Cleaning can be fun while having your kids around. Some people have false pretenses that your kids can only make more mess while cleaning and only aggravate and frustrate their parents this way.
But why deny the kids and yourself some fun while tidying up your homes and living areas. We have browsed around the blogs, asked around with some mums and interviewed a lot of parents and came up with a list of the best ways that you can include your kids in cleaning but without them causing any damage to your actual cleaning endeavor. Make your cleaning a blast and include your kids in it using the following 10 ways.
- Pretending to play may be the ultimate weapon at your disposal. Getting your kids involved in a game is always fun for them, but it can be much useful if that came is actually under false pretenses and involves actual cleaning and work. While this might be sneaky in a way it is useful both for you, your home and your kids. The child will have loads of fun while you will get your house cleaned in no time. The most popular ones are playing dress-up as you put on aprons or something else and start working on cleaning and gathering stuff around the house.
- Give a challenge to your child. Perhaps similar to the pretend playing game but very useful. Children are motivated when given a challenge and you can have your kid perform a task that needs to be done within a time span. If you order your child that he or she needs to pick up their toys, you will likely be ignored or come to a dispute with your child. But if you present him with a challenge or a time game, the child will most certainly happily participate and unknowingly gather all the toys in a record breaking period. You will also have fun as well as you will try to give a harder task to your child by participating and trying to win the game.
- Break out the pint-sized cleaning utensils. Children will certainly not like the sweeping and cleaning kits that are well above their average height. The brooms and squeegee cleaners that are large for them to use are also uninteresting for them. But if you shorten the stick of the broom and present them with a more “usable tool” for the job, they will certainly appreciate it and gladly join the cleaning campaign. Play around with them as you clan together with the appropriate sized cleaners for each and you will see how much fun it will be for all of you.
- Sometimes you can divide the cleaning and get the kids to clean one room as you clean the other. Of course the key here is to give the children an easier task while you take care of a room which is more suitable for an adult to clean. So make it as if each team has to clean one part of the house. You can clean the kitchen and wash the dishes up and get everything in order while you give the kids a task of picking up the toys from the living room or their own play room. Whoever clears the area first wins, and give your kids a reward at the end so they feel satisfied for doing a good job and by winning the game.
- Make your cleaning educational as well. Kids learn a lot about cleanliness and health at school, but it is more than usual that they forget most of it as soon as they leave the classroom as their minds get caught up with something else. It is great parenting if you study this with your kids at home. You can do it while making up an interesting story which will be iterating for them to hear and clean at the same time. That way you are presenting them with an example and a fun story which will keep their gaze fixed on the subject at hand and will certainly stay much longer in their minds.
- These London cleaners suggest involving the whole family in cleaning. This means that when you have a lot of chores to do you can get the children and your spouse to get involved in the cleaning. Explain it to them as doing a family activity that you need to do together. You and your significant other can do the harder parts while tasking your precious young ones with a more suitable activity for them. That way your kids get to be involved and you enjoy a fun activity with your entire family which also gets the house clean.
- Sometimes it is best to give your kids a particular target and ask them to gather the things depending on the color. You can ask your child to pick up all the red things or blue things and that way present him with a specified challenge that he or she needs to do. It works even better if you have two kids and give different colors to each to deal with, that way it makes the game more competitive for them and also gets the job done much quicker.
- A dust buster vacuum is a small machine and is just the kid’s size. Maybe you can use it and allow the kids to use this cleaning utensil and enable them to clean with you. Even smaller kids can be taught to use this kind of vacuum cleaner and if it is interesting to them why not try it.
- You can make small and different kinds of cleaning tools for your child. If you give your child some toys which resemble cleaning tools they may learn a lot about cleanliness at an early age. In this case it is not expected from them to really add to the cleaning situation in your home but just learn and use the tools s their playing toys. When they grow up it is going to be a valuable asset to their personality and knowledge about cleaning.
- Commercials are to some people very boring and uninteresting. But as you watch TV with your child some of the cleaning commercials will certainly stick in their minds and they will remember them although they do not want it, which is the primary purpose of advertising as such. But you can use this to your advantage and play games with your child by pretending to film similar kind of cleaning commercials. You can do it while actually cleaning while your kid plays around you.