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.