Category: Housework
Purpose: To lighten the load of housework in the laundry department
Materials: laundry bag or baskets
The success of this tip is: the training time, consistency and group participation
FOLDING: By the time a child is eleven they should be able to handle all their own laundry responsibilities including: washing, drying, folding, ironing, hanging and putting away. But before they are eleven they can fold. We have a daily folding time. First we sort all the clean clothes in piles by person and then we spend time folding as a group. If one person finishes quickly they help the others fold until we are all done. Then we put the clothes away. The first day take your time teaching how to fold each item of clothes. I have seen children as young as three years old be able to fold their own clothes. Our daily folding time is about ten minutes. If you want to do a weekly laundry day then the folding might take longer at which time you might want to put on a show for everyone to watch as you fold. Or use the time to talk about what has been happening in your lives.
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{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
Very good idea. I love getting my kids involved in the chores of everyday life. They are so much more independent than I was at their age!
I love your hi video by the way. If we are ever in the US at the same time, we have to get together and do coffee!
Blessings,
Joy
Good idea! Right now I’m the learner with this. :]
Sounds like a great idea! even though I don’t have any kids to help me.
Thanks Angie.
I will have to start teaching them folding, to add to their put away their own clothes routine.
This is a good idea – I just have to remember to do my laundry before they go to bed! Blake (8) already helps a lot with laundry. I haven’t let him fill the washing machine yet, but he can transfer the clothes to the dryer, turn it on, carry the load upstairs when it’s done and fold it. Grace (5) is still just working on the folding.
Joy – Oh, a coffee date with you would be simply delightful!
Annie – You and me both… learning, learning, learning…
Jutta – Before I had kids the piles of laundry were an embarrassment.
Carin – cool.
Amy E. – Those are great ages.
Angie,
I was just over at your spanish blog (wishing I could read it:-) ) and wondered how different is the content over there compared to here?
Great idea, Angie. I’m still the laundry person in my house, though my girls DO know how to do their own and we often fold laundry as a group. It drives me crazy, though, that they can’t seem to fold the shirts right! I’m going to work on that tomorrow.
I think it is a good idea because it helps the kids to be responsible. What amazes me is here in Bolivia kids are put incharge of their parents stores many times when they are seven years old. An entirely different world.
Carin – The content overlaps sometimes. You’ll be able to read it one day.
Becky – The shirts are the hardest. And it is totally a test of my patience sometimes to let them do a job at lower standards than I would have done it.
DaRonn – What is amazing to me is the stark contrasts between the classes in the realm of work ethic. The “blue collar” workers have their kids out there working very young. Whereas the “white collar” kids get little to no experience with hard work, they are encouraged to devote themselves to study.