Folding clothes and Halloween candy

I am an online grocery shopper. Other than picking up something I’ve forgotten or something for an unplanned event or meal, I have not stepped foot into a grocery store in months…months!  It is probably my favorite thing to order groceries from my bed and then pick them up from my car. Not only do I love the convenience, I save so much money because I purchase what I need and not impulse buy while in the store.

On Saturday morning, I was at my grocery store at 7am for my pick up appointment. I remembered Thursday night, while placing my order, to get Halloween candy for Halloween night’s trick or treaters.  Little did I know that the weather would not cooperate with us and it is going to rain on Thursday night. And I have a lot of candy. Yesterday one of the Rosebros wanted to open the candy and asked, “Can I have some candy?”  My immediate response was, “No, you can all the leftover candy Thursday night.” His response was, “I need the practice.”

He never stops making me laugh. But I got to thinking about his “I need practice” comment. While he needs no practice eating a chocolate bar, I thought back to that afternoon. He was helping me fold laundry. He needed a lot of practice on how to do it correctly. He really struggled on folding t-shirts and then towels. I showed him once, then I guided him through one attempt then his second attempt. Then he did it on his own and we started the process over again until he did it well without me fussing.  Not one time did I google a worksheet on folding shirts. Not one time did I show him a video. Not one time did I have him cut strips to teach the order of folding a shirt. He practiced. He practiced over and over and over. At first he watched me as I described and explained each step carefully. Then he had guided practice where I stood over him and stopped him when he was about to make a wrong fold of the shirt. Then he did it alone.

Late last night I was walking the dog and I came back in to Rosebro 1 and 2 folding laundry. My first thought is that something really bad must have happened while I was walking the dog. I mean my boys were working together to get a task completed that 1. I had not asked them to do and 2. They hate doing. I watched as Rosebro2 explained to Rosebro1 how to fold a tshirt “the way mom said to do it.” Rosebro1 explained that he didn’t like it that way because there was a crease on the sides of the shirt and he preferred to fold it a different way. He then proceeded to teach Rosebro 2 his method. I didn’t care which method they used as long as laundry was folded and put away.

Teach. Teach. Teach.  Explicitly teach. Model. Give guided practice. Then allow for independence and mistakes. Reteach through those mistakes- explicitly teaching again. Model, give guided practice and then allow for independence.  It is a simple, simple formula. And it is an effective one. Student can never, ever learn something that they are not explicitly taught. Never.

And reward them. Reward them often. Your praise goes a long, long way. I was so proud of the Rosebros for folding all the laundry that I had to order my Halloween candy.