WFMW: Whiteboard+Dice+Kids=Painless Spring Clean

So here's the latest episode of Making Your Kids Work Without Losing Your Mind.

In the past we have gazed together upon the much beloved Stick Jars , the story boards, and who can forget the chore wheel. Have no fear, these will all go back into rotation soon enough, but as we know, when it comes to kids, variety is the spice (and success) of life. This tactic is more for catastrophic/spring cleaning events

When this last weekend rolled around, our house was frightening. Sick mom, New Beginnings Evening, work every day, four kids, crazy bunny, ... 'Nuff said. All hands were needed on deck, but things were so bad that strategy of military precision was required. It was time for a Mini-Spring clean. Enter yard sale, $2 white board. I got this a while ago. A whiteboard is an invaluable tool and every mom should get one. In the past I have sectioned it off with sticky ribbon which looks pretty but limits your options a bit so I pulled it off.

I split our home into 12 sections/rooms. Then I got two dice. I tell you what, when you introduce dice you have a game. It's quite uncanny. Try it. Hmmm...I now have the sudden urge to launch into song (actually this song is pretty insightful when it comes to getting kids to clean, if only I could get the finger snapping thing down...I have been working on that for years! Shoot.)


Since we have 6 people in our family, it all worked out quite nicely. (Other then for room number 1-but we all know what you do in that dilemma-mom gets it. There, solved.)


So each person got to throw the dice twice, with the sum of the dice obviously deciding which rooms they would clean. After some time, much hilarity, a fair amount of cheering and groaning (and much rooting for the stairway rather then the bathroom -thankfully stoic daddy got them both) and some negotiating and switching, we all got to work. The rule was that each thing on each room's list had to be checked off and once all 12 rooms were crossed through, we'd have a family treat.

It worked! 4 kids worked pretty steadily for 3-4 hours. They loved checking off the chores and I could turn my head when they took self-scheduled breaks-they knew what had to happen before the treat was delivered. I love the no nagging part. By the end of the afternoon, we had accomplished an enormous amount, everyone felt a great sense of satisfaction, my vocal chords were intact, we got to go out for dinner and best of all we came home to a clean house.

This morning I had the board propped up and waiting for them with a cheerful greeting and a list of instructions before school. It was a smooth and quiet morning. It is amazing how much more likely kids are do to things willingly when the instruction does not come out of their mother's mouth. Kids are suckers for dry erase markers and autonomy. And that works for me.

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