Photo: Cielo de la Paz/Flickr

Growing up, spring cleaning is something I remember my mom doing each year. Mind you, my mom always kept a clean house and that I can remember, nothing was ever out of place. But, when spring came around, she broke out the extra cleaning duties that weren’t in her normal cleaning routine. This is when she removed the cushions from the couch to wash the covers, put mattresses out in the sun, cleaned the window screens, and went into every corner of the house to be sure not a speck of dust stayed behind.

I don’t know how many of you partake in true spring cleaning rituals each year, but it’s not something I really do. We clean regularly, but don’t have specific “spring cleaning” duties we do around this time of the year. I realize many of you are preparing to get through your spring cleaning list soon, and may be wondering how to get everything done with the kids around. Whether on the weekend or during the week, if your kids are around while you’re trying to clean, you know sometimes they do more harm than good. It seems like they always find a way to keep you from making progress and get the cleaning done, doesn’t it?

It doesn’t matter whether you’re going down your spring cleaning checklist or just doing regular cleaning at any other time of the year, it helps to know how your kids can help with the cleaning. Here are some ideas I’ve previously shared.

Tips for Spring Cleaning with Young Children

• Chores for Preschoolers: Kid-Friendly List of Chores Your Child Can Do
• How Preschoolers Can Help With Laundry
• Clean Up Game for Young Children

Amazingly, kids can have a lot of fun with cleaning if you make it a game. I know my girl is eager to help us clean and loves being challenged to complete her tasks in a specific time period, in a certain way, or just having fun with her chores. Sometimes, you don’t even have to create a game out of it; kids just want to be involved. I find that simply including my girl in a task pleases her. This means that we can just have a conversation as we do our chores and she’s glad to help because it means we’re spending time together.

What are some ways you make spring cleaning fun in your house?

Disclosure: This story is sponsored by Hallmark through their Life is a Special Occasion campaign. As always, all stories and opinions are my own. To receive special offers and discounts from Hallmark, sign up for their e-newsletter!

“Mommy, I want to tell you something that’s a little weird.”

Hesitantly, I answered, “Um, ooook, go ahead.”

“I made a promise to myself.”

I immediately thought that she was probably talking about goals, but I asked her for more information to be sure.

“I made a pinky promise to myself that I would eat this chicken all the way to the bone,” she said holding up the drumstick in her hand. It’s important to note that she is not a big fan of meat, in general, and has hardly ever eaten an entire piece of chicken (she usually picks at it). So, this was a big deal, and she knew it.

I proceeded to explain to her that this was, in fact, not so weird. I told her what a goal was and how it’s sort of the same thing as making a promise to yourself. “You’re telling yourself you want to do something, or work toward something. That’s almost like making yourself a promise to do something.”

Her eyes opened wide as she realized I was describing what she’d done. She had just learned the meaning of setting a goal for herself. I loved the fact that she came about it on her own; it certainly made the concept that much easier to explain.

Do your kids know what a goal is? How did you explain the idea of goals to them?

Photo: Kayla

If you have young children at home, then you may be excited to find out that a new 24-hour Disney Junior channel will be coming on March 23!  The current Disney Junior block will continue on Disney Channel as well, but your kids can now enjoy their favorite shows throughout the entire day.

The new Disney Junior channel will include shows like Jake and the Never Land Pirates and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, plus will launch with new shows like Doc McStuffins and a weekend full of Disney movies. In addition, the Disney Junior channel will feature past Disney shows such as, Higglytown Heroes, JoJo’s Circus, and Rolie Polie Olie. My girl loved JoJo’s Circus when she was younger and her first birthday party theme was even JoJo’s Circus, so this is pretty exciting for our family! Now, we can share these shows with baby boy as well.

Other new shows coming to Disney Junior are Sofia the First, about a little girl princess, and Oki’s Oasis, the first western for preschoolers, starring Mandy Moore as the voice of Oki. You can check DisneyJuniorTheChannel.com to see if the new 24-hour Disney Junior channel will be available in your area.

What are some of your children’s favorite Disney shows?

