Kids, clean your room! .... ???

 

I'm struggling with how much to "make" the kids clean their room.
I understand that we've been in transition for almost a year and there is never a place for everything. We just haven't been diligent about organizing toys (legos go in this box, puzzles get stacked on this shelf, etc) because we always know it's short term.
Super fun.

I started telling the kids that we'd work on organization at our new house and that we'd have to all work on picking up our things. We talk about how it's frustrating when we can't find what we want or stepping on toys, etc.

The kids agreed.
We'll have a plan.
In the new house.
That's when we'll start.

We were talking about it with Ren Man and he said that when he was a child he never cleaned his room.
He thinks this is because the only thing the children in his family did in their rooms was get dressed and sleep.
So there were no toys in his room to make a mess.
He said one day he looked around his room and decided he wanted to clean it, so did.

In contrast, his cousin was required to clean his room before Ren Man could go visit or the cousin could come over to Ren Man's house. Ren Man is fairly certain this cousin still does not routinely clean his room.
I would argue Ren Man could be a little neater himself - but who couldn't?

At my house growing up most of our toys were in the living room but some toys were in our rooms and we had a healthy collection of books (books being a HUGE contributor to our children's bedroom mess right now). We were required to clean our bedrooms.

So I'm torn.
Require cleaning of the bedroom?
I think modeling ("Let's clean up the books because I'm noticing that they are ripping when we step on them. Can you help?"; "dolls go in the doll bath so we can keep them off the floor and Eden won't chew on them." etc)

Thoughts? Should kids have to clean their rooms?

Making hula hoops -- literally!

I recently discovered maya*made and - well, wow!
She posted a link to this canopy and then to how to make your own hula hoops.

 

all of our supplies laid out on the fort (aka our dining room table).

 

enthusiastic hula-hoopers turned enthusiastic snackers

 

Piece of hoop-to-be cut to size

 

and hoop completed.
I am pretty excited about canopy potential (which involves sewing because the stash we have of fabric needs some piecing together to form long enough canopy-ness) but Ark Boy and Farm Girl are thrilled by the hula hoop.
I'm excited about the potential of multiple canopy forts (you can only buy the black pvc in so small a portion - so I think we have enough to make eight more hoops - yes EIGHT!).
And bonus - I'm a way better hula-hooper than I am a monkey-bar navigator. No, it's not saying much but I'm pretty proud ;p

Toy Vacation

We rotate toys.
We do!
Okay- so we haven't rotated toys since we moved
2 months ago
and our in use toy amount is becoming excessive
and everytime I stumble on yet another toy left out I think: "argh! I hate kids!"
which we all know just isn't true

At a weekly playgroup we go to one of the moms was talking about rotating toys (in response to the question of what to do with the dreaded unwanted toys that people insist on getting your children)
She rotates her toys every 3 days
She only puts out 2 toys
wow

But how great to have that many fewer things to trip over
Generally I keep the toys packed away that have lots of pieces to them (like the wooden blocks) because they drive me crazy!
So they never get used.
Maybe we could do just 3 toys- maybe 4
Yes, 4 sounds good.
So I started packing up toys and realized
I'm addicted
That's right
I'm addicted to Ark Boy's toys
I don't play with them
but I really like the idea of him playing with them
All of them
All the time
In reality it doesn't happen
So I packed up all of the toys
Well
Almost
I left out his cardboard blocks because:

• the thought of carrying a million of them up to storage was daunting
• they are stored neatly under the coffee table
• he doesn't remember that they are under there anyway

I also left out his animals because he just recently got them and my mom is bringing him more and more and more... and they're just plain fun.
And the only other thing I left out was a sesame street doll house thing that was his aunts and I only recently brought it back into circulation.
Everything else is packed up.
For new toys I brought out his drum and a lady bug push toy.
I hope I can keep this up.
Less toys.
Good.
I can't wait to see Ark Boy's face when he sees the "new" toys that are out.