Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Cheap & Easy Craft
2) Sharpies rainbow colors. You could get paint pens if you want to spend the extra $$.
These are keep sakes do not wash or put in the dishwasher (we did and had to re-make one ha ha)
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
clean your room!
It started with my now 17 year old...I think i began enlisting her help to clean her room at 6. I felt this was reasonable to send her to her room for 10 minutes and ask her to pick up her toys. She taught me after many bad attempts at this that 6 yr olds need more guidance when it comes to organizing and cleaning up. It is NOT innate in children or adult it seems it is a taught thing to LEARN how to organize and clean up so here are some ideas from my mistakes of 4 kids 17 - 4 yrs of age....
Start at 2 with "lets clean up" and sing the barney Cleanup Song. Either sit on the floor with your toddler and show then by tossing toys in a basket or bin and enlist them to do the same. It may be that you need to hand a toy to your tot and teach them to toss the toys in the bin (more fun and gets more attention form mommy or daddy).
By 4 yrs old you can say "pick up all your : barbies or blocks or cars" the idea is telling them to focus on ONE GROUP of objects and make sure you have a designated bin. I am assuming you damn parents have had the sense to do that on your own.
Between 4 and 6 you are building the skills to get to sending them to do a project of 2 or more items or at a minimum making it easy on mom or dad to give the simple instructions "go clean up your ______" then when done tell them to work on the next group. YOU STILL will have to monitor at this age up to about 8 depends on your child but don't be worried if at 7 or 8 you are still in the room guiding them and re-directing them.
So, 6 - 8 years old you could potentially be at the point where you send them to their room and you tell them, "go pick up your _____" then check back in 5-10 minutes to re-direct because lets be HONEST when we as adults clean up we get distracted by what we find and get off course :)
ALL of this works better of YOU are cleaning something in the house to that way you can empathize how much it sucks and how good it will feel when its done and how you don't like it but as a grown up you have to do it too.
FROM 6 - whenever you can NOW start using the rewards (until now you have been telling them it feels good when its done and this is what we do to keep our toys nice and fun to play with). At 6 I use things like a dollar or two a week allowance they can spend at the DOLLAR store or the grocery store for candy. Also I use sleepovers and play-dates as rewards (or threats to take away I try to look at the positive). I say things like don't you want to be able to play on the weekend with so and so or have a sleep over the next week or get ice cream 2 scoops next week with the family?
Now you are at 8-10. Expect CRAP form this kid when you tell them to clean up. I mean whining and bitching and moaning about it and lots of delays and distractions this is developmentally NORMAL and BE PATIENT. Remember when we sent them to their rooms at 8 and came back every 5 minutes? DO THIS AGAIN :)
From 10 - 18 its easy find what ever they want or like ALOT and threaten to take it away.
You should expect a 10 - 18 yr old to clean their room to YOUR standards what ever that is (be consistent - maybe for you its a cleaned up floor or all the dirty laundry in a bin...) ONCE A WEEK.
NOW YOU HAVE TO TURN IT OVER to the God(s) after that. After the once a week clean up that YOU approve you have to let them trash the room as much as they please the rest of the week.
Pick the same day every week for us its either SUnday or Mondays cause they are the slowest days in our house and thats when I do laundry.
Good Luck and email me any problems or questions erikaho@rocketmail.com
Oh yes at 6 - 18 I put a 8 1/2 by 11 paper on their bedroom door with ONLY 4 groups to clean up:
Stuffed Animals
Dirty Laundry
Books
Trash
This is what you refer to every time you send them to clean their room and until they can read themselves read it to them and refer to it as you do your 5 min check ins.
Start at 2 with "lets clean up" and sing the barney Cleanup Song. Either sit on the floor with your toddler and show then by tossing toys in a basket or bin and enlist them to do the same. It may be that you need to hand a toy to your tot and teach them to toss the toys in the bin (more fun and gets more attention form mommy or daddy).
By 4 yrs old you can say "pick up all your : barbies or blocks or cars" the idea is telling them to focus on ONE GROUP of objects and make sure you have a designated bin. I am assuming you damn parents have had the sense to do that on your own.
Between 4 and 6 you are building the skills to get to sending them to do a project of 2 or more items or at a minimum making it easy on mom or dad to give the simple instructions "go clean up your ______" then when done tell them to work on the next group. YOU STILL will have to monitor at this age up to about 8 depends on your child but don't be worried if at 7 or 8 you are still in the room guiding them and re-directing them.
So, 6 - 8 years old you could potentially be at the point where you send them to their room and you tell them, "go pick up your _____" then check back in 5-10 minutes to re-direct because lets be HONEST when we as adults clean up we get distracted by what we find and get off course :)
ALL of this works better of YOU are cleaning something in the house to that way you can empathize how much it sucks and how good it will feel when its done and how you don't like it but as a grown up you have to do it too.
FROM 6 - whenever you can NOW start using the rewards (until now you have been telling them it feels good when its done and this is what we do to keep our toys nice and fun to play with). At 6 I use things like a dollar or two a week allowance they can spend at the DOLLAR store or the grocery store for candy. Also I use sleepovers and play-dates as rewards (or threats to take away I try to look at the positive). I say things like don't you want to be able to play on the weekend with so and so or have a sleep over the next week or get ice cream 2 scoops next week with the family?
Now you are at 8-10. Expect CRAP form this kid when you tell them to clean up. I mean whining and bitching and moaning about it and lots of delays and distractions this is developmentally NORMAL and BE PATIENT. Remember when we sent them to their rooms at 8 and came back every 5 minutes? DO THIS AGAIN :)
From 10 - 18 its easy find what ever they want or like ALOT and threaten to take it away.
You should expect a 10 - 18 yr old to clean their room to YOUR standards what ever that is (be consistent - maybe for you its a cleaned up floor or all the dirty laundry in a bin...) ONCE A WEEK.
NOW YOU HAVE TO TURN IT OVER to the God(s) after that. After the once a week clean up that YOU approve you have to let them trash the room as much as they please the rest of the week.
Pick the same day every week for us its either SUnday or Mondays cause they are the slowest days in our house and thats when I do laundry.
Good Luck and email me any problems or questions erikaho@rocketmail.com
Oh yes at 6 - 18 I put a 8 1/2 by 11 paper on their bedroom door with ONLY 4 groups to clean up:
Stuffed Animals
Dirty Laundry
Books
Trash
This is what you refer to every time you send them to clean their room and until they can read themselves read it to them and refer to it as you do your 5 min check ins.
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