CLEANING AND HOUSEHOLD CHORE GAMES YOU CAN PLAY WITH YOUR CHILDREN- OR "BIG KIDS"!
Ok, so most people don't really enjoy housework a lot of the time, and this seems especially true when it comes to getting your kids to help out around the house. Below are a few suggestions for making it more enjoyable, by including a game as part of the task process. Get dad- or mum, if dad is the major housework wizard- to become involved too... to "encourage the kids", but also a clever way of getting more done as well.
ERASE THE EVIDENCE
Bring on the Super Secret Agents! Can they carry out their daily activities such as playing games, making snacks, having friends over, taking a bath etc, without leaving any evidence??
The challenge is to erase any sign that the activity ever took place. After an activity, or just before bed if you prefer a nightly cleanup to immediately after the activity, or just to give a little leeway for cleanup, Super Sleuth Mum (or dad) comes along to see if any trace can be found...
Can the Secret Agents outwit Super Mum???!!! You could even have props to make this game more fun, such as a magnifying glass and white glove for Mum, and a Secret Agent toolkit of cleanup supplies or some kind of disguise for each Agent. You could even keep a tally chart of who managed to win the challenge each day... The Secret Agents or The Super Sleuths.
THE CLEANING DICE GAME
This game can either be played as individuals or as pairs or teams, depending on which better suits your situation.
You will need a die- the larger the better. One idea is for the kids to actually make and decorate their own large die, using a square cardboard box, or cardboard cut to shape.
Each child, or team, then roll the die. The number rolled corresponds to a household task on a list or chart that you have pre-made. That task is then carried out by whoever rolled that number. Each child/team rolls, and does likewise. If a number is re-rolled, the team rolls again until an unused number is rolled. If you have more than 6 participants/teams, you can either have 2 die and corresponding tasks, or more than one option for each number, from which they choose. The several options per number is also good if you want to play this game repeatedly at one time, to get more tasks completed. Each chile/team then rolls again and goes on to choose another task to complete. Making each task quick and easy is a good idea, as it keeps the game element alive, as they rush back to roll again... especially for younger kids.
THE COLOUR CLEAN GAME
The idea of this game is to have each chile pick a colour and then clean, or put away (whichever is appropriate) every item of that colour. If you have small children, there might be items you need to designate off limits for this, because of either risk of harm to the child, or the item.
You can play this game where one child picks a colour, then everyone heads out to a room or area to work on this colour (or even all in the same room) and then the next child picks a colour everyone works on etc.
Or alternatively, each child picks their own colour and works on that. Mum and dad can either do the same as the kids, or decide to help out younger children, or where one child had ended up with a much larger number of items to deal with than others.
RAINBOW WEEK GAME
This is similar to the above game, but each day is allocated a colour- from the rainbow, or your own rainbow if you want to vary them- and that day everyone works on items of that colour. For example Red Monday, Orange Tuesday, Yellow Wednesday etc. You could even add an element to it by everyone having an item of clothing for that day with the appropriate colour. Maybe even a special coloured cleaning headscarf/band or apron. You could even co-ordinate drinks or a snack with the allocated colour.
THE LETTER CLEAN GAME
This game is very similar to the Colour Game, but letters of the alphabet are chosen instead... ie Everything starting with A!
CLEANING BY NUMBERS
In this game a number is allocated to a room or area in a room. Each person either rolls a die, or picks a folded number from a hat or container, and then is responsible for the corresponding space.
ROOM STEWARDS
The idea of this game is that each person in the household has a special stewardship of a specific room. This can either be long term, or changed weekly- or even daily- depending on what suits your family best.
The Room Steward is responsible for keeping that room in clean tidy condition. Naturally, if another family member makes a big mess in that room, intervention will be needed to make this person clean up their own mess. If this game is used in conjunction with Erase The Evidence then this problem should not even occur.
To make each Steward feel special, you could design a special item to be used or displayed by each while they are steward of the room/area... maybe an individualised apron to wear, or a stuffed toy dressed to represent each room "Laundry Lion", "Garage Giraffe", "Kitchen Koala", "Family Room Fairy" (not recommended if you have boys!) Or perhaps "The Sacred Wooden Spoon" for the Kitchen Steward, or the "Magic Lint Roller" for the Laundry Steward. Or anything else you can come up with.
OTHER PEOPLE'S STUFF!
This can be a good game if you have trouble with people putting away their own items. You may need to make some guidelines, depending on your family, regarding careful treatment and respect of other people's property, and using common sense... for example, don't move Jimmy's newly glued model or dad's carefully sorted tax documents on the kitchen table. You know your family, and what may be required if this game is to work for you.
Each person is given a box or basket and they go around the house gathering up items that obviously don't belong there. If they know who the items belong to, they then deposit them in the previously agreed upon place in that person's room, or the room it is needed in. If not, it is left in the basket, which is then brought back to the whole family, who then retrieve their possessions. Any unclaimed items are then put away in a specific spot so that if anyone later realises an item was theirs, they can get it. Every so often, and long term unclaimed items could be disposed of, after one more offering to the family to make a claim.
| Another variation of this is that each person is designated another person's collector for that time, and goes around specifically finding that person's items and depositing the basket in their room for putting away. |
BEFORE BED DASH
Every night before bed, assemble the whole family, then send everyone off for a dash to collect their items and put them back where they belong, and tidy any mess they may have made. Set a timer and give them 3,4,5 or however many minutes you think is needed, if you feel this would help. If things aren't completed to your satisfaction, reset and do again.
TWO MINUTE DASH
This is a game you can use when you have small periods of spare time- such as when an advert comes on when the kids are watching TV, or when the kids are waiting for the microwave to finish.
The idea is to make use of these tiny time blocks to get one small thing done... such as wipe down the bathroom mirror, wipe a table, pick up and put away 2 items, find their library books ready to return, pack their sports clothes in their bag etc.
For a longer article on this idea, visit this page...
Decluttering_and_Cleaning_Two_Minute_Dash
I hope that you and your family will have fun trying out some of these games. As always, only use what you think is appropriate for the ages and abilities of your family, and keep safety uppermost in your mind.
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