Cleaning & Fun Can Go in the Same Sentence After All!

I the following on Faith & Family Live as a reply to one of the posts & thought I'd share it here too!

My oldest three children (9, 6, & 4) occasionally complain that I never play w/ them. I tell them that if I didn’t have so much to do around the house, I’d have more time hoping they will help out a bit more. Today, instead of yelling at them to help out, I had an epiphany…we can play AND clean at the same time. I set the stove timer for a variety of minutes (3 the first time, 2 the next, 4 after that, etc. - I didn’t tell them how long I set it) & we spent that time cleaning up. Once the timer rang, I put on some fun music (Veggie Tales) & we (yes, me included!) danced for a whole song. We did that for about an hour & even though our house is not completed cleaned up, we made a big dent in it! DS #2 decided several times to not dance & continued to wash dishes. We loved the time we were able to spend w/ each other this morning while getting things done & they want to do it more often!

Accomplishments: 1 hour of Phys. Ed. & Music for school, the house gets cleaned, & happy munchkins (& Mom, too!)