Kids have fun getting things and themselves messy and dirty and they also have fun cleaning up. Cleaning can be both fun and learning, too. The list below is only a few of the ways that kids can ‘spring clean’.
- Small plastic toys spend a lot of time on the floor. With a small cloth and some warm, soapy water in the sink let your child wash a few cars, trucks, trains, blocks, toy dishes or whatever else may need a rinse.
- It’s easier for kids to wriggle under beds than adults. Turn your child into a vacuum that will reach any lost items that are hiding there in the dark.
Transformed to be a giant machine and armed with a laundry hamper send your child around a room to pick up anything off the floor or that needs to go somewhere else.- Tongs are fun to use to pick up duplo and lego or other small toys off the floor and pop them back into toy bins.
- Vacuums come with built-in sounds. Mops can also be dirt vacuums and kids can supply the sounds. What sounds can a mop make? Vroosh?
Figuring out where something belongs uses lots of deep thinking. First kids have to match an item to its category and then remember where things go. Good for brains. The activity and exercise are good for bodies. Social skills include learning how to be part of a team and cooperate with others. Emotionally children gain a sense of accomplishment and pride in their efforts.
Teacher Tom has a very popular blog and over 10,000 FB likes. On a recent post, he wrote:
“I tell our parent-teachers that I consider clean-up time to be the core of our curriculum. This is the most concrete way that the children begin to make the school their own in the only way that anyone ever truly takes ownership of anything: by assuming responsibility for it.”
While he is talking about school, the same dynamics happen at home. What are some activities that your child can do for spring-cleaning fun and learning?