Home Keeping fun? What is Home Keeping?
Well, a house is just anyone’s house, but a home, is well more homey. So, I am calling Home Keeping. 
Well, one Thursday morning, I woke up ready to set the house on fire….Seriously. The junk and clutter had pretty much pushed me to my limits…So, I decided, I have six children, they need to help with this, and I can make it fun!
So, I took a kitchen sized plastic bag and wrote To Put Away on it. I told each child to find ten things to put in that bag and to be done in 10 minutes! That would be 60 things that they would put in their bag to put away…When they get it full, they put them away in under 10 minutes again and get 5 chocolate chips.
Next….To Throw Away. Ten Minutes for each child to find ten things to throw away…and when it is in the dumpster, they again get five chocolate chips.
I have started doing this for our 15 minute afternoon tidy, only each person has to find at least 5 things each. Even my husband has seen the difference. Anytime we can make a game out of chore time, we are going to see happier kiddos helping us and a job better done.
Recently, I saw a picture on Facebook of a little girl sweeping the floor, her wise mother turned it into a game, by taping a square on the floor for the little one to make a pile in. Genus!
Other things we have done, are:
- Saturday morning races. Put three kids on a team and give them three rooms or zones to clean. Let daddy be the judge when he comes home at lunch as to who did the best job.
- Place encouragement slips around that they find while cleaning.
- Listen to music and dance while cleaning
- Have relay races as we put things away…especially fun after projects such as crafts.
Bonus to making chore time fun…mom burns more calories, and kiddos burn more energy.
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mother, christian, wife, woman, child of God. It is about my life as a farmer’s wife, as a cook, a baker, a nurse, a teacher, a woodworker, a housekeeper, a farmer (yep, I drive tractors, pick up hay bales, and other farm duties), a gardener. So, what you read here, is me, as a transparent sometimes hot headed, passionate, and opinionated person.
What a great idea. Love using the bag. I know with my two oldest, setting a timer for ten minutes really helps. If I say you only have to clean for ten minutes, then they go and do it fast. Yet, when I say we really need to clean up, and they start in five minutes, they are complaining and telling me how tired they are. It is rather strange to me how it works.
Kelli recently posted..Dive right in!
One way of getting an exceptionally clean room is to allow your children to clean each other’s rooms instead of their own. We tend to get used to our own clutter, and don’t even see it after a while. When you clean someone else’s space you see EVERYTHING that needs to go!
My kids have several chores and they get a small allowance. 10 stars = $1. It is up to them as to how much they get the more chores or extra above and beyond things they do the more money they can earn. They are also opening savings accounts next week and will begin to learn about saving money. My daughter has a pet rat and she is responsible for buying its food. So if she doesn’t do chores she may have a hungry rat.
Kathy Balman recently posted..Top 10 Reasons Children Should Volunteer