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I DON’T WANT TO CLEAN MY ROOM: A Mess of Poems About Chores
illustrated by Carol Koeller
Dutton Children’s Books
ISBN: 978-0-525-47776-1
On the Line
It’s summertime,
the weather’s fine
and we dry laundry on the line.
I find socks among the clothes and m-a-r-c-h them
down the line
in rows.
Grandma hangs the great big sheets.
They build my walls–
so fresh and sweet!
I stay there,
quiet as a mouse,
and play inside my laundry house.
— Hope Vestergaard © 2007
From Kirkus:
“Preschool teachers may find this collection useful for reinforcing basic housekeeping skills in the classroom, and parents might like to try the poems with their preschoolers as a way of focusing on the message of families working cooperatively.” © 2007
From Children’s Literature:
“Parents will enjoy sharing these poems with their youngsters and may actually get some cooperation with household tasks as a result. ” © 2007
As a preschool teacher, I learned that making chores fun with games or silly songs makes them a lot more appealing, and this trick worked well at home, too. Both my boys loved to play around in the clean laundry, and when we got a new dryer with a fold down door, my younger son really liked to help me take the clothes out. That inspired the poem Laundry Day. When my editor read Laundry Day, she asked about more poems about doing chores, and the rest is, as they say, messtory.
Trying to motivate your little helpers? Download a chore chart to help them keep track of their progress!