Want a quick and easy way to get your young children to clean up around the house? I tried this with my five-year-old today and I just know that any preschooler will enjoy it as much as she did. It absolutely adds an element of fun to cleaning and even more, gives them a challenge!

All I did was simply tell her, “Let’s see how much you can clean up in one minute! I’m going to count to 60 and you go around and see how much you can put away. Ready? Set? Go!” I then counted 60 seconds as she ran around the house picking up. She was so worried about the time that twice she passed by me and slowed down just enough to hear what number I was on. But, she definitely did more in that one minute than she would have done in five minutes had I just told her to clean up her stuff.

The best thing was that I too had fun. I went around picking up a few items myself, but enjoyed seeing her having fun with something that ordinarily would have been a boring task. She ran, she laughed the whole time, and she completed her task. It was a true win-win for both of us.

After she caught her breath, I suggested that next time we should see how much we could clean up in three minutes. She was all for it!

What games do you play with your children to make chores more fun?

“You’re just a big monster!”

You may be used to hearing such words on the playground as one preschooler screams out to another after doing something he/she didn’t like. It happens all the time and more than likely after a few minutes, they’re back to being best friends again.

But, never, did I think I’d be hearing those words directed at me, much less from my own daughter. Well, at least I thought I had quite a few more years before the dramatic accusations came my way from an over-hormonal teenager. It seems, though, that is not the case. Five-year-olds, apparently, can be just as hormonal and dramatic.

In the past few weeks, my daughter has been hearing what she calls my “serious voice” quite a bit – more than I’d like. But, we try hard to be firm and consistent and though I know we’re still undergoing a transition in our house with a new baby, that does not excuse the misbehaving. So, when needed, serious voice it is.

However, every so often, the use of the serious voice causes her to begin crying. Sometimes, this escalates into a full-out dramatic scene of shouting out random phrases like, “You just don’t love me!” When asked why she’s crying when she knows she was doing something wrong and the situation wasn’t so severe, she once screamed out, “You’re just…you’re just such a big monster!”

Later that evening, I shared the incident with my husband and confessed that those little words were like a knife to my heart. I told him: “I don’t want her thinking I’m a big monster!” He laughed, because of course, she doesn’t really think I’m a big monster. He spoke to her during her bath that night and asked her why she said that. Her response: “Sometimes…when mami uses her serious voice, it scares me, like a monster.”

She apologized, we talked it over, and I reminded her that no matter what she does and no matter how upset I may be, I will always love her. I was also reminded that sometimes words are just words. In my daughter’s case, she may just be trying to express her frustration and doesn’t necessarily mean what she says. In short, I should not take all her outbursts to heart…especially when there will be many more to come as she grows into her teenage years.

How do you deal with emotional outbursts?

Early last month, I posed the question, “Can Preschoolers Help Clean?” and provided a list of chores for preschoolers to do around the house. Many of you agreed that yes, preschoolers can indeed help clean around the house and even provided a few additional suggestions based on what your kids help with.

One of the original suggestions I had listed was to have your young child help with folding clothes. As I thought about it more, I realized that my daughter actually helps with pretty much all aspects of doing the laundry. If we involve her, she can be of help from beginning to end when it’s laundry day. In case you hadn’t thought about it, let me share the ways your young children can be of more help with this task.

Photo by FL4Y from Flickr

How your Toddler or Preschooler can Help with the Laundry

• Sort clothes – Your child can easily take the clothes out of the hamper and help you properly create the necessary piles. On our laundry day, what we do is start a few piles on our floor, tell her what each pile is for (most are recognizable by color), and have her sort her own clothes.
• Load washer – We put her step stool in front of the washing machine, bring a pile over, and have her help throw the clothes into the washer. It’s so simple, but she loves doing it.
• Load dryer – Similarly, when it’s time to change out the loads, she stands next to the dryer and pushes in the clothes as one of us takes them out of the washing machine. Sometimes, she takes the dryer sheet and throws it in too before we start up the dryer.
  • Once the clothes are dry, she also helps us take them out of the dryer and throw them on the couch.
• Fold clothes – Though the clothes may not end up folded perfectly, your preschooler can help fold his/her clothes or even some towels. Their clothes are small, so they’re perfect for little hands to fold. They may be able to hep fold other clothes, depending on the size, but generally, their own clothes work best.
• Hang up clothes – Grab a stack of hangers, and lay out a few shirts on the couch. Your preschooler can easily slide a hanger into each shirt, and make a new pile of ready to hang clothes. This also works best with their own clothes and the smaller hangers.

