As a household of eight people, my family has a LOT of laundry. Loads and loads! It's hard to imagine why I would start crafting more laundry, but this was my mom's idea...so we'll blame her.
The other day in Target's dollar section, my mom spotted these little pen cups that look like miniature laundry baskets. She thought they had potential, and brought them home to me. You get three of them for $1!
I made a little pattern with some laundry shapes, and started cutting out felt.
There are socks, t-shirts and underwear. Underwear is always good for a laugh, right? I made them in three sizes, and in several colors.
The idea was this: a sorting game. Sort by colors, sizes or shapes. Sorting by color, it would make a great way to teach little ones how to sort dirty laundry. Sorting by item teaches shapes, and sock matching. Or, sort the sizes and you've got someone ready to distribute clean laundry!
At this point, it's just that simple. But I think you could make it more complex with minimal effort. For example, you could decorate the shapes with stripes, dots, etc., and you've got a whole new matching game! I'd love to hear your ideas for different ways to play!
Download the pattern for socks, t-shirts and undies.
Just make sure that when you're sorting, this doesn't happen! Yikes!
Just make sure that when you're sorting, this doesn't happen! Yikes!
Must ask....where did you find the tiny laundry baskets?
ReplyDeleteI was at Target yesterday and skipped the One Spot. BOO! I'm SO going to do this. It's a really cute idea. I grew up doing my own laundry from a pretty early age, and that's one of the responsibilities I want my kids to carry. When it's a game, it's so much less of a chore. That Mary Poppins really knew what she was singing about.
ReplyDeleteAnd I love the teaching potential this game has. "Pairs", making outfits that match, what does and doesn't go in the laundry, putting the individual letters on each item to spell itself, stitching numbers on the items to teach counting and number line...
...ohmigosh, I'm making a mad dash to Target today to get myself some of these! Thanks for the idea!
Very cute! Me? Mine are a bit older so we play the game "sort the real laundry" only Mom's usually the winner... er... loser and gets stuck doing most of it. tee hee
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Anonymous: They came from Target in the "One Spot" at the front where most items are $1.
ReplyDeletegoodness those baskets are adorable!! I wish I had a Target here! The game is pretty cute too :)
ReplyDeletethis could not be cuter...
ReplyDeleteWhat a fun idea for teaching! When it came time for my sister and I to learn how to do our own laundry our mom didn't really tell us anything, so we had to learn from our mistakes, haha.
ReplyDeletelovexretro.blogspot.com
Mollie,
ReplyDeleteThis is fabulous. I love how you and your mom together came up with this idea and think how this could be used for children and adults that have learning disabilities and congnitive issues. Man, where were you two when my daughter was little and we were trying to get her some help with her autism. Her cognitive skills are still very low but she is improving at a snail's pace. It is hard to be patient.
Maureen
Just added another item to our Target shopping list! Lol. My toddler will love the sorting and the idea of Daddy shirts vs baby shirts lol.
ReplyDeleteFor more items like pants, check out a website called "Making Friends" that has free printable paper dolls & outfits that I've used as patterns for felt people before (to keep him entertained on a long car trip. It worked, but unfortunately I haven't seen the set I made since that trip!)
What a fantastic idea! Now if only it translates into sorting out the real washing for you :)
ReplyDeleteHello and Sorry for not reading carefully before asking where the baskets came from!
ReplyDeleteWhat an awsome idea! I'm so making this for my preschool class, those kids love sorting and love doing laundry in their little play house so this is perfect.
ReplyDeleteFor some reason my target never has a fully stocked dollar section so I think I'm going to hit up the dollar store for some sort of little baskets for this. Might even make a version with slightly larger peices for the younger kids and kids with dexterity issues to play.
Thanks for the great idea!
This is so so so cute!!
ReplyDeleteGrace
Http://herumbrella.com
too cute !!!
ReplyDeleteWe played a similar game for an adult Jersey Shore party. It was a relay, where two teams competed in gym (doing a bench press while drinking an adult beverage), tan (getting fake tanner applied to the face), and laundry (sorting laundry into lights and darks). It was surprisingly fun!
ReplyDeleteHi this is a great idea I can use at work teaching life skills to adults with learning disabilities in the UK. thank you so much for the idea
ReplyDeletecutest thing EVER!!! Just discovered your blog today, tis great, I'm enjoying a good trawl through all you fab posts! :)
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