May 7, 2010
Make Cleaning A Game
Make Cleaning A Game by Penny E. Stone www.championpress.com My house was so cluttered and messy! I had been suffering with extreme lower back pain and bending over to pick up anything off the floor was out of the question. I was under a doctor's care and in physical therapy for the condition. I had a good excuse for a messy house, but it still grated on my nerves. Finally I decided I could let it go no longer. As I looked around, I came to the conclusion a mess this bad was going to take me at least three days to clean up; not to mention the amount of time I'd be "out of commission" as a result. And it was a given that the kids didn't want to do the work either. What's a mother to do at times like this? Then the idea hit me....why not make a game of it? I called my three kids together, ages 10, 5 and 2. This is what I told them. "We're going to play a game! I'm going to turn on the CD player with some real lively music. You're all going to draw a slip of paper out of a hat and you can ONLY DO that ONE THING for ONLY as long as ONE SONG lasts. When the song ends, you HAVE TO STOP!" I picked up a pad of post-it notes and walked through the house, jotting down one chore per piece of notepaper. I folded each slip and put it in my son's plastic fireman hat. The chores included, "Pick up all pop cans, empty, and put in recycling bag." "Pull everything out from under the couch." "Pick up all books and put them on the bookshelf." "Take all dirty dishes to the kitchen." You get the idea. My two-year-old even got in on the game. To ensure she could find chores suited to her age and ability, I marked the easiest one's with her initial on the outside of the paper. The two older kids knew if they drew a slip with a "K" on it that it went back in the hat. Only Kiersten could draw those. When the song ended, they all had to stop doing what they were doing. We ended up drawing chores and working during every-other-song. If the chore was not completed, the post-it note went back into the hat. If it did get completed, we discarded it. After playing this game for almost two hours, I inserted a slip marked with an "X" in the hat. Whoever drew that slip HAD TO SIT AND REST for the entire song while everyone else worked. (My son wanted to dance to the music instead of resting!) But no one was allowed to keep the "X" slip for two consecutive times. To my amazement, my house was totally cleaned in just under four hours. And my kids loved doing it! My five year old even said, "Can we play that game again, Mom?" I think this tactic for cleaning house worked because it kept my kids focused on only one chore at a time and they worked for short durations of time. The next time your house gets really messy, why not make cleaning it a game? Your kids will love it and I guarantee you'll love the results! I know I did! Penny Stone has written several books for Champion Press. Crazy About Crockpots: 101 Easy Inexpensive Dinners for less than .75cent; a Serving is a collection of original, down-home cooked crockpot dinners that can be prepared for under a dollar per serving. "As an entrepreneur myself, there have been times when it's been 'feast or famine' for my family." Penny's other books are 365 Quick, Easy Inexpensive Dinner Menus , a collection of family favorite recipes (almost 1,000 in all!), kitchen tips and wisdom, food-related trivia, and lots of kid-friendly activities and The Taste of Culture series.

Posted by Staff at 1:57 AM