Laundry and Learning

First of all, if you don't sort your laundry read no further!  If you are like my husband who throws it all in together, this will make no sense to you.

Everyone does laundry, or at least everyone I know! Some days it seems to consume us so why not let it be a learning game.  Children need to understand the concept of categories.  Things that go together, things that are the same and different.  At the fundamental level it is sorting things by color, size, and shape.  We then can categorize by things that go in the air, on the ground, in water.  As they move up in sophistication we categorize by living and nonliving.  We can categorize by short vowel sound or long vowel sound.  You can see how this keeps going.

So the next time you are doing the laundry, get your little one to help.  Ask him/her to help you put the clothes in groups, sort them.  Can we put all the pants and shorts here?  Everything that is white goes here. Let's put all the clothes that are dark colors over here.  That can then lead to a discussion of what constitutes dark colors or brights colors.  The possibilities are endless!  Obviously you might combine some groups when you actually put the clothes in the washer, but they are helping.  Lola is a great sorter of socks already at 21 months!

It's that incidental or accidental learning that makes a difference.  Learning through everyday experiences!

Go get started on that laundry!