Diversity and engagement

Most of this weekend I engaged my girls 4 and 6 (in 4 days) in cleaning up the house and helping with tasks from my business. By first taking time to explain what success looked like at the end of our task and allowing them have their own approach, I found the job of harnessing my girls high energy and wandering attention fun instead of a chore.

Just one example: The girls are into sorting so they enjoyed opening letters and sorting the documents into piles that I helped to identify. Their creativity shined through as they made another classification of document called "lucky stuff" which was anything that looked like a coupon of any sort. I happily agreed since it was mostly junk mail and the "lucky stuff" kept them interested in the task for over 20 minutes while I did other things pausing briefly to whoow the "lucky stuff" they found.

We changed our attention to tasks often during the day. I found, as long as I allowed their interest to change and directed them instead of trying to keep their focus on one thing we had fun. They felt proud that they could contribute and "help Daddy" and I got lots done but most importantly spent quality time with my girls and taught them the value of completing something.

Sorting Laundry

I told the girls that if they wanted any of their clothes washed they had to sort them into the piles I am creating with my own clothes in my bedroom. Sarah jumped up immediately and said she wanted to help. She got a basket and filled it with her and Kayla's dirty clothes. She said that if Kayla didn't want to do it, she would do it. After about two baskets, Kayla decided we were having some fun, so she joined in. The girls sorted all of their dirty clothes while I layed on the bed and filed my nails.

Pictures of Billy's Kids Cleaning

These are pictures from our blog author, Billy Hoge. She was able to get her kids to clean at a very young age by making it a game.

Click here to view these pictures larger

Lessons in Cleaning House

Found this interesting article with some great tips on getting the kids to help clean.

Lessons in Cleaning House

Cassidy (my nephew) and his friend

This is my holiday house in South Africa and my nephew is doing the dishes with his friend from a few houses away. I brought all 4 of my kids up to clean and share in the housework and they LOVED helping out. I have videos of them washing the car and scrubbing floors and doing windows from the age of 2. To them it was just another game. Today they have no problem doing their own houses. They are now 30, 28, 23 and 19 years old.

Team Carter

We already had a chore chart, it was just not being used, so I cleared it off and started fresh. I have two girls, ages 4 and 5. They each had a chart, with a blank one underneath that was to hold all the magnets, these are now my husband and mine. We each picked a chore to do for the week. One person is the chore monitor, in charge of asking if each person did their chore for the day and giving them a smiling face magnet. To my surprise, the chores that my daughters picked were washing dishes for the 4 year old, and taking care of the cats for my 5 year old, and yes I did explain that that meant scooping the litter box, she said that that was her favorite part. 10 years my husband and I have had issues with who was going to scoop the litter box, who knew that our 5 year old would love it!