To get your kids to clean their room

Some children, no matter how hard you force them, how you reward them, or how you beg them they wont clean their rooms. (I was one of these kids). Eventually I found a way to make cleaning my room more fun, which in turn made me less rebilious against it.

Step1
Don't get angry or threaten. When I was young and my parents threatened me to clean my room I simply stuffed everything in my closet and under my bed. Especially don't yell, yelling won't solve anything.

Step2
So how do you get them to clean their room? It's simple, make it a game (of sorts) There are multiple games that you can play that get your kids to clean their room while they play it. So what you do is while cleaning you focus on cleaning on specific parts at a time. First clothes, then toys, then trash, then vacuuming. (you can change the order)

Step3
So now your cleaning the clothes. Time for clothes-ball. This is a good game to get your kids to always have their clothes in the right place. You set up your clothes hamper in any corner of the room. Then, after piling all of the clothes, you and your child/children will sit down near the clothes pile, and take turns throwing them at the corner above the basket. (Thats why it's in a corner, so that you'll miss less often.) Keep track of the points of the game. You can reward your children for winning or being a good sport.

Step4
Now it's time for the toys, if you can try and remove easily breakable toys from the toys pile/space first. I.E. a gameboy or psp or anything that has a screen or glass parts. Tip over a decent sized box or garbage bag so that the mouth is wide open and facing the toys. put a pillow behind the bag or box so that you don't accidentally hurt the wall. (the actual game, my mom called it toy-dozer) If you haven't guessed from the name, what you and your child/children are gonna do is try to push your piles of toys into the box or bag. First one done wins.

Step5
Trash.... This was definitely the worst and most gruesome part of cleaning my room. SO you may want gloves. What you do is you set up a trash-bag facing upwards in the air. (hold the mouth open with the ties). And you have your kids run around and pick up all the trash in the room, counting each item they trow away as a point.

Step6
And the last step, vacuuming. This is a fairly easy game. You need a flash light or a laser pointer. Inform your child that the light is (insert something interesting here) and every time they catch one in the vacuum they get a point. (if you have two kids give them a time limit each). When your child gets near the light turn it off to enact that it was sucked up. So you simply point the light at the places in the room that need to be vacuumed. (try not to let your child get too rough with this because they might hit something hard) Also, don't make the game to easy, every once in a while have the (insert interesting thing here) avoid the vacuum cleaner at the last minute so that it's more of a challenge.


How to get your kids to keep their room clean

Step1
Well now you don;t want it to be messy the second you leave now do you? When a child has cleaned their room make sure to compliment them and tell them how proud you are of them. Trust me, it'll mean a lot to them to know that you are proud of them.

Step2
Check up on it. (I don't mean hang over your kids) but take a peek in the room every once in a while and if it's clean go to your child and tell them. Make sure that they know that you love it that they keep your room clean. A parent's love and acceptance are extremely big factors in a child and teens life (if if the teens won't admit it).

Step3
If you check the room and it's messy again, don't go and confront your child instantly. Especially if they are a little busy. Eventually they will go into their bedroom right? SO wait untill they are in there, and then you magically notice that their room is messy. When you do this smile and say something along these lines "cmon let's clean this a little bit I'll help you" always offer to help, so that your child doesn't see you as a slave driver.

Step4
Don't expect your child to miraculously keep their room clean (trust me it'll get really dirty at times). Teaching your child to keep their room clean is a learning process. So it may take some time for them to get use to it, but if you work at it they'll start keeping it clean themselves.
Bookmark/Share this article with others:
Digg Technorati Delicious StumbleUpon Reddit BlinkList Furl Mixx Facebook Google Bookmark Yahoo

No comments:

Home | About | Privacy Policy | Contact