Kids Chores

My kids are always supposed to clean their room. The problem is, their definition of clean and mine are two different things. They do it so so but every couple of months it would get out of control and I would go in and do some deep cleaning. (Like clear out all their "cleaning" under the bed and put it in it's right spot! LOL)

Well, I get so tired of seeing the mess and I know that I could close the door but I hate having doors closed during the day. We have so little light in this house as it is that I don't want to cut out more.

I finally figured out a system to teach them to clean their room.

I wrote it down. Duh!

I was proofreading this organizing and cleaning book by this lady I know (my mom :-), and she told a story about how her son did fine when he had a chore list but then when he was a teenager she didn't do the list any longer. She just figured he knew what to do. When she finally started the list again, she didn't have to fight him doing his chores.

I wrote a very specific list of how I wanted their room cleaned. I also put labels on some of the containers that things go in.
Ex.
Elly's Coloring Books
Elly's Crayons
Elly's Reading Books
Elly's Make-up

Bj's Electrical
Bj's Coloring Books
Bj's Crayons
Bj's Reading Books


For the cleaning list I put:

put up pj's
make bed
hang up clothes
pick up trash
laundry
pick up books
pick up coloring
pick up dolls
pick up electrical
pick up knex



That way they can look at each thing and see exactly what needs to be done. We have been doing this for 2 weeks now and it's working very well. They have to do their list in the morning before they eat or do anything else.

Tawra