Making Work Fun

Cleaning and other work doesn't need to be boring in order to be an effective teaching tool for children. There is nothing wrong with making cleaning an enjoyable experience for the family. Here are some ideas to make cleaning fun:

1. Music: Turn on some music to keep you moving! Sing and dance as you clean.
2. Adventure: Turn it into an adventure. Dress up in your adventure clothes, find the messes, and attack them with your sponges and cleaners. We like to go on "treasure hunts" after a holiday. For example, we will go on a treasure hunt for our all of our Christmas decorations after Christmas is over. We find the decorations and bring them back to a designated spot. If something is too high to reach, the kids tell us where it is. This helps cut back on those missed decorations you find the day after you put the boxes away!
3. Cinderella: My friend shared this. She and her girls pretend they are Cinderella and clean the house. When they are done cleaning, they dress up in their princess dresses and have a princess party.
4. Chore Incentives: You can do chore cards, chore jars, sticker charts, lists...whatever keeps everyone motivated. Mix it up from time to time. Nothing will stay motivational forever--you need to change what you do every so often.
5. Focus on the Serving: "Thank you for cleaning that! That is such nice service you are doing!" Use positive talk to thank your child for helping with the family chores. Even if something is "your job," it is nice to be thanked for it.

Doing chores around the house does so much more for a child than simply teaching a child how to work. Honestly, if all my child learned from chores was work ethic, that would be enough for me. People I admire in life are hard workers and learned how to work hard in youth. There is so much value in work ethic.

It will help your child be better citizens and most importantly better spouses and parents. I have in the back of my head a great gift I want to give to my future daughter-in-law--I want to give her the gift of a husband who is helpful in the home and is a hard worker. My mother-in-law gave that to me and I love it!

Work helps our mental development. It helps our character development. One of the best ways for me to get my five year old boy talking about his feelings is to work beside him for an extended period of time. At first, he talks about surface topics, but as time passes, he is soon talking about matters of his heart.

And on a more simple level, chores help children develop fine and gross motor skills. They help with colors (like when sorting laundry). You can work in shapes and counting. 

There is so much value to work! But remember that it is okay to keep work fun.

So, how do you make work fun around your house?

Rainy day laundry sort

Ever been stuck inside the house with a mountain of laundry and kiddos that need energy burned off? Me too! Ever tried to sort laundry with a toddler? Me too! (insert groan and fear here). My daughter's idea of helping usually means unfolding what I just folded or rolling around in the fresh pile of laundry, still warm from the dryer.
So let's make it a learning and burning time, shall we?

Materials: Heaps of laundry. Munchkin that needs to run around.

Have your toddler or preschooler locate one piece of his/her clothing. A sock, shirt, pants, bib, whatever. The idea is for them to grab one piece of laundry as fast as they can and run it to the desired spot. For me, that was off my bed and into her room.

Our conversation went something like this:

Me: Whoa! Look at all this laundry! Let's have a racing game!! Do you see anything that belongs to you in this pile?
C: (nodding)
M: (in a hurried voice) When I count to three, I want you to grab something that belongs to you and run to your room and throw it in a pile on your bed.
C: Okay! I'm so fast!
M: One, two, three!

She grabs a piece, runs it to her bed. While she's running, I'm continuing to sort the other things. She runs back, sorts through to locate something of hers and repeats.
This was a fun way for her to sort, follow directions, and burn off a little energy. And I got my laundry sorted without any pile disruption. :)

For the younger toddler, you can give them a piece that you found and have them run it to the desired location. My 15 month old had a great time with this too. Yay for lots of giggling, sorting laundry, and tired kiddos.

Life Skills

I don't think learning always has to be about knowing letters, numbers, how to read, or something you actually have to sit at a table and practice. I try to remind myself that learning comes in lots of different forms. It's not just my job to help my children learn academic skills, but also life skills. I remember growing up my dad would always say that his responsibility was to see down the road for me as best he could, and to help me grow into a great all around person. So I try not to accept things about my girls as permanent. Maybe she can't sit still well for extended periods of time. Some of it is age, and maybe some of it is that I need to help to her help herself. They can't focus? Ask yourself what you can do to help them learn this skill.

I find that a lot (some legitimately and some not) is blamed on age and/or personality. I remember my world changing when I walked in to observe a Montessori classroom when I was a public school teacher. The kids were working on academics and real life skills. Math, letters, but also things like pouring their own snacks onto a glass plate and washing it when finished. Or hanging clothes up on hangers and putting them in a little closet.

So aside from academics, what kind of real life skills can you help your child learn? I'll be you'd be surprised what a 2 year old (or even an 18 month old) can do.

I've had to abandon some of my type A personality and let some things go. It's not going to look like it would if I had done it. But eventually, with practice, it will be great. Or at least to a point where you don't feel the need to go behind them and fix it.

Here's a list of things I allow Charis to do around the house. Feel free to add to the list! I'd love some new ideas!

1. Her most recent favorite....Peeling hard-boiled eggs!! They look a little crazy when she's done, but I usually use hers for egg salad or something anyways. Great fine motor activity and focusing skill.

2. Scraping her plate when finished. If your child can carry a plate, you may want to let them try scraping it into the trash when finished with dinner. It takes some skill and hand strength (and likely some help from you) to balance and scrape at the same time.

3. Rinsing plates. While I stand with her, she rinses plates off in the sink and then passes them to me. I then put them in the dishwasher. She adores playing in running water.

4. Reverse #3. I rinse and she puts in the dishwasher. This one is tough b/c it requires some hand-eye coordination to get the plates in the right place so they aren't laying flat.

