Little Kid blew flour all over Grammy’s bathroom when I wasn’t looking. So, he learned to scrub a sink.
This routine is a mixture of fun, responsibility, fine and gross motor skills, and practical living. It’s beautiful. It’s all kinds of pinching, squeezing, grasping, and twisting practice. Great for kids with trunk weakness, low grip strength, or writing motor skill struggles. Develops those growing hand and arm muscles in a sneaky, somewhat fun way. (Well, fun the first time or two.)
Materials needed: sink, small grater, bar of soap, handbeater, towel for drying
1. Have child grate soap on the counter. (See above)
2. Have child brush flakes into sink of warm water and use hand beater to get the suds going.
3. Soak and squeeze a sponge until it’s bubbly.
4. Scrub counter in little circles, moving left to right, top to bottom. (This is obviously not 100% necessary, but the more you can sneak this in on little kids, the easier math and reading are later.)
5. Drain sink. Rinse sponge. Wipe down to remove suds.
6. Repeat until not longer soapy.
7. Dry with a towel and put away supplies.
Sometimes little kids want to “practice” big people skills. If you’re little person thinks of scrubbing as a big person thing, he might want to do it a few times in a row. Remember that the clean sink isn’t the goal. It’s all that motor practice and self-esteem building that comes from mastering a “grown up” skill. So be sure to allow them to repeat the whole process as many times as they like.
*Note: If you don’t have a handbeater and grater, you may, of course, show them how to put a drop of soap on the counter, however, you miss out on all that lovely motor work that comes from the grating and beating.