It seems like any day now I’ll be talking about teaching the girls to drive.  But thankfully, we’re not quite there yet!  🙂  I am reminded again and again, though, that Ariel is growing up quickly and it seems there isn’t enough time to teach her what I want her to know.  We’re beginning to work on “home ec” skills in earnest, and I’m rediscovering the usefulness of cloth napkins.

When Ariel was little, napkins (and washcloths) were the first things we started with, to teach her to fold.  They’re flat and square (or close to it), so the folding is simple.  And it really doesn’t matter if they get folded poorly, because wrinkles aren’t going to make you look bad in public. lol

Today, we rediscovered their usefulness as I began teaching Ariel to iron.  The same properties that make them useful for learning to fold make them useful for learning to iron.  They’re flat, so they’re pretty easy to iron.  If they’re still a bit wrinkled when you’re done, it’s not that big a deal.  (I’m assuming you don’t have your never-ironed-before child ironing the napkins for your wedding or something.)  Even if they get scorched — at least it isn’t your favorite shirt!

Sewing cloth napkins would be a good way to learn to sew a hem, too, by hand or by machine.  And Ariel likes to use them to learn various napkin folds as one of her earliest introductions to setting an attractive table.  (She’s much better at this than I am!)

So there are a few more reasons to get (or, better yet, make) a few cloth napkins if you don’t already have some.