Successful Homemaking with Toddlers: Is it Possible? Part 6
After planning time in your day for enjoying your children, I encourage you to:Plan time in your schedule for your children to work with you. Teach your children from a young age to be assets to your household. As much as you can, involve your children in what you are doing and have them help you. Even if it's only for 10-15 minutes, what a great start in instilling a strong work ethic and diligence in your children!
Make helping and participating in chores exciting; interact and have fun while you're working together. Yes, it takes longer to get work done when the girls are working with me and yes, there are more interruptions, but what really matters? Isn't quality time spent investing in my children teaching them valuable life skills much more important than crossing everything off my to-do list?
Just a few ideas to encourage your child to work with you:
::Give your child a child-size broom and dustpan, miniature vacuum sweeper, or their own little apron so that they can work alongside mommy. You can often find these very inexpensively at garage sales or thrift stores. (Or maybe these things would be a great birthday present to request from generous grandparents?)
::Assign small chores to your child that they can accomplish on their own and then praise them and be excited with them when they complete them. It might not seem like a two-year-old can do much to help, but start looking and you'll find plenty. Perhaps they can put away all of the LEGOs into the tub, dump the flour into the mixing bowl for you, go get a diaper for you, throw something into the trash for you, wipe down the outside of one cupboard, fold up three wash cloths while you are working on the laundry pile, or use a rag to clean a small area of the tile with you.
Let your children work alongside you and involve them in whatever you are doing. Be sure to keep it very simple and easy and only ask them to do one thing at a time when they are first learning. If they have trouble, patiently show them the right way to do something. Practice it until they know exactly how to do it and what is expected of them.
::Use non-toxic cleaners. One of my most very favorite cleaners is Basic H. It is extremely versatile and so inexpensive as one $12 bottle of concentrate makes 48 gallons. I let Kathrynne spray and clean with this all she wants. I just give her a rag and a spray bottle and a small area to clean, and let her have at it!
::Make up an illustrated chore chart. At this point, we've not done much with chore charts in our home as the girls just work beside me on our daily assigned tasks and jobs. However, I know many families have used chore charts with their toddlers with great success. (By the way, if you've done a post on your chore chart, please comment with the link so we can be inspired!)
Those are just a few of my ideas. What ideas have worked in your home to encourage your toddlers to work with you and help with chores? I'd love to hear!
Labels: Home Management and Organization
posted by Crystal Paine at 8:00 AM
18 Comments:
Thanks for the encouragement and ideas Crystal...
My 2 1/2 year old has begun to be interested in helping mommy. She will wipe the table (endlessly) and throw things away in the trash can. She especially likes to use the Swiffer dry dust mop. The problem I have is once I let her use it- she will not let me put it away. Also she will not play with miniture or toy vacuum etc. it has to be the real thing. It's a little frustrating. She likes to help be put wet clothes in the dryer too. Everything just takes really long to get done with a toddler under foot!
My little guys are all involved in any housecleaning/chores I do. I do everything "up high" and they do everything "down low". If I am wiping upper cabinet doors, they are wiping lower, if I am dusting/windexing, the middle child dusts lower surfaces, the littlest has a spray bottle (I also use basic H) and sprays surfaces, the oldest wipeslower surfaces. When we are doing basic tidying one of them gathers up things that don't belong into a clutter box that gets carried room to room and put away as we go, another gathers up garbage, etc.
Dh strung up a low clothesline for them to hang up socks, underwear and baby items when I am hanging out the laundry, they run around with their wagon and gather up all the toys off the yard when I am cutting the grass, etc, etc. For every chore I do, there is something the kids can do alongside me to help (really help rather than hinder).
We currently use chore charts in our house, to great success. I have a 3 1/2 year old son, a 2 1/2 year old son, and a 17 month old daughter. I started using the chore charts a couple of months ago and the kids love it. At the end of the day, if they have completed their chores, they pick out stickers to put on their charts. We started with just the boys, but within a week, our daughter wanted to participate also. I made her a chore chart with only 2 chores and she happily joined her brothers. These are simple chores, such as take your plate to the kitchen after meals and pick up your toys in the playroom, but it has significantly reduced the stress of getting them to pick up their toys and they all love getting their stickers.
