Using the Clock

Getting 3 little boys - ages 5, 3, and 1 - to get things done faster than they want to get them done....is not an easy task!!

We have Saturdays as the day where the boys do a thourough cleaning of their bedroom - cleaning up toys, organizing, dusting, sweeping, mopping, etc. {although I do the sweeping and mopping} and it seriously can take a couple of hours!!

They stop to play with a toy they're cleaning up. Or stop to try on a shoe they're cleaning up. Or just...whatever. It just seems like I am always saying...ok, boys, back to cleaning up...let's finish this up....

I know they're still young, but they do like having some chores, it just takes them time! And we want them to learn to help out.

So

enter this website I was reading the other day.

The suggestion I liked was the timer one. You tell the kids they have so and so much time to get the room cleaned up. Any toys that are left on the floor after the time has passed....get put into a box and they can't play with them for a whole week. That's my revision of the suggestion, anyways.


So I've been trying this, and it really works for our guys! I gave them 15 minutes to pick up and put away all of the toys that were on the floor. Seriously, in 10 minutes they were done. And had FUN doing it. They kept asking, how much time is left, mom?? As they scurried about the room. So I didn't get to {ahem...I mean have to} take any toys away yet but I'm sure a day will come...

Then this morning I was thinking, hmmm....Carter eating breakfast in the morning is the same way. He takes 15 minutes or more to eat 1 piece of toast. And it's just because he's so busy talking and talking and talking. He seriously does not stop talking from the time he gets out of bed until we put him into the van to go to school. Which is fine...but it makes everything take longer since he's focused on the story he's telling.

And we're telling him to hurry all morning, b/c he has to leave by a certain time, and after he eats he needs to brush his teeth yet...so today I told him that if he was not done eating by 7:40, I would take his food away. I figured if he went hungry one day it was ok and then Dallas and I don't need to be on him all morning to hurry. And that gives him 5 minutes to brush his teeth and get out the door. He did finish on time today though.

I'm not trying to turn my kids into clock-watchers and "have to be on time for everything" people...but also do want to teach them to focus on what they are doing! It makes cleaning up with them and everything, less frustrating for me also, and more fun.