Children love re-enacting moments in our everyday lives. This activity will be a fun way to pretend to do the laundry while your child strengthens their fine motor skills. This will also be a great way to talk about the different articles of clothing we own, their shapes and colours. 

What You will Need 

Process 

Tip: Use tape to cover each piece of clothing to make them sturdier and less likely to accidentally rip while your child is handling it. 
 

Engaging with Your Child 

Prepare the play space and articles of clothing ahead of time. Invite your child by sitting near the activity and saying “My Oh My, I have so much laundry I need to wash and hang! Can you help me with the laundry today?”. You can begin by hanging an article of clothing and watch as your child begins to imitate what you’re doing. Encourage your child to hold the clothing with one hand while using the other to open the clothespin to hang it on the string. This may seem like a simple action to complete as adults but it requires a lot of effort out of children. It requires them to use their fine motor skills and to coordinate their bilateral and hand-eye abilities. Bilateral coordination is the ability to use the right and left sides of your body at the same time or in alternating movements.  

Allow your child to lead the conversation during this activity and meet them at their developmental stage. You can enrich this activity with vocabulary by naming the articles of clothing and their colours as you hang them. If you have an older child, ask them questions such as, “What shapes do you see in the pants?” and “What’s your favourite piece of clothing?”.  
 

Tip: You can extend this activity by going on a clothing scavenger hunt to match your paper-clothes to clothes you own at home. Ask your child “Do we have a shirt that has short sleeves at home? Can you find it?”.