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Sick of nagging your kids to do their chores? Try these 5 easy life hacks from Bianca at Well Worth Living!
If your laundry pile is reaching new heights and dusting is a distant memory, it may be time to gather the troops and enlist a few extra helping hands. Why not employ your energetic offspring?
Yes, I sense your hesitation, it’s sometimes easier just to do it yourself, but let’s weigh the benefits.
5 Ways to Make Chores Kid-Friendly Fun
Children don’t inherently want to clean up, but they constantly want to play. Cleaning can keep the kids entertained while lightening your load.
Yes, really.
If learning to cleanup is made easy, you instill healthy habits in your children. At the same time, it teaches them responsibility and results in growing self-worth from a job well done.
Finding Treats Makes Chores Kid-Friendly
Rewards are a great incentive to get kids motivated. This works like a charm for picking up toys and dusting.
Of course, ensure the jobs you assign are age appropriate, but this one is a winner for younger kids.
Your preschooler will love these 11 ways to make cleaning up even more fun!
To add to the efficiency of the cleaning, use unpaired socks as dusters on their hands. If you’re feeling crafty, add a felt nose and eyes to the socks and let the little dust monsters go to work.
Treats that are found while cleaning up can be enjoyed when they are done, or depending on how many little tokens or treasures they find, they qualify for a reward or pocket money at the end of the week.
Inspector Clean is on the Scene
Dress up time for the little ones is a guaranteed way to anchor their attention. Step one involves cleaning up their own space, like a playroom or bedroom.
This task can be made much easier with kid-friendly furniture like trundle drawers under beds and storage boxes. If it’s easy for them to access storage and toy boxes, picking up is a breeze.
Points can be assigned to making the bed, cleaning up after kiddy sleepovers, packing away toys, opening curtains or ensuring clothes are in the laundry basket.
Step two is a visit to the room by the inspector who should be carrying a police badge at the very least. The inspector can be one of the kids or a parent.
The inspector gets to mark the cleanliness of the room and collect items that have been left out of place. Confiscated items can be bought back with reward points (listed below) or returned on completion of another chore.
Timed Races Make Chores Kid-Friendly
Set the egg timer or alarm clock to go off in short 5-minute intervals. This ensures younger children remain engaged.
Assign a task like cleaning up an area or packing away books and toys. When you say go, the kids get to scramble and scurry to get the task done as quickly as possible.
Use an egg timer to help motivate kids to clean!
The winner is the one who does the best job and returns the most items to their correct spots.
As they manage to complete tasks successfully, you can increase the amount of time for a “quick clean.”
Use Reward Chart to Track Success
Some would argue that chores should not be rewarded, but that they are an expected contribution of all family members. While we won’t argue this point, why not sweeten the deal and have compliant helpers instead of unwilling tagalongs that do only half the job.
Create a list of chores for each person in the house. Upon completion, a sticker can be added to the chart or marble to a reward jar. These points can be earned and lost depending on complete or incomplete chores.
At the end of the week, everyone can get a reward depending on their performance. Sibling rivalry can go a long way in improving the quality and quantity of work, so maybe add a bonus chore list for extra credits.
Who knows, you could lighten your load substantially.
Garden Work is Kid-Friendly Chore Fun
Kids don’t mind getting messy, in fact, they often prefer it. If your garden beds need a little tilling, get them into their rain boots and send them into the garden with a child-safe spade or tool.
Work at their side and they’ll get to copy your actions. It’s great fun and even better bonding time.
To turn up the fun with this task, just add water. This could involve washing down the patio, watering the plants or washing the car.
Kids love to garden – especially when they DIY the planters themselves!
This may be a little chaotic depending on your child’s control and enthusiasm with a garden hose, but fun will be had. Next time around, you can hone in those skills.
If cleaning up is truly fun then chores become something kids enjoy and do with pleasure. Imagine cleaning rituals become something the family actually anticipates.
Play music, and dance through the errands. By running with the spirit of play that naturally infuses our children, work can become play and the end result is not just a clean home, but a happy one.
How do you make errands or chores more fun? We’d love to steal your secrets!
Written by Bianca at Well Worth Living. With a constant focus on growing a better quality of life, Bianca applies practical solutions to everyday challenges in the effort to make living even more fun. Simple solutions mixed with a spirit of play mean freeing up thought space and redirecting that energy to things that truly make a difference.
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