Fun isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when you ask your kids to help clean up the house. That’s why it’s referred to as a household “chore”. But, there are some things you can do to turn the drudgery of house cleaning into a fun time. Here are some ideas from Joy Kids Universe.
• Make believe – Some imaginative moms dress themselves and their daughters up and pretend they’re playing Cinderella. Or, they pretend they’re filming cleaning TV commercials, and mouth their impromptu lines while they’re cleaning.
• Turn it into a game – Section off areas of the house and challenge the kids to clean up the most sections in the fastest time. Make sure that everyone who did a good job gets a reward.
• Break the job down into simple tasks – Don’t dump an entire cleaning operation on a child. Instead, separate the job into individual tasks and ask the child to do one task at a time. Make sure to match the task to the child’s capabilities.
• Use clean-up time to teach your child generosity – Cleaning up is a good opportunity to segregate stuff you and your child no longer need. You can teach your child about donating the stuff to charity. Casey Rose and the Joybug believe this will teach compassion for others and gratitude for what they have.
• Help kids learn while they clean – Use cleaning time to teach your kids about colors, shapes, and other basic things. For instance, ask them to pick up blue things, or store squares. It’s also a good time to teach them how to use basic tools and cleaning implements. It teaches them to learn freely and joyfully each day.
• Set up a regular cleaning schedule – Explain to your kids why you need the schedule, what you expect, and what the time frames are. Ask for their suggestions. Turn it into a running contest with prizes every month, every semester, and an annual grand prize like a weekend at a beach resort for everyone.
