The other day as I was planning a play date with my friend I told her I could come over after the kids did their chores. She asked me how I get my young boys, age 5 and 3 1/2 to clean. I told her a few things, but i thought I'd share a few more.
- Dishes, I have my kids help unload the dishwasher. I make it fun by letting them stand on the counter (normally not allowed) while I hand the dishes to put away.
- I also have them rinse their dishes which is fun because they get to use the sprayer, also usually off limits.
- mopping, one of their favorite chores is to mop. I move the table and chair out, get a bucket of water and give them rags. They call it slip and slid and have a blast getting wet. Then I pull out towels and we dry it together. Sometimes if they need a bit of encouragement I find the dry spots and pretend to try and keep it dry as they come at it with water.
- Laundry, if I have a lot of laundry to fold we have a laundry party. Everything goes into one big pile and we pull clothes out and throw it at whoever it belongs to. Then after the clothes are put away we pick a corner and use mated socks to have a sock war. Then we put away the socks.
- general pick up. I make this fun by playing games like I spy. I spy with my little eye something red, then they put away all the red toys until they find the one I was thinking of. We also have races, pick a number and pick up that number, or pull out a timer and see if they can get a personal best each time. I also try to have them pick up a small amount often so the job doesn't get to big or intimidating.
- I also use rewards on top of the fun. For every chore they get 10-20 minutes of a computer game or after each chore we play or read together. Breaking it up helps a lot.
So what do you do to get your kids to help out around the house? I'm always looking for new ideas and we love making work more fun around here.
This is a very sweet video. I love how it describes our beliefs using members from around the world. My favorite part is near the end where that woman says "Ours is not a Sunday religion, it is an every day religion, it is who we are." I know that, I feel it. I try very hard to live my beliefs every day, to show with every word and action that I am a follower of Jesus Christ.
