How to Teach Your Child to Wash Dishes

Kids love to play with water, and parents like a clean kitchen. Combine the two while teaching your children the importance keeping your kitchen clean and sanitary. Teach them the joy to be found in washing dishes.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Dirty dishes
• Step ladder or box
• Soap
• Scrub brush
• Sponge
• Patience

1. Set up the stepladder or box so that your child is level with the sink.

2. Give him his own sponge and scrubber and create a place near the sink to store it.

3. If you have a dishwasher, get her started by having her rinse off the dishes. You inspect them and show her how to place them in the dishwasher. When she masters rinsing off the dishwasher dishes, she is ready to move on to the more challenging step of dishwashing.

4. Start with the easy-to-clean dishes and demonstrate to him what a clean dish looks like. Let him do the next one on his own, inspect it and point out what is good and what was missed. Wash anything sharp or breakable yourself while showing him how to handle fragile and dangerous kitchen items.

5. Dry the dishes for her and show her where they go. You are slowing building them into an active participant in preparing and cleaning up after family meals.

6. When the dishes are clean and stored away, have him help you wipe off and dry the counters and the sink. Walk away with the shared joy of a job well done.

Tips & Warnings

• Do not worry if water splashes out of the sink. This needs to be fun if you are going to encourage their continued participation in the kitchen.
• Until you are confident your children can be safe, you should handle washing all of the sharp and fragile dishes.