Home is where your heart is

Home is where your heart is

Thursday, August 29, 2013

The Church of Jesus Christ at a glance (Mormons)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7o-ByARPf9w
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.

Tuesday, August 13, 2013

How to teach young kids to clean

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.