Messy Room Solution: Grade Them!
It's part of our morning routine to clean rooms before breakfast. This shouldn't take long as they do it every day and have minimal stuff in their rooms.
But I have to be honest here in saying that I've been horrible in checking up on them. I'm in Slap-Together-Breakfast-Then-Get-You-Out-The-Door Mode and well, I'll just say that their version of clean vs. my version of clean are completely different realities.
This afternoon I was walking through one of the rooms and laughed out loud. One of the beds wasn't made, there were toys and clothes and garbage on the floor.
That's when it hit: I should grade them.
So I did.
As I was putting the post-it note on the outside of the door, my 5 year old walked through and wondered what I was doing. I happily told him I was giving them a grade for how well they cleaned up the room.
He then pleasantly said that he wanted to do a better job cleaning and went to work. It was amazing.
No one was upset. The room just got cleaned up.
He did leave a few things out for his big brother to finish but it looked so much better. And with zero work from me.
I did write out a list of grades and posted them outside the door so even the preschoolers could know where they fall on the spectrum. But it took like 2 minutes total.
When the older boys came home they were completely interested and straightened up without me even asking.
Mom Win.
I'm not anticipating doing this every day until forever but here and there as needed, just another tool in my Bag O Tricks.
Future roommates and spouses, you're welcome!
Want more on Teaching Cleaning?
Here's a fun puzzle motivator my kids LOVED
Or this 2 Minute Race is a good one to get something cleaned up quickly
This is my big post on Saturday Chores, complete with why we do it and specifics on what the kids do. I also give some tips on making it all actually happen.
Good Luck us. We're going to need it.
