Children begin learning at home by observing their parents. We know that children and cleanliness do not always go hand in hand, but you must teach your little ones some basic home skills to keep the house tidy while making their minds sharper. Wondering how to do this? We’ve got the solution!
Children love to help. Laundry time can be a great opportunity to involve your toddlers in a household chore while teaching things like sorting, pulling, pushing, and more. Do remember to muster up a great deal of patience as your kid will ask a way many questions while learning various skills.
Laundry Time Lessons For Toddlers
1. Sort By Colour
Teach your kids how to identify colours by asking them to sort the clothes to be washed by their colour. You can show them how two or more clothes of similar colour can go in the same pile. Now, let them sort out the rest of the clothes on their own. This will help them recognize colours better.
2. Pull, Push & Press
You must have often caught your little one opening and closing the washing machine door! Use this habit as an opportunity to teach them how to push and pull. You can ask your little one to pull the machine door, push in clothes and then ask them to press the buttons (you can tell them which ones.) Do remember to emphasise the words “push”, “pull”, and “press” and make them repeat the words while they use their fine motor skills to perform the action.
3. Sort By Size
Differentiating between big and small things can be quite easy for adults. But, can your toddler sort it out using visual discrimination? Enhance your child’s visual skills by asking them to sort out the clothes pile by size. Show them the big and small pieces of clothing, and then let them try to separate the clothes on their own.
4. Dry & Wet
It is important to teach kids what comes before and after the clothes are washed. Before putting the clothes to wash, let your kids touch them and tell them that the clothes are dry. After the clothes are washed, ask your kids to touch the clothes again, and tell them that they are wet now. This will improve their sense of touch, and will be able to differentiate between dry and wet.
5. Responsibility & Confidence
Once your toddler starts enjoying laundry time, they will be keen to help you out with the next laundry session. They will start looking out for their clothes and will be interested in doing activities involving the skills they learnt while doing the laundry the first time round. Once they have helped in this job usually done by adults, they will develop a sense of accomplishment that will help them feel confident outside the laundry room too!
Your little one’s help may not feel particularly helpful, but allowing your toddler’s innate desire to participate and help is sure to teach them some valuable skills.