Put steps in order

What it looks like when your child can do it

• — Given shuffled cards for making toast, your child lays them out so the bread goes in the toaster before anything gets spread on it.
• — Asked what to do if a glass breaks, your child says tell a grown-up first, keep everyone back second, and only then talks about cleaning up.
• — Your child can say why a step goes where it does: you have to fill the cup before you can pour from it.

How to teach it at the kitchen table

1. 01

   Start with a job your child knows

   Brushing teeth, making toast, feeding the dog. Ask your child to tell you the steps, and write each one on its own slip of paper.

2. 02

   Shuffle and rebuild

   Mix up the slips and ask your child to put them back in order on the table. Then read them out loud from top to bottom and listen for whether the job still makes sense.

3. 03

   Ask which steps could swap

   For each pair of steps, ask whether they could trade places. Some can, like the left shoe or the right shoe first. Some cannot, like socks before shoes, and knowing the difference is the real skill.

4. 04

   Practice one safety order out loud

   If something spills or breaks: first tell a grown-up, then keep people and pets away, then wait for the grown-up to say how to clean it. Those first two moves never change, whatever hit the floor.

You will need: Slips of paper or index cards · A pencil

Try it together

1. Try 1

   Write these on slips and shuffle them: Spread the butter. Put the bread in the toaster. Take out the toast when it pops up. Push the lever down. Ask your child to put them in order.

   Listen for  Bread in, lever down, toast out when it pops up, butter last. Ask why the butter cannot come before the toaster, and listen for a reason, not only the order.

2. Try 2

   Write these on slips and shuffle them: Put the letter in the envelope. Write the letter. Seal the envelope. Fold the letter. Ask your child to put them in order.

   Listen for  Write, fold, put it in the envelope, seal it. Ask what would happen if the envelope got sealed first, and listen for the reason: the letter could not get in.

3. Try 3

   Give your child two slips: Put on your socks. Put on your shoes. Ask whether they could swap places. Then ask the same about left shoe and right shoe.

   Listen for  Socks and shoes cannot swap. Left and right shoe can. Your child is sorting steps that must stay in order from steps that are free to move.

4. Try 4

   Ask your child to write four numbered steps for watering a plant. Then act out exactly what each step says, in the order written.

   Listen for  Four steps you can follow as written, such as fill the cup, carry it to the plant, pour the water on the soil, put the cup back. If you end up pouring before filling, the order needs a fix.

Watch for

• — Getting the right steps in a mixed-up order and deciding it does not matter. Act out the mixed-up version so your child can see what it produces.

If it is not there yet

• — Go back to three steps from a job your child does every day, and use the real objects instead of slips of paper.
• — Say each step out loud while doing the job together, then try saying them in order without doing them.

A few days of this is normal, and it is time well spent. The lesson will still be there, and it will go faster.

Where this skill comes up

• How Scientists Actually Find Out · Lesson 11

  When Something Goes Wrong in the Kitchen

  Needs it because every emergency on the sheet is scored on the order of the actions, not just the actions.

• How Scientists Actually Find Out · Lesson 19

  Steps Somebody Else Could Follow

  Needs it because A procedure is ordered steps, and a step out of place makes a different investigation.