TO CLEAN OR NOT TO CLEAN

THAT IS THE QUESTION

Well, we all know cleaning can't really be a question, it just one of those evil necessities of life.

Unfortunately, chores and kids in the same sentence brings on the thought "Oh the Horrors!" well at least for me it does. So, how do you get your kids to help out you might ask. Well, personally, I am a big fan of charts. I think it helps to be organized and have it stare you right in the face. I also think the kids like to be able to read and/or look at the pictures you have listed, it gets them involved and lets them do things independently.

It's a good idea, when you have kids involved, to try and make it as fun as you can. If your little one has the chore of dusting the table, make him/her a "puppet", just take an old sock, draw a couple of eyes with a magic marker and spray some furniture polish on it and they're good to go. You'd be amazed at how something little like this helps them to be motivated and boy will they be proud of themselves for being able to "help" mom/dad clean the house!

An older child might have fun sorting the laundry by seeing how many points they can get by throwing the clothes in their respective baskets or initiate some friendly competition by setting a timer and see who can get their "chore" done first. Something that always gets my kids motivated is putting on some loud music, I think it gets everybody in that cleaning mode, who says you can't sing and dance while you're dusting.

One thing I have used in the past is a computer program called My Reward Board

My kids really enjoyed using this. It's a great computer program that has a ton of features like chore charts, a goal gizmo, kid's allowance & bank, star points and rewards, achievement certificates, a scoreboard, etc., it's all customizable, parents set the chores and allowances and every time the child completes a chore they get to drop the "animated happy face characters" into place and the characters cheer and stuff, it's really, really cute. It also teaches the kids about setting goals and teaches responsibility and money sense. It really is a fun and effective tool to encourage children to do their best every day.

I really don't explain it well enough to give the program justice, visit their site

they have a free 15 day trial, which is plenty of time to see whether or not you like it. I ended up buying the program. It's only $19.95 and you can use it for any amount of children.

Below are a few simple chore charts. They are in Word format and include pics of the kid's favorite characters. Once you click on the file and open it, you can save it and make whatever changes you need to fit your personal situation. I have included the information that I used just as examples or starting points.