Housework: Clean Up Around Children or Get Them To "Help"?

[jackrose]

For the end of the day pack up or the in between pack up where we need to put away toys before getting any more out, I put on the Mudcakes song "Pack up time". It is such a fun energetic song and the kids race around trying to put away all their things before the song ends.

I don't really expect much from the 2 year old but her older sister (5yrs) is expected to be able to pack away her toys unassisted. The secret for me is making sure everything has a place so that the kids can follow the order.

As for other housework, with my kids I don't expect too much from them. If they offer to help I will certainly find a small managable job that wont cause more mess than it should . They do have age appropriate tasks but at this stage I find it easier to just keep them out of my way while cleaning or do it while they are not there.

Other than that, the only thing I try to stick to when getting them to help is to make the task clear and managable, eg. can you put all the lego back on the lego table, can you find all the scraps of paper and put them in your bin, you are in charge of putting all the puzzles back in the box etc. This works so much better than a general "Clean the room!"

Seriously though, check out "pack up time" by the Mudcakes! I found it in the itunes store.

[redgum]

My little girl will be two in March, but I already have her "helping" me with general duties. Not because i need her help or want to put her to work, but it keeps her occupied and it sets an example of helping out. I get her to help me with the washing, she hands me all the clothes out of the basket while I hang them out, she tells me "daddy's nundies, mummies shorts, mine nundies" very cute! I also have a toy mop and broom, she sweeps and mops while I vacuum the floor, she packs away all her toys at the end of the day while we sing a song - will definitely look up the pack up time one as mentioned above, although TBH she sometimes gets distracted and stops and plays - that's OK too. I also get her to help me unpack the dishwasher by handing me the things and I pack away, again she names all the items that come out of the dishwasher, so it's a good vocab game. I figure start all this from a young age so it won't be a shock when she's old enough to make her bed and tidy her room. Her kindy teacher told me yesterday that she tidied up the whole room while the other kids ran a muck and she got a big sticker, so I can already see she understands even though she's little. As I said its more about occupying her / including her in what I am doing, if it takes longer than so be it, I would much prefer to have a good time with her doing it than have her sit and watch TV....