Now that you know how your preschooler can help out with the laundry, let’s think about why this is actually a good thing for not only them, but you as well.

Photo by Anna Maria Horner from Flickr

Why Helping with the Laundry is Good for your Preschooler

I’m sure there are many more reasons why helping with the laundry is beneficial to young children, but here is a short list of the benefits I’ve seen:

• Color recognition
• Recognizing patterns
• Categorization
• Coordination
• Feeling helpful
• Teamwork
• Teaches responsibility and pride in taking care of what we own

Photo by Ruth from Flickr

How Letting your Preschooler Help with the Laundry Helps You

Getting some help with the housework is always a good thing, right? But, particularly if you work from home or are striving to create more work-life balance in your days, then involving your young children in daily chores will help. You may think that if you just do the chores yourself, you’ll be able to get them done faster. However, how often do you find yourself interrupted when doing one task because your son or daughter wants some type of attention? Do you really get it done very fast?

Keeping them involved will allow you to have conversations with your kids while getting things done. It lessens the feeling of stress because you’re spending time with them while doing housework. They will feel like a “big helper” and you may find that it helps the overall mood in the house.

Do your kids currently help with the laundry? Do you feel it’s a learning experience for them?

Today I found myself home with my baby girl but also needing to clean. She didn’t go to preschool today, but I knew that I couldn’t let her being home get in the way of cleaning. This is a busy and short week for me due to the upcoming trip to Blissdom, so it is important that I stay on track.

So, I asked her to help me clean. This way we’d be doing it together and she’d feel involved. Plus, it helps her learn there are things to take care of around the house and that it’s good for all to pitch in as a family.

Obviously, young children have limitations when it comes to cleaning and helping around the house. What chores are preschool friendly, then?

1. Fold clothes: You can ask your preschooler to fold his/her clothes or even some towels. Since their clothes are so tiny anyway, they’re perfect for little hands to fold. My girl is also able to fold small towels, like kitchen towels. And, it doesn’t matter how they’re folded. I mean, really, if her shirts aren’t perfectly folded and lined up, life will go on.
2. Sweep: She may not be able to sweep the entire kitchen, but if she can sweep up a smaller area while I do something else, it helps. This works especially well if you use a swiffer, since all they have to do is push the stick up and down.
3. Clean bathroom sink: The first time I saw my daughter cleaning the sink in her classroom, I was amazed. “What are you doing?” I asked her. “Cleaning the sink! It helps my teacher.” I had no idea she knew how to do that! Now, she can run a sponge or rag around her bathroom sink while I clean the toilet.
4. Wash dishes: This started at my mom’s house. My daughter decided to ask her abuela if she could help her wash the dishes. So, my mom brought a stool by the sink, gave her a sponge and a bowl of soapy water, and said have at it. Since then, she’s done it a couple of times at our house too. Of course, we don’t give her the extra greasy or messy dishes, but she can safely wash a few cups and small plates.
5. Clean tables: My daughter’s been doing this since she was about two years old (maybe even earlier). It’s the easiest thing for her to do; she just has to swipe a paper towel over the table after I’ve sprayed it with some child-safe cleaner.

I’m sure there are many more household tasks and chores you can find that your preschooler can help with. If they’re anything like my daughter, they’ll love being able to help out. Just this morning she said that helping me clean was her “favorite thing to do in the house.” Now, mind you, her “favorite thing” to do changes from hour to hour, but still, for her to say it means she really does enjoy helping.

What chores have you found your kids can help with around the house?