Ever been stuck inside the house with a mountain of laundry and kiddos that need energy burned off? Me too! Ever tried to sort laundry with a toddler? Me too! (insert groan and fear here). My daughter's idea of helping usually means unfolding what I just folded or rolling around in the fresh pile of laundry, still warm from the dryer.
So let's make it a learning and burning time, shall we?
Materials: Heaps of laundry. Munchkin that needs to run around.
Have your toddler or preschooler locate one piece of his/her clothing. A sock, shirt, pants, bib, whatever. The idea is for them to grab one piece of laundry as fast as they can and run it to the desired spot. For me, that was off my bed and into her room.
Our conversation went something like this:
Me: Whoa! Look at all this laundry! Let's have a racing game!! Do you see anything that belongs to you in this pile?
C: (nodding)
M: (in a hurried voice) When I count to three, I want you to grab something that belongs to you and run to your room and throw it in a pile on your bed.
C: Okay! I'm so fast!
M: One, two, three!
She grabs a piece, runs it to her bed. While she's running, I'm continuing to sort the other things. She runs back, sorts through to locate something of hers and repeats.
This was a fun way for her to sort, follow directions, and burn off a little energy. And I got my laundry sorted without any pile disruption. :)
For the younger toddler, you can give them a piece that you found and have them run it to the desired location. My 15 month old had a great time with this too. Yay for lots of giggling, sorting laundry, and tired kiddos.
1 comment:
This is a great idea!!
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