I’ve been busily returning emails and Facebook messages for my early morning blogging time. Now the kids are up, and it’s time to go be Mama. I thought I’d share these ideas from my new e-book as today’s post. If you have other ideas for making laundry fun, please tell us about them in the comments!
And don’t forget – tomorrow is Weekly Progress Report Day! You can share your stories from this week about teaching your kids to clean in the comments or by linking up a blog post! (And there will also be a fun giveaway!)
Ideas for Making Laundry Day Fun
Practice sorting colors by creating paper mosaics of the various colors that go together in the laundry. Use construction paper, craft paper, colored printer paper . . . whatever you have in various colors. Tear the paper into pieces and sort it like you would sort laundry. For example, glue all of the blacks, browns, grays, etc onto one paper and label it “Darks”. Put brights together on another sheet, white and off white together, etc. This can help children begin to visualize what you mean when you ask them to sort colors. It can be confusing to kids that light blue and yellow would go in the same load, and separating this process from the clothing itself can help them grasp the concept. These mosaics can be hung on the wall to designate sorting spots for your clothes on Laundry Day.
Have sorting races. Give equal piles of dirty clothes to the kids, and let them race to see who can sort their pile into the common Laundry Day piles the fastest. Mama will need to watch carefully to be sure no more-competitive-than-perfectionist children don’t cheat.
Time your folding sessions. You can work together to better your time with each load throughout the day, or divide each load into small piles and have kids race to see who can fold and put away their pile first. (Obviously, the race is forfeited if all folding is undone when the clothes get shoved into the drawers!)
What are your ideas for making Laundry Day fun?
*FYI, Laundry Day probably won’t work for you if you’re on a septic system, as it may overload your system. Sorry!
Last summer we had laundry folding competitions. We would sit around the coffee table and I had a cardboard microphone. Each contestant would warm up, and then come to the arena(coffee table) there were timed comptetions, color competions, awards on folding and smoothing. I would interview them. The kids LOVED it. i got weary of it, since it took forever to fold a load! The ultimate award was the “grammy” award. My mom can fold wash like a champ! (I cannot) her clothes look amazing!
WE NO LONGER SORT LAUNDRY (EXCEPT WHITES) AS WE ALWAYS WASH IN COLD…
sorry for the caps..and i’m too lazy to start over..lol
so the kids bring their baskets down, pop them in the washer…put in a tide pod (or all or whatever brand) push start on washer..
i do the whites…cause of the bleach..someone please invent a bleach pod!, hhihihihi
Walmart sales bleach tablets. I’m sure you could also get them at Target, or wherever…I like them. You do have to use ‘warm’ water…I had a cold water incident…I’ll never (well not reguratly) use liquid bleach again.
Bleach tablets? I will definitely look for that!!
We play go fish with socks when we match them! My oldest(3)loves this game, we normally play it during my littlest(14 months) naptime. We are spending time together, playing a game, and being productive:)
Love that idea, Tori!
wow. just stumbled on your blog. i’m in the middle of a laundry war with a friend to see who can get through the piles fastest. being able to text photos of our progress back and forth has made it much more fun.
Love this!
Paper Mosaics in Art Class, Coming Soon!
love, love love this idea.
I sort by person, rather than colors. Except whites and jeans are separate loads. It makes things easier to fold as well. I can fold all the boy clothes laundry and put it in a basket, carry it upstairs, and put it away.
To make laundry fun, I watch a movie while I fold everything.
My son is just a toddler, so laundry day means Peekaboo Day! I play peekaboo with him as I pull laundry out of the dryer and fold it into the basket!