Photograph Credit: iClipart

With cleaning and maintaining our homes, these tasks do not need to carry a “boring” or “dreaded” tagline. As my children enjoy a clean and organized home, Paul and I work really hard to help them own our home with us. We all pitch in to help keep our house clean and clutter-free.

Last week, I began this series on how to make cleaning fun for children by sharing two games we use while doing laundry.

These games can be adjusted to other items around your house because one way to spice up cleaning is by creating a game.

Part 1: Create a Game

The Who makes the most points? and the Where’s the match? games add variety and fun. In addition to these two games, our family also plays the following two games while doing a general pickup of our home:

Bucket in the Middle

With this game, we place a container (e.g., laundry basket, box, bucket, etc.) in the center of the room. Then we pickup all objects not in their place and place or toss them into the container.

The goal of the game is a general pickup. I can then distribute the items to each child for delivery to their rightful place.

For a variation on this game, we have everyone pickup 10 items and see who gets done first. Another change is to assign sections of the room to each family member and see which area has more items in the container. This game provides lots of fun options resulting in a cleaned, or at least picked up, space.

Stop. Set. Go.

This game is great for those few minutes before dinner is ready, right before bedtime, or when you need a few uninterrupted moments. (You know you need a little non-interrupted time within your day, don’t you. :-))

Just have everyone stop what they are doing. You choose the room that needs cleanup, set the timer, and go. Watch your children tidy a room to beat the clock. For small messes, I set the timer to 2 minutes. For larger messes, I start at 5 minutes. Usually, the project is done with time to spare.

Whether you choose to create a game of your own or try the Bucket in the Middle or Stop.Set.Go, get your family involved while making it fun for everyone. My children always want to help, and I continue to learn ways to encourage their willingness and teach them how to clean while making it fun. Happy playing!

Question: What games do you play to encourage your children’s help?