Laundry Sorting and Matching

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....

I made up some flashcards of our laundry categories;

*underwear

*pajamas

*socks

*shirts

*soccer

*ballet

*pants

*shorts

*dresses

*sweatshirts/sweaters/jackets

*washcloths/towels

*blankets

I  added clipart to each card so that Miss 4 could start to associate the picture with the word.  I printed the flashcards on cardstock as I plan on using them every time her clean laundry needs sorting.  I  am also going to get them laminated at our local Lakeshore Learning to help cut down on their wear and tear.  The ex- teacher in me gets such a thrill when the laminator is on and I can smell the hot plastic. I kind of want to laminate everything.  Is that weird?  Probably so, lol!  

I'm not going to lie, making the flashcards on the computer was a bit of a pain.  Not only was I having all sorts of trouble formatting it all but I had 2 little munchkins trying to "help."  A much easier and faster way would be to simply use index cards or paper to make your own.  You could even take the activity a step further and let your little cut out or draw their own pictures.  

Now for the fun!  We layed out all of our flashcards on her bedroom floor (once we put away a zillion toys) and set her to sorting this week's basket of clean laundry.  She really had a great time doing it.  Most importantly, she felt so so proud of  herself!   We had to leave all the piles right where they were so that she could show daddy when he got home from work.  

Later that evening, we took our activity a step further.  Once she had her piles, Miss 4 helped fold her underwear and match up her socks.  I folded /hung and took care of the rest of the items.  Baby steps!

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.

If you liked this idea, check out our fun clothes line race for our Raggedy Ann themed 2nd birthday.

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