Using the lockdown for teachable moments

While the family is at home due to the lockdown take the opportunity to see beyond the mess and untidiness in the house and use this period as a teachable moment by using this time to teach them responsibility. Here’s some tips to do it successfully:

Explain why they must help

As you start giving them chores explain in a manner that is age appropriate the reason why everyone in the house has chores. This would perhaps include explaining that because you are all a family everyone must help each other to keep things tidy and neat.

Give them ownership

If there are certain chores you’d like them to start taking on, it may be easier by sharing all that needs to be done and giving them the choice to choose two or three tasks that they would be responsible for.

Associate it with being grown up.

Meg Akabas, founder of Parenting solutions consulting firm says parents should,  “Appeal to his desire to be more grown-up. It can be as simple as saying, ‘Now that you’re 5, you’re stronger, taller, and more careful. I bet you could put away the washed dinner plates”.

READ:Free range parenting versus structure and routine in a time of #salockdown

Reward them

Follow chore time with fun activities or reward them with something for successfully completing their chores. Maybe they can choose whats for supper that night giving them the opportunity to choose their personal favourite. Plus this give you to let them create their own chore and reward chart where they will be able to see not only their chores but also the rewards they get for doing them.

Make it fun

Tidy up time doesn’t have to be a drag. Make it fun by doing it together and maybe even putting on some background music while everyone carries out their allocated chore or chores. “By incorporating some fun into tasks, you can improve your kid’s attitude about helping with housework,” says Lea Schneider, author of Growing Up Organized: A Mom-to-Mom Guide.

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