Helping Hands
Getting your kids to help out around the house may seem like a challenge sometime, but it doesn’t have to be! Making chores seem fun is the key to make your children enthusiastic about helping out! Chipper’s book, “Helping Hands,” is a great resource for parents to share with their little ones how important helping out really is! This past weekend, at the Girl Scout’s 100th Year Anniversary in Sacramento, we had the girls color and cut out a helping hand and write something that they have done to help out their parents, the community or the planet and tape it to our giant Helping Hands recycle-tree. It was amazing to see what all the kids came up with and how much they loved talking about how they helped!
Using their own two hands to fold some laundry or feed the animals gives a child responsibility and independence. Getting your kids to help outside, by gardening, planting, raking leaves or shoveling snow, gives them a chance to get some fresh air while igniting an appreciation of nature. It helps teach them how to start taking care of themselves, their siblings AND the planet!
No age is too early to start teaching your child to help out around the house! This way they will grow up used to the idea that keeping things clean is the entire family’s responsibility. Just having the little ones put toys away or straighten the shoe rack will go a long way in the future.
Breaking up a large job into smaller, specific tasks really helps kids get things done, rather than just saying, “Clean your room.” Once one task is finished, such as putting away their clothes, then they can come back to you and start on the next! This also gives them short little breaks, which helps them keep going for longer. The place will look great in no time! Playing some fun music will get you going and also distract the kids from realizing that they are actually doing something useful! Whistling while you work is a fun, motivational tune that never gets old 🙂
Investing in training time will save you big in the end. If you teach them how it’s done right the first time, you will have to supervise less and lower the amount of re-do’s! If there’s some chore that you absolutely need to be done in a certain way, just do it yourself! Setting up a weekly chore chart (dry erase boards are great for this) with brownie points for each finished task is a great way to help motivate kids to get things done. If there is an incentive for them, such as a few extra TV hours or a play date with their friends, these tasks will be finished in no time! Sticking to a system really helps kids follow the plan, since they know what is expected of them. Now go get your kids Chipper to help!
