On this Works For Me Wednesday: making life easier with lots of littles… Oh, and teaching those littles some responsibility too 🙂
I have 2 1/2 year old and 3 year old boys, (and an almost 9 month old girl) so there is lots of cleaning and picking up at our house every day, but obviously their house cleaning skills and abilities are a bit limited. However, since we recently downsized to a 900-1000 square foot rental home with no dishwasher and very limited laundry area, I was pretty excited to get the boys started helping out with chores. I started by letting them help with dishes, but that proved to just be too much for them at this point. With their limited attention spans, it turned into a bigger mess for me. Then I tried “table chores.” Oh, what a difference such a simple thing has made in my life!
After breakfast, lunch, and snacks the boys are responsible for putting any scraps of food from their plates in the trash, putting their plates and utensils in the sink and their cups on the counter. I then give them each a wet rag to clean the table and chairs. After I’ve inspected their work, I give them a dry towel to dry it all. This must be done before they move on to the next activity. If they finish eating before everyone else, they sit at the table until we finish. After supper is a super busy time, so I haven’t had them help with that yet. These chores are simple enough for them to handle with little supervision, allowing me to get started on washing the dishes or putting away the dry ones from our last meal, but still being close enough to keep them on task and give instructions.
Thanks for this post! I have my littles clear their dishes but I love the idea of them wiping their chair and table space! Our chairs get so sticky and grimy, this would really help with that. My six yr old clears the table after dinner and it is so helpful. A few more years and your boys will be pros at meal time clean up!
Yes, it is something small, but it’s been a big help to me! Now if only they could cook the meal too…. 🙂