Articles Parenting - Babies, Toddlers and Preschoolers Cleaning the house with kids
| Cleaning the house with kids |
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| Sunday, 25 May 2008 14:01 | |
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I think that a perfectly clean house and young children are contradictory. One of my friends' mums said that "cleaning a house while you have children is like shovelling while it's still snowing". Perhaps the impact of that statement is lost to us in the snow-free parts of Australia, but you get the point. One tool I use in my arsenal to attempt to have some semblance of order in my home is to enlist the help of the kids. We make it a game. Allowing the children to participate means that they are not trashing another area of the house while you clean. Cleaning games for kids(Please note: I have two preschoolers. These games will need to be modified for older or younger children.) 1. Colour Race To be honest, I'm not really sure how this came to be called a race. One person is the cleaner (or with a larger family with older kids the kids could race each other) and the others take turns at calling out the task. The type of task is simple. My kids will call out "Pick up seven white things" or "Put away nineteen blue things". If my kids manage to "trick" me, by saying something that I can't do, such as "ten orange things" I have to sit down and they get a turn at being the cleaner. After a few goes, they usually get tired of cleaning and swap. This works when your kids are young enough to not work out that they're actually working. For older kids who race each other to pick up and put away "10 white things" for example, the fastest could get to sit out while the slower one has another go. You might like to put a maximum number on turns in a row so that the youngest children aren't always cleaning. This works best in our living area which serves as lounge room, play room and study/office. 2. Washing Race In the washing race (again, not really a race for us yet) I fold the washing. I give each child an item of washing to be put away, tell them where it goes and how to get there - for example: hop, crawl, walk backwards or walk like a duck are all options. It's not the most efficient way to get washing put away but it gets the job done. Older children really could race each other. 3. Mummy's Silly Bingo In this, we pour out all the baskets of washing we have (usually six or more to make the game good) onto the bed in the master bedroom. Any item of washing we find that belongs in the master bedroom we have to say "Bingo" when we find it. When we match a pair of socks we say "Double Bingo". As daggy as it sounds, it works in getting the kids to help. You might be able to modify it for your circumstances and family humour. 4. I-Spy Since we have little kids, we don't use letters of the alphabet yet, but it still works. Whoever is "it" says "I spy with my little eye, something that is made of paper" or "Something that is pink" or whatever description takes their fancy. The other players then all have to put away things that match that description until someone puts the item selected by "it" away. Then the person who puts that item away becomes "it". I hope these games give you some inspiration in getting your children to help clean the house. |
