Kid’s Housekeeping Can Be Easy
Posted by: Christine Mullins in Kids Chores, Kids HousekeepingThere was once a classroom of students who decided to do an experiment. When their teacher walked to the left side of the classroom they all yawned, looked out the window and looked generally bored.
When the teacher walked to the right side of the classroom they all sat up, were attentive, asked questions and tried to learn what the teacher was teaching.
The teacher quickly learned subconsciously that he should always stay on the right side of the room.
The same principle is effective with children and kids housekeeping. Since children crave attention, they will do – even on a subconscious level – whatever gets them attention.
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If you aren’t giving them enough positive attention, they will behave negatively, to get negative attention. The natural reaction to this is for a parent to talk or yell at their child who’s not doing what she wants them to do.
If you want your child to be well-behaved or to do a specific task, give extra attention to those good behaviors and zero attention to the negative ones.
If a mother yells, her children will learn to yell, even if the mother is yelling, “We aren’t going to have any yelling in our home.” If a mother spanks her children, her children will learn to hit others. If a mother works on a computer all day, her children will learn that the computer is what they should value and where they should spend their time … you get the picture!
If a mother sets up a chore chart and doesn’t put “Mom” and “Dad” on the chart, her children will learn that when they are adults, they won’t have to take care of their surroundings and may not even take care of them as a child, since their parents don’t seem to think it’s important enough for THEM to do.
When I want my children to do something, I start doing it myself and verbally point out how responsible I am being. My children become aware that I am doing something worthy of attention. They then want some of that same praise for themselves and start following my examples.
I praise their efforts and give them extra attention because of their great behavior. You’d be amazed at the kid’s motivation it creates.
Kids housekeeping really can indeed be simple, easy and fun.
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