I've also found that they want to help out more around the house, even with things not listed on there charts. I can't cook anything now without my 3 little helpers and they usually pick up there toys without being asked
I wrote more about this on my blog; www.dorrisdish.blogspot.com, if you would like to read about it.
Crystal-
I really want to buy Shaklee stuff (Basic H, etc.), but it seems SO expensive. I don't know how in the world we could fit that into our budget. Do you buy directly from the site?
:)
My almost-two-year-old loves to help me unload the dishwasher. He gets most of the things in the right place, and he loves it!
If any of you are looking for a system of implementing chores with multiple children with an ease of accountability---I highly recommend Chore Packs--check out Managers of ther Chores at the Titus 2 website--the book is great and the system really works.
As soon as our kids can walk we start teaching them to help by taking their diapers to the trash and by having them take their laundry to the basket in the laundry room.
It amazes me what kids can do especially if you start training them from a young age.
Crystal, I know you don't have boys but how are we to include them? For older boys, there are many appropriate chores but what about toddlers who are too little to clean the garage, rake leaves etc? Surely we can't put aprons on them and get them to clean the kitchen!
Your posts are always encouraging and have great ideas and tips! Also I mentioned you on my blog today in my review of "The Grocery Game". :0)
I love having my girls help too, but can always use some more encouragement in this area (it's easy to get lazy at it!)
I did a post...
http://barbiemyree.blogspot.com/2006/08/works-for-me-wednesday-kids-routine.html
about chores (routines) I have my older girls do each morning and evening:)
Oh and I too use Basic H because of you sharing your thoughts on it...so thanks!
I wrote a post about our current chore chart a few weeks ago, and I included a free PDF download of my design! Go here:
http://simplemom.net/chore-chart-for-preschoolers/
Cate said...
Crystal, I know you don't have boys but how are we to include them? For older boys, there are many appropriate chores but what about toddlers who are too little to clean the garage, rake leaves etc? Surely we can't put aprons on them and get them to clean the kitchen!
Cate,
Why can't we put aprons on our little boys so that they may learn to appreciate a mommy's role in the home? I feel that boys can help with all of the same chores that a girl can help with.
Thank you
I would like to comment on Cate's great question on little boys. I think it is important for them to work in the garage and yard, as you mentioned, but also in the kitchen! There is nothing wrong with that, and I feel it is important as it is part of the home they live in. I am not sure about the apron wearing, although I really don't have a problem with it personally. I don't think this will give little boys a mixed message on "masculinity" or anything like that that the world might say. I also think girls can work in the yard, and even the garage. The point is that they are learning to be part of the family, working beside a parent, and having fun as they learn!
Carla
Sometimes I'll let my 5-year-old be "in charge" of leading the 3- and 1-year-old in cleaning up the living room. He thinks it is great to be the one giving the orders and they respond well to being given different tasks than the ones I give.
I just started a series on my own blog about children helping around the house. Visit from-my-life.blogspot.com!
Thanks so much for the encouraging thoughts. We have "random chore hour" at our house in addition to our regular chores. 2 times a week we each draw a chore from the jar and work together for an hour on just those chores. The kids love it. It keeps things exciting and random chores like dusting baseboards and cleaning windows always get done.
I would like to encourage Cate, I have 2 boys and 3 girls and recently was on strict bed rest and eventually hospitalized for 3 weeks with complication with our 5 baby. I praise God for a mother-in-law who taught her son how to do house hold chores. Even if they are mostly done by moms and daughters, you never know what God may call your boys to in the future and I believe preparing them to serve their future families is important.
Stephanie
Like Jan's little one, my girls LOVED to "Swiffer" the house so much we finally asked for a second Swiffer as a birthday gift for one of them so they'd quit fighting over it! This also works well with a just-damp rag tucked into the holes that grab the "real" Swiffer cloth for a quick damp mop to catch the dust and grime.
When my DD was "into" vacuuming it seemed like she wanted to help not just pretend, so I got a small real vacuum for about $20. It even had the "swiffer" type handle so I could leave out a piece and make it her size. She loved it and I used/use it too for small quick cleanups. However, I'm afraid toys are an area that I not DD :( need help with. When I see a "cool" toy my inner child comes out. I have a hard time getting rid of them too -the best I've managed is to trade toys out so that they're not all out at once.
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