School half-term holiday..fun cleaning activities for children I Art of Clean

Today marks the beginning of the Spring half-term holiday in Cambridgeshire, which is a time for parents and children to spend some quality time together. But for some parents, this brings an added pressure of thinking up engaging and creative things to do with the children. The easy option would usually coincide with visiting a theme park or going shopping, but they are such expensive activities to do for a family, that it’s not always possible.

Here at the Art of Clean, we’ve been thinking of some alternative activities that are fun to do, gets the whole family included and an added bonus will save you money.

Okay! This might seem like a very long stretch of the imagination, but stick with it, the idea is, how about getting the children involved with the household-chores?

“Yeah! I can see that happening!” I hear you cry.

But read on and I’m sure this will become the norm and you and your children will have proper quality time with each other.

Get your kids involved in the cleaning solution

As your kids are growing up, keeping your house cleans is a real struggle, but the secret is, to allow your children to be part of the cleaning routine, where they are part of the solution and not the problem. Here’s how to the children on the act.

Get them involved from an early age

Have you noticed how children from a very young age like to copy what the adults around them are doing? They see you in the morning putting on your make up, they want to put make up on, they see you vacuum cleaning and they want to do the vacuum cleaning. Do you see the pattern here? The slightly difficult thing to do is finding something which young children can do, which appropriate for their age. For children aged 2 – 3, simple things like putting away their toys back where they belong.

Children soon catch on to the fact that they are an important part to make the house run smoothly.

Making the bed

The next activity, could be simply pulling the blanket up to the top of the bed. For pre-schoolers, this could be just the thing, although at this age they are only just getting their coordination together so don’t expect perfection but be proud of your child’s efforts.

Be clear with your instructions

Be specific and give one clear simple instruction at a time. Being asked to “Clean up your room” could be overwhelming to any 5 – 6 year old. But “Put away all your pens and pencils in their container” will be clearly understood.

Children love role-play

By making it more fun and imaginative and getting dressed up for the role, 5 – 6 years will learn so much more. Get them involved with starting their own cleaning company and kit them out a hat, apron and rubber gloves. And you can play the part of the appreciative customer.

For older children

Incorporate music and games into various chores. How about putting on a piece of music and challenging the children to pick up everything from the floor by the time the music finishes. The reward is, if they get to complete the task before the end of the song, they get to dance, which is a huge motivator.

These are just a few activities which you could get your children involved with and for much older children, how about giving a time frame to complete a task in or organising a car boot sale. We all like to earn a bit or extra money from our old junk or stuff they might have grown out of.

One thing for us adults to learn is never redo their work and always show your appreciation.