Clean Up, Clean Up, Everybody Everywhere!

Here are some good ideas to get the kids excited about cleaning up their things around the house.

Learning Methods:

• Choose a letter of the alphabet, and pick up things that start with that letter. eg: B- ball, blanket, bear, etc. (Make it harder: Use the ending or middle letters of the word.)
• Say the number of your address and pick up that many items. eg: If your address 135 N Sycamore Lane, you would put away 1 thing, then 3 things, then 5 things. This also works well with phone numbers.
• Play I Spy. Children and parents take turns describing objects and other parents/children race to figure out and put away the item.
• Code game (for older kids). Write up the names of items the child needs to put away, omitting some letters from the word and writing them below the word. The child has to figure out where the missing letters go and then put the item away to get their next code. eg: The child gets a piece of paper that has s_o_s with the letters h and e written below. They have to pick up their shoes and then get their next code from you.

Fun Methods:

• Mailman/Bus Stop/Train Stop delivery game. Get a laundry basket and kids take turns being mailman or driver. Kids load up basket in one room, then deliver or drop off items wherever they belong. My kids like the train one because they love hollering, "All Aboard!" and making the train noises.
• Crazy Car game. Everyone zooms around like crazy race cars to put away things. This one is also fun to make noises with.
• Mean Witch/Evil Villain game. Mom pretends to be a mean witch that will capture all the toys/clothes/whatever and put them in her poisonous potion. Kids have to grab and put things away before the mean witch catches them.
• Super Hero game. Kids are super heroes and they have to rescue the Living Room/Bedroom town before the clutter takes over. They choose a super power and use it to defeat the clutter. eg: super speed power cleans very quickly, invisible power makes clutter disappear to where it belongs, etc.
• Secret Mission game. The kids are spies who each have a secret mission assigned by the chief agent (mom). They have a code word, and when their secret mission is done, they say the code word and get a new secret mission. eg: (Spoken in secret tones) Agent A, your secret mission is to pick up all the markers and put them in the art drawer. Do you choose to complete this mission? Your code word is rainbow bright. Good luck, Agent A.
• Musical Cleaning. Turn on some music and clean fast when it's a fast song, or slow when it's a slow song. You can also take turns manning the music and turn it off and on. When it's off, cleaners freeze, when the music is on, cleaners clean.

I also read a tip somewhere to tell the kids to put things "in their homes." This helps the kids to envision putting things where they actually belong. Saying "put it away" can mean put it anywhere out of immediate sight.