When you were growing up, what was your favorite chore? Washing the dishes? Mowing the lawn? Laundry? Hearing the words “favorite” and “chore” in the same sentence sounds almost impossible to achieve, however if you start involving the family in the chores, the chores can become less chorelike and more fun for the family.
Kids of any age can get involved during laundry time, there’s a task for everyone. There’s so much temptation to take on the burden yourself because you believe it will be faster or easier, but you deserve to regain some time and put those extra (little) hands to use.
There are so many learning opportunities that can be provided through this as well. For our smaller children we can have them start organizing and sorting clothes by color or pattern. As the children get older we can involve them in other areas of the laundry process. When our children are elementary age they can be involved in the folding and organizing of the completed laundry. Our teens can even start doing laundry loads of their own, the key is to start them off early in the process and integrate it into their daily or weekly routine.
Below we’re going to go over some of our favorite ways to get the children involved in this soon to be fun household task.
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One great way that you can get your child moving with laundry is by turning things into a game. Most of us will pay money to buy games that have the matching pieces, but the secret is you have that game already available by having your child match up socks. If you don’t want to start your child with actual socks right at the start you can use a helpful printable like this one. Another matching game you could play is with colors or fabrics, not only will your child be learning key concepts but also having fun.
Another way that you can get your little or not so little ones involved in the process is by teaching them the key parts of laundry such as removing stains and using the machines themselves. This is not only going to help set the foundation of teaching your kids how to do laundry, but will eventually allow them to do it themselves without supervision.
Before we get to the unsupervised laundry phase, you need to stress the importance of laundry room safety. You’ll need to show your children how to properly clean the dryer lint, to prevent dryer fires. Also you’ll need to stress the importance of the fact that they are working with cleaning supplies and how to safely handle them and store them.
Reinforcing all the steps of doing laundry are so important and you can do that easily with helpful trackers and printables such as this one and by also being involved with their learning when they are first getting started. Keep the cleaning fun and in no time your children will be laundry pros!