My goal for Spring Break was to have a MUCH cleaner home - not just decluttered but really CLEAN. But, with two boys to entertain and to keep from grumbling while cleaning, I needed a plan! Thus was born the weeklong game of "Spring Break: Clean or Consequences!".
The idea WAS to have a gameboard and actual game-type cards, etc. but I planned too late and had a karate tournament to sit through the day before we started. So, we went with a modified version for this first year and just pulled the activity cards out of a paper back and we're tracking the rewards in our heads.
To start, I wrote down all the things I wanted to get done around the house. For reference I suggest breaking them up into 15 to 30 minute tasks (see below for why I suggest this...). Instead of "Clean bedrooms" you might have: 1) Pickup clothes & toys, 2) Vacuum/Sweep floor, 3) Dust furniture, and 4) Make beds. Repeat card-making for all rooms and tasks you think you can complete in one week. If certain tasks are dependent on others (you can't vacuum until all the clothes and toys are picked up, for instance) leave them out of the game until they can be done.
I also needed rewards and consequences to make this a "game" for my 10-yr-old boys (everything is a game at this age!). Mine tended to run towards money but use whatever works for your kids. If they can earn money in one reward, you should have an equal consequence of losing money...or break time, or an extra snack, etc. We also have "Remove one consequence" rewards - sort of like a "Get out of jail free card" in Monopoly.
To make it even more fun, we added some "race" activities - like clean bedrooms, pick up office/playroom, scrub tub/toilets (guess which one mom has to do...). The kids work as a team against mom. If they win, they get an extra reward. If mom wins, they have to do an activitiy without mom helping.
We set a daily deadline for getting clean cards completed - our deadline was 1 pm every day. So, we spend the morning cleaning and if we succeed then they have the afternoon for playing and "daily awards". They take turns pulling cards so there's fairness and mom can't stack the deck (dumb rule that *I* set). We set a time limit for the activity to be completed within and hit it hard. If they do it without complaining and within the limit THEY helped set, they get the reward and a 10 minute break. If we don't, no reward and only a 5 minute break. We try to get as many cards completed by the daily deadline as possible.
Overall, I promised them $20 for a week of good hard cleaning. They can lose money for consequences and possibly earn it back with rewards. They can't go over $20 or under $0.
My thought was this would make the cleaning go easier with time limits and deadlines, they would actually get rewards instead of nagging, just the threat of a consequence card makes them work harder, and I'm happy because the house would look better without (many) arguments. Here's how it turned out:
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DAY 1: LAUNDRY
So, because it's hard to get ANYTHING done with that mound of insanity piled up in bedrooms and the laundry room, this day was devoted to getting as much cleaned and put away as possible. Plus, I had to take Travis to the doctor, so the day was sort of off kilter anyway. AND it was nice to just have a down day overall - we all needed a mental health day. :) So, the game didn't really start today, but we got things ready and they got an understanding of the games. I also learned that NOT using the word "CHORE" but rather "ACTIVITY" helped their mental reaction to what we are doing.
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DAY 2: TWO TASKS
I didn't follow my own advice and had "Clean Bedrooms" as one all-encompassing task. Took us over 90 miunutes to get two bedrooms cleaned. UGH. But, SO much better now! It was also a race and they beat me pretty handily so they won a reward. But then they came in an helped me finish (without being asked!), earning them an extra reward. We also pulled the "Pack up books" card and got *6* boxes of books out to the garage. Then we reorganized the book case and it looks so much better!
Consquences: NONE
Rewards: Each boy pulled some money rewards and Son #1 got a "Take a 10-miute break" card - which he saved until day 3.
Daily Award: Cosmic Golf at the Great Mall of the Great Plains plus Topsy's popcorn.
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DAY 3: FIVE TASKS!
After the "clean bedrooms" craziness I redid a few cards to make the tasks smaller. We ended up completing these tasks:
- Declutter Living Room
- Declutter Dining Room
- Clean Figurines / Reorganize Art Supplies - RACE! (They won, again!)
- Vacuum Hallway
- Vacuum Bedrooms
Now, I've thrown the "Wash DR Walls", "Wash LR Walls", "Vacuum LR", and "Mop DR floor" into the deck for tomorrow. :)
Consequences: NONE! Although, we came close with the art supplies time until they remembered it was a race and mom was close to beating them.
Rewards: Again, money and snacks. Plus Son #2 pulled TWO break cards and has 15 minutes to take on Day 4.
Daily Award: Subway picnic lunch at the park with a photo shoot on the playset then a 2-mile (30 minute!) walk in the woods.
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DAY 4: AMAZING DAY!
Wow, this was a day for some CRAZY cleaning! We accomplished:
- Washed the walls in the dining room and the hallway (lots of little boy handprints to be removed)
- Revacuumed the hallway, bedrooms & living room - apparently the bag was full on Wednesday. :)
- Scrubbed the bathroom floor. This one was all mom. And it wasn't as bad as I feared!
- Dusted the living room furtniture - this was hte boys while I did the bathroom.
- Swept the dining room and kitchen floors - again, the boys while I continued to tackle the bathroom floor.
- More laundry and dishes
- Started removing wallpaper in boys room in painting anticipation
- Moved boys furniture around from original layout we set up 7 years ago! And that stuff is HEAVY!
Consequences: NONE!
Rewards: Boys decided they really didn't need the rewards to keep doing good things. YAY!
Daily Award: Headed over to my friend's house for a few hours. Her husband volunteered to create a chess-based mural for the boys' walls. He and the boys discussed that while she and I discussed her newly painted walls and colors for my bathroom. Then her son and the boys played outside while we drank some wine.
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DAY 5: NOTHING DAY
Ok, I admit. I gave up long before the boys did. I was SO tired from everything all week and I just wanted a break. So we took the day off and did NOTHING. At least until 3pm when I started to feel guilty so I hit the boys room to finish stripping the border from their room. Boys chilled out on the Wii for (too many) hours. And they fought more today than any other day this week. Hmmm...lesson to be learned? Keep them busy with work and planned activities rather than let them handle things themselves!
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Conclusion: GREAT GAME!
The kids were really positive about this endeavor / experiment! They've told other people about it and they keep telling me we should make it a real game. Guess that's my next "activity"... :)
