Most of Dale's household chores don't come on regular days or regular times, but as we see the need and hand out the assignment. Someday I'd like to move on to a more predictable system, but for now this is working for us. One of the 'assignments' we hand out is laundry. I would never have thought of having a child so young run the washing machine (he was 5 when we started) but got the inspiration from one of my first blog friends, Keri Mae. If her little boy was doing laundry, then mine could too!
And I'm so glad we did, because it is one of his favorite jobs, almost always met with a 'yay!' instead of a whine. (Must be a guy/machinery thing.)
Here's how we do it:
I have the laundry presorted and ask Dale to wash a specific load. He can take it from there with the numbered instructions I have posted over the washing machine:
1. Get soap.
2. Push in knob.
3. Turn to 'Light'.
4. Pull knob out.
5. Pour in soap.
6. Put in clothes.
7. Close lid.
Of course, your instructions might be different based on your machine and how you like to do your laundry. Me? I'm not picky. I just want clean clothes!
We did the first several loads together, with me walking him through the process, and showing him how much soap to get and how to load the clothes. And I still check in periodically to make sure things are going as they should, although I'm usually not very far away anyway.
If asked, Dale can also empty the clothes from the washer (with the help of a stool) and into the dryer, though I usually do this step with him or by myself.
There are a few things (towels, socks, etc) that he is sometimes asked to sort, fold, and put away. But that isn't nearly as much fun as running that machine that is bigger than he is. Yeah... definitely must be a guy thing!
It has been beyond helpful to have another person in the house that can be so much help to us with such a big job, and that Works for Me!
5 comments:
Oh Amy, well done! You put me to shame! My girls do chores, but until now I haven't gotten around to training my 11 & 9 yr olds to run the washing machine :-/ I am onto it today!
Keep up the good work, do train them young to do these things early. I'm afraid I have been slack in that area and it frustrates me.
Good for you! Great tip, thanks!
Did you know that there are college students that "don't know how" to do their own laundry? Or iron?
It's a shame.
YEA!!! How awesome is THAT! I need to be more consistent with this chore & the training of it! My dd (6) could MOST certainly do this!
WAY TO GO, MOM!
Amy
Way to go! My brother started doing all the laundry for our family (including sorting and folding) when he was 6 or 7. One of his innovations, which I still use, is sorting colors when you put stuff in the "dirty" zone: separate baskets or bags for lights, darks, and colors. That way it's easy to see when it's time to do a load!
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