5. Passing me the clean dishes from the dishwasher.

6. Sorting the silverware. I remove all knives and sharps first and then let her sort. I showed her the places where they go, and then let her try.

7. Measuring and pouring soap into the washing mashing.

8.Do you have a salad spinner? Let them spin the salad greens dry!

9. Putting the salad together. I separate all the parts (tomato, greens, cheese, etc) and let her design the salads.

10. Feed the dog! (or cat, bird, whatever) I put a cup in the dog food container and let her scoop it out. Our pup is happy to clean up any spills! I also let her carry the empty water dish to be refilled.

11. Set the table- Yes, this includes breakable glasses and dishes. I set them on the counter and she carries them one at a time to the table. RESIST the urge to straighten things up. The first few times all the plates ended up at one end of the table and silverware haphazardly laying around. She was proud. That's what's important.

12. Making hot chocolate-A winter favorite! We've made it almost a tradition. You can let them squeeze the chocolate and mix. We do a stove top version with cocoa powder, honey, and vanilla. You can also choose a number and count that many marshmallows on the top! It's fun for them to help scoop and whisk. And really, can you have too much chocolate? It's one of those things that's hard to mess up.

13. Dipping bread for french toast! Fun, but messy! Whisking eggs? Serving up the plates?

14. Clean the floors. When I mop, I give Charis a sponge and container of hot water. She loves this.

15. Choosing the vegetable for the night. A fun way to get them involved in meals. Just the other day my 2 year old chose broccoli to go in the pasta and ate it. Success! I just said "Should we have ____ or ____ with dinner?"

16. Sort the laundry- There's lots of versions based on skill. Have them find all the socks and put them in a pile. Can they find their clothes? Just shirts? Carry hangers? Carry the clothes to the correct room? Sort by family member?

17. Load the dryer- I set wet clothes on the dryer door and she pushes them in. I also let her push the start button.

18. Help dust, clean windows, wash baseboards- She has her own spray bottle and cloth. Even just a little rubbing helps...she's occupied and stuff is getting clean!

19. Pick up- We do a hunt for toys that are misplaced. We make it a game and try to clean it up as fast as possible and take it to the correct room.

I was desperate for a #20 to make it even, but this will do. :) Remember to let them get involved in what you are doing. I even give her light grocery bags to help carry in the house.

A few things to remember-

1. Keep it fun, if possible. I usually have 1 thing she does a day that she doesn't particularly enjoy, but that she helps with. The rest I try to make fun. She'd be horrified if I made a batch of muffins without her. :)

2. Don't do everything in one day. If they want to spend the day by your side cleaning, go for it!! But don't feel frustrated when your 2 year old doesn't jump for joy over washing baseboards. I try to follow the JustMommies Cleaning Calendar, which ends up breaking things down nicely for us.

3. They aren't going to master egg peeling (and other things like this) in a day. Or a week. But it's great to see them try.

4. As you go through your day, try to think of how they can be involved with you.

How about you? Any ideas you want to share?

Countdown Chain

If your preschooler is like mine, he just can't wait until XYZ happens. You might find yourself avoiding telling him about something exciting that is coming up because you know you will hear, "How many more days until XYZ?...But that's a long time!" over and over each day. Your preschooler is starting to understand time, which isn't always a good thing :)

If your toddler is like mine, she has no idea XYZ is going to happen. You want her to be able to enjoy the anticipation of something fun coming up. Anticipation is half the fun! (unless you have a preschooler asking you how much longer over and over).

The countdown chain is your answer to both issues. It gives the preschooler something tangible to look at. It also helps him more concretely understand time. It gives the toddler a reminder that there is something to be excited about.

You can use the countdown chain for anything: birthdays, holidays, start of school, the next visit to grandma's...whatever you want to countdown to.

Last fall, my mother-in-law made a countdown chain with Brayden (then 3) for Halloween. She made it in black and orange. On the orange strips, she wrote things like "Hug your mom" and "tell your dad you love him." Over the weekend, Brayden and I made a countdown chain for Halloween, and I decided to take that concept one step further.

AGE RANGE
My guess is that your child needs to be at least 18 months old to enjoy this. Kaitlyn was 18 months old last year for Halloween and just didn't care. Even now at 2.5, she isn't terribly excited over it, so don't feel bad if your child isn't as excited as you envisioned. At 3, Brayden liked it and at 4, he absolutely loves it.

SKILLS DEVELOPED

• Colors
• Sorting
• Chores
• Fine motor skills (if you let your child create the chains--you could also let your child cut out the strips of paper)
• Time concept

SUPPLIES

• Paper (whatever colors you want)
• Pen
• Scissors (or some other tool for cutting)
• Stapler (or glue)

PREP

• Cut pieces of paper one inch wide by about 6 inches long. Cut one strip of paper for each day there is until your main event (what you are counting down to).
• Gather supplies

ACTIVITY

1. Sort your paper into colors (I had Brayden sort them).
2. Decide on a category for each color of paper for an activity. We did "fun chores" for Red, "Halloween activities" for Yellow, "loving acts" for Brown, and we left Green blank so we could decide something fun that day. Since we keep Sundays for worship in our family, I put green on each Sunday.
3. Have your child help you decide things to do for each piece of paper. Write the activity on the piece of paper.
4. Arrange your papers in the order you want them in.
5. Staple or glue your first piece of paper into a circle.
6. Hook your second piece of paper through your first circle and staple or glue it closed.
7. Continue making this chain until you are done.
8. Each day, have your child remove one chain. Perform the activity listed on the paper. This is a great way for your child to count down to an activity. You can channel the excited energy into chores :)

PHOTOS

Papers sorted into color categories

Daily activities written out

Up close of daily activities

First link done

Completed chain