Comments on: Teach Your Kids to Clean Up Their Own Messes (5 Tips from Experienced Moms)

By: Why I'm Okay With a Messy House - Imperfect Homemaker

Why I'm Okay With a Messy House - Imperfect Homemaker — Wed, 31 Dec 2014 21:36:20 +0000

[…] out mean the kids have been ultra-creative today. (We’re still working on teaching them to clean up after themselves!) The shreds of ripped-up tissues (unused!) mean I have a curious little baby who gets into […]

By: The Ultimate Green Mom Best Parenting Tips of 2014 - The Ultimate Green Mom

The Ultimate Green Mom Best Parenting Tips of 2014 - The Ultimate Green Mom — Tue, 23 Dec 2014 03:13:43 +0000

[…] Teach Your Kids to Clean Up Their Messes – Sick and tired of sounding like a broken record to get your kids to pick up after themselves? Check this out. […]

By: Shannon @ GrowingSlower

Shannon @ GrowingSlower — Fri, 21 Nov 2014 20:01:53 +0000

Oh this is a very timely post for me! Despite being consistent, leading by example, and keeping a minimal amount of stuff around that needs to be cleaned up, my 3 year old is resisting helping with cleanup right now. It is so much easier when they’re toddlers and helping Mama is fun. Sounds like I just need to hang in there! I love that you threw flour on the floor! I bet that will be a fun memory for your little ones!

By: MaryEllen Bream

MaryEllen Bream — Fri, 21 Nov 2014 15:27:29 +0000

In reply to adrienne @ whole new mom.

Haha! Sometimes I cringe when my kids see me on Pinterest – I never know what they’ll ask me to do! 🙂 Here’s to some fun cleaning!

By: Leah

Leah — Fri, 21 Nov 2014 06:00:52 +0000

I like what Dave Ramsey of Financial Peace University recommends, instead of having allowance, they gave “commission”. A dollar per chore, age appropriate (like making the bed, etc), and the cash on hand to pay immediately upon its completion. In the Ramsey house, if you did the work, you got paid, if you didn’t work, you didn’t get paid. Dave talks about also having “save”, “give” and “spend”envelopes, for teaching them how to handle money on to of it. Kids begin to understand money as early as 4, if not 3 1/2. If you’re talking about teaching kids good habits, money is definitely an important area to remember!
Source: https://www.daveramsey.com/store/prod112.html
This is the link to the Financial Peace Jr, kit which has some info, but most of the info I got from Dave’s.book “Financial Peace Revisited” ch 16 “crumb snatchers and money”

By: adrienne @ whole new mom

adrienne @ whole new mom — Fri, 21 Nov 2014 01:27:40 +0000

My son just asked what this was on my Pinterest board so I got to share it w/ the whole family :). And was convicted that I don’t make it fun enough :). Thanks!!!!

By: MaryEllen Bream

MaryEllen Bream — Wed, 19 Nov 2014 15:05:56 +0000

In reply to Lisa S.. Great additions, Lisa! Sometimes when we do the "put away a certain number of things", they get a Cheeto every time they're done and they can do as many "rounds" of work as they want. Bribery at it's finest, but they get a lot of work done!

By: Lisa S.

Lisa S. — Wed, 19 Nov 2014 14:41:29 +0000

When my children were younger, I would break the job into smaller jobs; once they were old enough to read, they liked it when I made a list they could check off our marker board.
Sometimes I would just tell them to each put away “only” x amount of items…giving them their own goal to work toward- and they knew they could be finished whether others were taking a long time to do their work or not. I’d estimate to see how much work needed to be split up, and then determine a number…maybe leaving just a few things for myself or leaving a few things out. It’s a great way to get things back under control! Also, they learned the faster they worked, the sooner they could get back to playing.
Another idea that worked well was having a “tornado clean-up” time. This is when I’d set the timer for just a few minutes and as long as we all worked as fast as we could, we were finished when the timer rang. If I saw someone not helping as they should, they’d get an extra minute or maybe an extra chore to do later. 🙂