Whew!

Labor Day was just that...full of labor. With Ben being home, we tried to get tons of projects done. Unfortunatley, we tried to do more than we had time to do!!

One of the big projects though was Harmony's room. Her room is always a nightmare for me. She likes to stash things wherever. She is a pack rat. She hates to throw things away. She is...dare I say it? Lazy. I love her but...whew.

We had been working in her room literally for hours, when Mason woke up from his nap. I gave her a couple of projects and went on to feed Mason. Not 5 minutes later, she is sitting on the couch. I asked her why she wasn't working in her room. Her reply, "well I am waiting for you to tell me what to do." Hmmm..

I told her that I was feeding Mason but to go and get everything off the floor. Finish her room, right? So maybe another 5 minutes later, here she is insisting that she is done and can she play video games. I let her because I knew there wasn't that much work to do, and surely she was done right?

I put Mason down for his nap and go check her room. Stuff is everywhere...except the floor. She had literally "cleaned off the floor" by putting things on tables, shelves and shoving them into assorted bins. Ugh.

At first I was just going to do it myself. But I changed my mind. Do I really want to be cleaning her room for the rest of the time she lives here? I don't think so. We went through everything. Do you want it? Do you still play with it? Etc.

She did great. Her room is spotless. She gave a couple of bags of things away.

I learned today how important it is too...

1) check your child's work. It is important. Otherwise they will try to get away with stuffing things places. I am bad about checking. I get caught up in what I am doing. But I know if I want my children to be productive and helpful, they need to know that there work will be checked.

2)Children need to be taught HOW. Harmony takes everything literally. So by telling her to "clear off the floor", that is what she did. How can I tell her she didn't do what I asked? Show them how. Polly pockets go with polly pockets. If it's trash, toss it. Don't set it on a desk for later...etc

3)Don't let their rooms get so overwhelming that they don't know where to begin. Harmony used to have a loft bed, but we took it down. So her room was in complete upheavel as we moved things around. She honestly didn't know where to start. I gave her a bin and had her fill it. Then all I had her do was empty that bin, putting things where they go. And she did it over and over, until it was done.

Lots of lessons learned but I am going to continue this post later. I have a long way to go to teaching my kids to clean! However, Mason is calling! :)