Teaching Children to Clean
I believe that teaching children to clean is one of the most important life skills you can teach a child; and parents are getting a failing grade in this subject. As one parent told me " Of all the things that I thought might be difficult about having children, I never realized it would be so much work to get them to do any work." You nag, you plead, you bribe and sometimes even threaten to take away privileges, but none of it works.
You must learn to teach. My book Teaching Children to Clean uses the seven principles of Maria Montessori to help you get some help around the house.
1. "Play is work for the child." My book uses cleaning games such as Beat the Clock, A Dime at a Time, and Stash Box Challenge to make cleaning fun.
2."Prepared environment." Children love order and routine; and the Ready Set Go method for cleaning keeps them engaged in the chore.
3." Independence." " Never help a child with a task at which he feels he can succeed." When teaching cleaning you must demonstrate how the job should be done and how it should look when the job is finished. Then let the child do the chore until you feel they are capable of doing it by themselves. Knowing they can handle themselves without direction is very motivating.
4. "Hands on Learning." Children learn through experience, if you teach them to take an active role in the household when they are young the easier it will be to get them involved as teenagers.
5. "Observation." Your child watches commercials on television and they know when a tool doesn't work. So, give them as many grown-up cleaning tools as possible. My book has a list of safe cleaning tools and Montessori sells adorable working cleaning tools in their catalog. I also devoted a chapter on making your own safe natural cleaning solutions.
6. "Freedom within Limits." Freedom doesn't mean a child can do whatever they want. But, if you teach them how to take care of themselves in thier everyday environment, it will help them to follow the right path.
7. "Respect." Setting an example is one of the best ways to get your children to help around the house. If you complain about housework and neglect your home, they will do the same. Children pay attention to what you do. One of the worst things a parent can do is to criticize the other parent about housework. Parents should treat each other with respect, even if thay have differnt standards regarding housekeeping.
You want your child to learn basic life skills, but finding the time for accomplishing this seems to get more difficult each day. What's the answer? You will find it in the pages of Teaching Children to Clean. It's available on Amazon.
