My son doesn't have any assigned chores at 26 months, but he definitely has passions for specific housework. Since he learned to walk, he has been obsessed with trash and recycling. Trash and Recycling days at our house are major events. In fact, this past trash day my son pulled a chair up to the window and waited for his Grammy to arrive so they could take out the trash together, a weekly ritual. He cannot leave the house or take a nap until the trash truck has come by, and on pretty days Grammy takes him out to wave to the driver, who kindly waves back. He has a recycling truck he loves using for pretend play and even a trash/recycling book. One of the first compound instructions that he understood was to put object 1 in the trash and and object 2 in the recycling. More recently, he has started emptying our small trash cans from around the house, carrying them to the laundry room where our primary trash inside is located and dumping them into the larger trash can.
T also loves sweeping and mopping. He has his own tools handy and will get them most of the time when he spills something.
He is quite fond of the dishwasher, and we are quite fond of its child lock feature as he has more than once started a load on us when the dishwasher wasn't ready. Sometimes he will put his dirty dishes in the dishwasher himself, which is great when the dishwasher is empty or contains dirty dishes. In our house, that's not always the case so we have to watch out for dirty dishes being mixed with clean dishes. He loves to help unload the dishwasher and has performed this task for many months. Only recently has he began to unload the dishwasher without us starting this activity. Seeing my toddler placing glasses on the kitchen counter from the dishwasher still gets me running to the kitchen.
This is part of an overall change in his level of independence. I have always tried to give him as much freedom to do for himself as he could/wanted, but lately, he has taken this to an all new level. For example, he didn't want the windows open, but when we closed them and allowed him to help open them, it was okay. Needless to say, I'm learning an all new level of patience as well.
His new favorite activity as part of this increase in independence is laundry. It is now not uncommon to see him go running by with his small laundry basket in tow headed to the laundry room to take clothes out of the dryer or move towels from the washer to the dryer. He sometimes gets the order confused and mixes the clean wet linens with the dirty or puts clean clothes back in the dryer. He also creates laundry when there is none, such as throwing hangers into the washing machine. Luckily, we have always caught this before he turned the washing machine on as he knows how to operate both the washer and dryer button/dials. He also likes to empty the lint trap in the dryer, an activity that's always identifiable by the presence of dust/dirt in the dryer tub.
T has also been learning to fold and put his clothes on hangers with some success. With my step by step guidance, he can fold clothes but frequently ends up scrunching them together like an accordion. He can put pants on a hanger but not in a neatly folded way yet. He is great at obtaining hangers from his closet and hanging his clothes back up for us.
Certainly the level of access and independence T has creates obstacles. There are moments we go running to the laundry room to figure out what he's done and correct it when we hear the chimes of our dryer being started or the door slamming shut. There are moments we are frustrated by him un-doing our own progress. There's also an inherent feeling of amazement and pride that comes with watching my 2-year-old son achieve what his heart desires.
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