Posts Tagged ‘children’
Pajamas Go Under The Pillow
Wednesday, July 8th, 2009Tidy Me- Part 2
Monday, June 15th, 2009“X” Marks the Spot – There’s Treasure Here Mates!
Wednesday, May 20th, 2009This is a fun way to get kids started cleaning up in any super messy room-ADVENTURE STYLE! Ideally this works best with more than one mate but if all the others have walked the plank and one mate is all that’s left then so be it! (As long as the one mate left isn’t you, then this would just be weird)
Take a big piece of paper and put a giant red X on it. This X goes on the floor in the middle of the room and an unknown reward written on a small piece of paper goes underneath (don’t let them see this part). The reward should be something of particular interest to the mates involved in the adventure (this promotes auto-participation in the next adventure, of which there will surely be one). Everyone gets to pick a pirate name of course and they must speak in their best pirate voices throughout the entire adventure. If they have pirate dress-up clothes – by all means let them dress for the occasion!
All of the items around the ship(room) that are causing the ship’s deck to be a wreck are picked up and placed on the big red X. I mean everything from the clothes to stuffed animals to coloring books and so on gets piled on this X. Once the pile is complete – the mates look around the room and put away any remaining debris hanging around.
Now it’s time to get to the bottom of the pile and find out what is under that big red X! This is when you let the mates know there is treasure under that red X and they can’t see what it is until all the items in the pile are put in their proper place and the red X can be lifted. They will be scooting around the room like little deckhands in a hurry. If you have any pirate songs on CD play those too!
Side note: make sure the reward is something that can be redeemed fairly quickly after the task has been completed. Not trying to promote instant gratification but for this tip – the quicker the better on the reward end. Total prep time is about 4 minutes to get this rolling.
This little gem also works well with a cowboy theme -YEEHAAA MATES!
TKMate
Timed Clean Up: Make It A Game
Thursday, April 30th, 2009Make a set time for cleaning up a room is a great way to keep them moving. If you’re going to be heading out the door soon, a 2-Minute Tidy may be just enough to get a few things put away quickly. A 5 or 10 Minute Tidy would usually be enough to clean up a bedroom or playroom but gives the child a definite ending for the task that they can see. Use a timer they can see in the room they are cleaning and make it like a game. Setting a reward (see Marble System) for accomplishing the goal in the time allowed is a great motivator.
You can even have a 30 min or 60 min Tidy for the whole house and involve the whole family. This allows the parents to set a good example and let the kids see that they aren’t the only ones with chores. Turn on some music and make it fun. Give the heavy and high chores to parents or older siblings and assign age appropriate tasks to the kiddos. They can dust, dust mop, vacuum and pick up the various toys, books, video games and other clutter that accumulates during the week, even if they aren’t the ones who left it out. What a concept! A reward for the whole family like a trip to the park, the movies, or a favorite lunch spot will help keep the focus for the Tidy Hour.
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