More ways to use chores to teach your kids…
…
Mopping, wiping, vacuuming and learning:
- I use mopping to work on memory skills. Did you already mop here? How can you tell? With our table top we can easily practice deductive reasoning. The area without crumbs and greasy hand prints was wiped down, the other areas still need attention.
- With mopping, short-term memory is more important. Often the floor looks about the same. So we work on developing our short-term memorywhile mopping. Where have we mopped? Where do we need to mop next? My kids currently are obsessed with Dora. And if you know much about Dora, you know the adventures have three parts, so we try to make mopping into an adventure. “Go under the table, around the chairs, towards the sink”.
- We also discuss patterns and progression by starting on one side of the room and working towards the other so we can know where we mopped.
Do you have any tips on how to include kids into doing chores? Have you blogged about chores in your household? I’d love to read about your kids successes and hear what chores they participate do in your home. Submit your story to our blog carnival. I’ll feature my favorites sometime next week!
Thanks to these flickr families for contributing photos!
I should have put pictures with my post!! How cute
Helping with household work is a huge part of the Montessori philosophy, we call it practical life!
One thing that can make a huge difference for kids in making chore time better is child size equipment. A small whisk brush with pan is easier for picking up piles than an adult broom and dust pan. A swiffer is easy to just twist out the middle section or two to make the handle shorter.
For Small Hands is a great company for finding child size cleaning supplies. Just looking through the catalog will give you a great place to start!
Thanks for using the pic of my boy with the Dyson!
my one year old will actually wipe stuff up – she loves to help. Has absolutely no concept of what she’s wiping – but she has fun mimicking mommy
How cute is this? I think my 13 month old should have to vaccuum up his own cheerio-mess!
Stoppin’ by from MBC!
Madison {www.LifeHappensDuringNaptime.com}
How cute the little one with the mop looks! What a great idea, my boy will be moping asap! ha