Fun & Creative Ways to Get Your Children to do Their Chores!

I have a seven year old daughter that dreads the whole cleaning process. In fact she doesn't even like to clean her own mess. Doing chores to her means that the world is ending. I noticed one day as a commercial came on television that she started moving a little faster as I waited and waited on her to put her toys away. There was music playing on the commercial with a beat that she really seemed to like. She sort of danced and put her toys away faster. A light bulb went off in my head. I thought to myself maybe if I made doing her chores more exciting for her and the other kids that this would elieviate from having to constantly talk to them about doing housework. I came up with a creative project. I wrote some things on paper that I though might work, tried them, and here's what happened.

Bathroom Beach Party

This is something I did for the smaller children. Since the two younger girls bathe together anyway, I thought this would be fun. I told them that if they helped me clean the bathroom, that we would have a beach party. They could actually put their swimsuits on and play with their water guns and boats in the bathtub. They screamed yes mom's letting us have a beach party. The catch was they had to clean the bathroom before this took place and only spray the guns in the water, not into each others face and not on the floor. So this was fun and in no time they assisted me in cleaning the bathroom. One child ran as fast as she could to go and get the broom and dustpan. The other went and got met he mop. They both put the dirty rags in the washing machine. I must admit, my experiment was working already

Let's Paint The Fridge - Who Cares? - Mom Doesn't!

This was really exciting. Now only allow children to do this if you have water proof paint that can be easily cleaned off the fridge. I took the children in the kitchen, painted a pretty flower on the fridge. Their eyes got very big. They looked at me and simply said mom are you painting on the refrigerator? I said yes and you can to if you wash the dishes. They started jumping up and down as happy as little lambs. They push chairs up to the sink and start washing dishes. The catch was that they put paper down so that paint did not hit the floor and put on some old clothes. This time I was nice. They didn't even have to clean the fridge later because I did it myself. I just needed the dishes done.

Water Hose Splash

Now this is an outdoor chore. This is one that I love to do with my older children during the summer and spring months. I love flowers and gardening but we all know that in the hot spring and summer months that they need watering. This one I got from my father. If my children water all of the flowers in my garden then they can wet each other up with the water hose. I have thirteen and eleven year old girls so they just love this. They get so excited especially if they are totally bored. They know they get only thirty minutes to splash so they enjoy every moment.

Give Them An Allowance

I must admit that sometimes teens are very hard to motivate. They are in their own world and they want to do what they want to do. So for my sixteen year old son I motivate him by giving him a few dollars for each day that he actually does what I ask him to do. Most of the time with him it works. He loves money and he absolutely loves spending it. He knows that if he doesn't put forth any effort that at the end of the week, he won't get a penny. I don't look at it as paying him to clean the house, I look at it as motivation. Besides I would give him money anyway.

5. The Clean Up Song

This works well for smaller children. I retired from the child daycare business. I did this for ten years and I am telling you that the best way to get children to clean up is to start singing this song. The song goes clean up clean up everybody everywhere. Clean up clean up every body do your share. The kids clap their hands and clean as they go. It really works well with toddlers.

6. Let Them Pick Tonight's Desert

Ask them if they want ice cream or their favorite desert after dinner. You may not do desert every night if you are like me. Make sure you discuss this before they start cleaning. Get their lips ready with the understanding that the house must be sparkly clean before you spend a dime on desert. This is a fun tasty way to get children motived.

7. When the children want to go outside and play, tell them that they can only play outside if they go out with you and help clean they yard for about thirty minutes or so. This is a great opportunity to get them to help pick up any paper or anything that may be out of place in your yard. Then the rest is on them. They can be rewarded by having a little fun.

I have six children so I am always thinking of creative ways to motivate my children to clean. Each person may have things that are totally different from the way I do things. This is just something to get us thinking the next time we are tired of fussing with kids about cleaning the house. So think creative and make sure your kids have a little fun!

Copyrighted by Victoria Sheffield - Hubpages Article 2014 All rights reserved