Not all children love doing chores, so of course not all children like to help out with their parents’ yearly spring cleaning. While spring cleaning may not be your child’s favorite time of the year, it’s important that they contribute to the work load – it’s a great way to foster a sense of responsibility, and it certainly helps speed up the process. But how to motivate them?
A great way to encourage your children to help out with the spring cleaning is to find creative ways to make their chores into a game. Promote a fun, competitive spirit, and children just might forget that they’re actually cleaning!
Encourage competition. If you’ve got multiple kids on your hands, form teams that are as equally matched as possible and assign each team an equivalent chore. Make it a race to see which team can successfully (and thoroughly!) complete their assigned spring cleaning chores first. The spirit of friendly competition will make your kids actually excited to clean. Remember, time certainly counts in a race to complete chores, but so does the quality of their work. For purposes of fun and quality control, teams could inspect each others’ work, which would provide even more incentive for all involved to do their best.
Dangle the carrot. Create tempting material incentives for your kids to do their spring cleaning chores. Let them know that they will receive rewards for completing their chores promptly and thoroughly, such as TV time, treats, special trip to an amusement park or even money. Give each chore a certain value amount, such as 2 points for finding materials to recycle in the garage or $3 for cleaning all doors. If you use a point system, points can then add up to be cashed in for predetermined prizes.
Make teachable moments. Ask older children to teach their younger siblings how to complete chores they may not yet know how to do. Older siblings generally enjoy the opportunity to instruct and supervise their younger siblings, and this is a fun way to teach them to be responsible leaders, as well as to foster a sibling bond.
Making the big task of spring cleaning into a fun game for your kids is a great way to teach them the importance of a well-cleaned home, but just as importantly, it lightens your own load!
Post Author: andyc.
