So Sunday night as we talked about how to survive and how to get everyone to proactively help with all things - chores, music, homework... we had an idea that we'd divide into teams - Team Mom and Team Dad. Corey and I would be the team captains and we'd choose players for our team and we'll keep score and whoever has more points by Saturday gets to have a party or an outing and do something fun. We chose teams. Joseph had flashbacks of elementary school as he was the last one picked. Sorry Joseph, but it's not because you're not a highly valued team cleaner, cause you are! It just happens sometimes, someone has to be last! He decided he's be on his own team and beat us all. As we talked, Ethan wanted to know how he ranked in his ability to clean compared to Melodie, who was the first person I chose for my team. Ethan was disappointed with the low score we gave him, and seemed determined to change our view of his cleaning abilities.
So I was thinking of how to implement the rules for this game. I thought we could start this week and keep it going after school starts, but then I didn't get very far in my planning, so maybe we'll just wait until school begins.
And then yesterday Ethan goes all amazing on us... While I was gone taking Hyrum to band practice, Ethan got all the kids and a few neighbor kids all excited about having a cleaning contest and they made the house super clean. He called me to ask if I could bring home a prize for the winners, so I loaded up on mini doughnuts. We felt like Ethan needed 100 points for leading out in the cleaning, and the kids all needed points for doing the work.
And the house looked amazing! Sure... I wasn't able to find the thing I left out on the desks or dressers, like Joseph's pants that needed a button sewed on, but I found most items within 2 days. It was worth it to see the clutter free desk tops and tables. Maybe dividing up into teams would just be more work for us, we just need to figure out a way to get Ethan to always lead out as the cleaning Captain like this, he's pretty effective at rallying the troops. It was awesome and well worth the prize of doughnuts. We will give kids that clean whatever they want!
