make cleaning fun for kids and myself?
February 5th, 2010 | 
Author: I am a single father with 2 wonderful kids. They are 11 and 5. Neither like to do their chores or cleaning. Is there a way to make it fun and efficient for us? We live in an apartment so it gets cluttered pretty fast. Any tips will be appreciated.
Thanks!
One fun idea that I once heard is to play ‘detective’. The job of the cleaner is to remove everything in an area and put it away in the proper place. The job of the detective is to try and remember what was there. The kids can take turns and will have a good time.
Remember, they are kids and don’t always remember where everything is supposed to go. If their rooms are really messy with clothes, you can tape a picture on the drawer of what goes in it (ex. shirts, socks, toys, etc.).
You are teaching them a life lesson about organizing their lives. If you do the work of teaching organization now, you won’t have so many mornings of lost papers, backpacks, and emotional meltdowns in the years to come.
Mia
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5 Responses to “make cleaning fun for kids and myself?”
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Okay after a quick search I found a good site, with some pretty cool suggestions, ie: giving them some old socks, let ‘em slip ‘em on their hands, and dust…carefully but still, they are dusting!
Another was "trash can basketball" with a little basket/net rigged up over the trash can.
Personally I have found that baskets are great for storing things.
When cleaning, rather than go from room to room with one or two items it might be better to have a box/basket in the room and anything that doesn’t belong in that room, goes into the basket, to be returned upon passing through said room. Here is one site…hope it is helpful, I am a grown woman with a cleaning business…and I don’t even like doing chores..lol
References :
http://blog.thefind.com/thefind_theblog/2007/03/spring_cleaning_5.html
Play Music, Dance as you clean, Act like a fool. Let loose. Make this a time where yall can laugh and enjoy each other. Sing loud into the Broom Stick, Dance with the Vac. Good luck.
References :
Make it into a game! Give them each a room and challenge them to finish first. Make a prize at the end, for example, if they got a room clean, they would get an extra helping of dessert or something. Give them a challenge and explain to them that when you get hard work done well that you can treat yourselves.
When I was younger, I remember my Mother used to charge us a dime if we left something out. If she had to clean up breakfast dishes left on the table, we would get fined. It might work, depending on if they are broke or not.
Another tip is to not give them a full allowance if they do not finish their chores. When I was little, I got excited because my allowance was 5 dollars. But there was a catch- by the end of the week (when it was time to get our allowance) if our room was not clean, we wouldn’t get it. That got me into the habit of having a clean room.
Good luck! I hope I helped.
References :
music is motivation =) Blast Radio Disney amd sing with them. Turn it into High School Musical 3 "Cleaning Up" lol
References :
One fun idea that I once heard is to play ‘detective’. The job of the cleaner is to remove everything in an area and put it away in the proper place. The job of the detective is to try and remember what was there. The kids can take turns and will have a good time.
Remember, they are kids and don’t always remember where everything is supposed to go. If their rooms are really messy with clothes, you can tape a picture on the drawer of what goes in it (ex. shirts, socks, toys, etc.).
You are teaching them a life lesson about organizing their lives. If you do the work of teaching organization now, you won’t have so many mornings of lost papers, backpacks, and emotional meltdowns in the years to come.
Mia
References :