what kids can do.ppt
DESCRIPTION
http://www.fridayschildmontessori.com/blog/useful-jobs-for-small-hands All chores should be age appropriate and demonstrated correctly, and children can do chores indoors and out. Jobs include sorting laundry, putting away dishes, watering the garden, dusting furniture, weeding, feeding animals, putting recyclables into the crate, vacuuming and washing soft toys.TRANSCRIPT
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Obviously, you’re not going to set your three-year old the task of cooking dinner or mowing the
lawn.
That’s bound to end in disaster. There are heaps of simpler jobs or components of larger jobs
that can be done by smaller people.
Sorting laundry.
While folding the sheets will be a bit too much for smaller arms,
children can help sort the laundry into piles and make sure that
socks go together.
This is quite a good matching and sorting exercise of the sort that
they will do at Friday’s Child Montessori.
Putting away suitable dishes.
Whether you use a dishwasher or do the dishes by hand, small
children are able to put some of the clean ones away – and dry
them, too, if you’re doing them by hand.
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Sharp knives, glassware, china and anything breakable should be
put away by adults or older siblings who are less likely to
smash things and cut themselves, as should anything that gets put away somewhere that your pre-
schooler can’t reach.
Watering the garden by hand
Sprinklers tend to be frowned on if there’s a water shortage and it uses less water to use the hose.
This is a great job for small people, who have fun playing with the
hose and getting water everywhere.
Explain why the plants need water help your child observe the day-to-day changes in the garden while he/she is watering: where has the
pumpkin vine got to today?
How tall is the sunflower? Are the tomatoes ripe yet?
Expect your child to get completely soaked and possibly to
nibble a few things out of the garden.
Pulling out weeds
It’s best if you teach your child to identify one particular weed
species and encourage them to pull that one out to save your
seedlings being ripped up by an over-enthusiastic helper.
Chickweed is a good one for children to pull out, as it has
shallow roots, doesn’t have thorns, is very invasive and is edible.
Convolvulus vines are other candidates, as they are easy to
identify and easy to grab.
Dusting furniture
If you child can reach it, he or she can dust it. Damp-dusting is better
than using an old-fashioned feather duster, as it picks up the dust more easily and is easier for
smaller people to handle.
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Feeding animals
If you get your pre-schooler to feed animals, it’s best to let them
do this with dry biscuit food for cats and dogs, seed for birds, or with fruit and veggie scraps for
guinea pigs.
Preschoolers and tinned cat food isn’t a good mix – it goes
everywhere and there is a distinct chance that the child will try
sampling the cat food.
Taking items to be recycled to the crate
If you have a bin for a council-run recycling scheme, children can be put in charge of making sure the junk mail and old newspapers get into this bin,
and probably other items as well, such as bottles and cans.
Vacuuming
From a child’s perspective, a vacuum cleaner is a lot of fun: it makes a great noise and sucks
stuff up like magic.
The head can detach and then it sucks your hair and grabs at you.
You may have to ensure that the pre-tidying that always seems to be needed before vacuuming a
house with children is done properly to avoid bits of Lego and
the like going up the vacuum cleaner.
Washing soft toys
Dry-cleaning fluid is pretty nasty stuff, so if the teddy bears and other soft toys are looking a bit
manky, give them a bath in warm water with hand soap.
Do this outside. The toys will need to be rinsed and then spun in the
washing machine at slow to medium speed before being dried
(either on the washing line or in a machine – or just sitting up in a
nice sunny spot). Do this activity outside, as water and suds go
everywhere.