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.
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