to discover who he is and to explore things. He has rules he knows he needs to follow. He knows he has to be to bed by 9 PM unless we have something going on where that's not possible and he knows he has to be up no later than 8:30 AM and signed on for school by 8:55 AM. He understands homework has to be done before he can play and that he is only allowed a tiny bit of screen time outside of school a day. Most of his day is spent playing with LEGOS and using his imagination. He knows when I tell him to do something he needs to do it and he has learned he is capable. I haven't heard him say "I can't" nearly as often as he used to because he knows he can. Since I have left stuff to him he has really taken over and learned a sense of confidence he didn't have before. I am not saying this will work for everyone because it probably won't. I just know that since I've stepped back he has really grown up. From taking care of some of his own problems to becoming more responsible. I am sad to see him growing up so fast but I want to prepare him for the future as much as it hurts to see him need me less and less that's the way it's supposed to be. He will still need to come to me for some things but others he needs to know he can handle on his own. He is always going to be my baby but that doesn't mean I have to treat him like one. I am still strict about some things but have let go of others. Kids need a sense of purpose and they need boundaries but they also need the room to run within those boundaries. I don't think I could be prouder of my son. I really had a difficult time letting go because my son has had so many issues in the past with different things but I'm so glad I did.