Is your laundry pile (more like mountain) out of control like ours? I finally decided it was time to teach our 4 year to help with the laundry. I mean, with ballet, soccer, church, everyday activities, and baby sister’s occasional bed wetting or food smearing, we have a mountain of clothes to wash every week. I know all you mamas know what I mean! Can we get a little help please! We just have 2 girls and they aren’t even in school yet! I can totally see how this laundry is going to multiply really fast in the coming years. I decided we better get a handle on it now and have a little fun while doing it!
So I set up a little activity to help teach Miss 4 about sorting her clean laundry. She LOVED it and wants to help with laundry all the time! Score! That’s exactly what I was hoping for!
Besides getting some help with the laundry, this activity is good for so many other reasons- sorting, matching, pre-reading, life skills, responsibility, color matching, self-esteem….
Clothes Line Race
You could also use the flash cards, clothespins, jute or yarn, and clothing items to make a fun clothes line race. String a line across your playing area or simply lay it on the floor like we did in the picture above. Place one clothing item from each category into a laundry basket or pile. Set a timer (if age appropriate) and see how fast your little can pull an item from the basket and hang under the appropriate flash card. Don’t forget, you will probably have to explain to them what a clothespin is and how it works. Back when I taught 6th grade Spanish, we played a game like this to learn our clothing words. Only a handful of students had ever seen a clothespin in person, lol! I felt so old, and that was 15 years ago! Cringe, cringe! Opening and closing the clothespins makes a great fine motor skill.