A Lesson in House cleaning

Today after we completed our morning school time I decided that we would do some house cleaning time. My daughter was so excited!  My son (the 2 year old) was not so excited choosing instead to go to his room and play.  Although he did help out when the spray bottle came out, squirting water, what's not to love about that?!?

A few things to keep in mind

The age and coordination of your child should dictate what you do and do not let them help you with.  Use your best judgment based on your own child's abilities, but also don't be afraid to challenge them a little, under your close supervision, of course.  You may be surprised at what they can do!

Dusting

My 4 year old loves dusting.  I love to watch her carefully move photo frames and other knick knacks out of the way so she can dust under them.  Don't know where she got that from; I just dust around them :)  

Wiping

Anything that involves spraying and wiping both of my kids love to do.  In the middle picture my daughter was cleaning their kiddie chairs by spraying with a mild cleaner and then wiping.  Of course, a few times she over-sprayed and completely soaked the chair.  I would remind her to only spray once or twice when I noticed.  She's learning so really it's not a big deal to me.  Plus, if you notice I put the chairs in the kitchen where wiping up the excess cleaner would be a snap.  Some of the pictures also show the kids cleaning the mirrors in their rooms.  The loved that!  Especially trying to catch the cleaner before it trickled down to the bottom; I think that part was their favorite.

Bathroom

First, let me start off by saying even though they're our own bathrooms they still gross me out.  I resisted letting the kids help me for a long time, even when they specifically asked to.  Finally I decided that teaching them early to clean their own bathroom would probably, in the long run, be a good thing (I hope at least.)  For my 2 year old I just let him swish the brush around in the toilet bowl.  My 4 year old gets more direction and she does a pretty decent job.  As soon as we're done with the toilet they both get a very, very thorough hand washing.  Before we start I also remind them not to touch their faces, especially their mouths or eyes while we're cleaning. 

My final word on the subject of cleaning

I believe encouraging your child/children in the habit of cleaning, especially their own spaces, can only be a good thing.  I can't guarantee they'll continue to do it as they get older and keep absolutely immaculate bathrooms (heck, I don't even do that); however, I'm pretty sure not having them do it at all would lead to very messy/dirty spaces as they get older.  So let your little one help, even if it makes a little more work for you.  You're building character, confidence and cleanliness!

What to teach, what to teach?!

There's no shortage of blogs, websites and news articles all trying to dictate what it is that you should and shouldn't be teaching your kids.  It's enough to overwhelm even the most intelligent of moms out there.  As you'll soon discover I take criss crossing routes on our learning path and sometimes stop all together like a deer in headlights because I just don't know which way to turn.  I was feeling this way last week when I sat at the kitchen table with my two little sponges ready to soak up what I had to offer and I had nothing.  Just I was about to give up and turn on a movie I saw my bible sitting near me, beckoning me to open it up.  I did and landed on Psalm 18.  I read the first 10 or so verses to them and when I stopped my 4 year old said, "read more mommy," so of course, I did.  I realized there were lots of words the kids were not used to hearing on a daily basis so I picked out 3 and made them the words of the day (one for Monday, one Wednesday and one Friday.)  I then made and/or picked out online activities to reinforce our words.  I also created a photo frame where we could use dry erase markers and write our words each week, thereby reminding me and daddy to use those words more frequently.  Through divine intervention I came up with a whole week's worth of activities....thanks to God....which was a great lesson for me as well.

DIY - Words of the Week Frame

I purchased this frame, as a set of 2 from Hobby Lobby for about $8.  Using Microsoft Power Point I created a slide with the heading "Words of the Week," 3 lines because I'm only doing 3 per week, and some flower clipart.  My frame was larger than the regular letter size paper so I took 2 coordinating color sheets and taped those down first then added the slide I created on top, giving it a matted look.  I'm planning on printing a new one with different clip art at the start of each season.