Encouraging children to do anything that on first glance looks boring isn’t the simplest of tasks. But, often all you need is a little smoke and mirrors. Make it enjoyable and they won’t even realise that they’re helping with the cleaning and recycling. From making it fun with crafts and DIY hamster toys to using reward charts, here’s some inspiration for you to help encourage your children to clean up and recycle.
- Find fun ways to recycle and clean
Sometimes all it takes to get kids involved with the recycling and cleaning is to make a game of it. It could be timing them to see how fast they can tidy up their bedroom, scoring points by throwing (non-fragile) recycling into the recycling bin, or seeing who’s the best at sorting different colours for washing and different materials for recycling boxes. The key is to keep it light hearted and interesting.
Whenever you can incorporate quirky ways of recycling, that really helps too. And that often means using your recycling to make arts and crafts. Anything from a huge cardboard den to DIY hamster toys, it’s another method of showing children how important it is to reduce, reuse and recycle.
- Reinforce the importance of recycling
You can make recycling fun as we’ve already seen, but educating kids during the process is another motivating factor for them too. They’ll be learning about sustainability and green living during school, so ask them questions about what they know.
Do your own research if you need to and add to their knowledge with a few key facts. Keeping their minds busy whilst they tidy and sort recycling is a great way of distracting them from the fact that they’re actually helping you with the home chores. But once they know why it’s important to recycle, they’ll be motivated to join in anyway.
- Set up a reward chart
When it comes to children doing jobs around the house it can be tricky to get them to do it. It might be that you need some help tidying the lounge, a little assistance with cleaning the kitchen or you’d like them to sort out their bedroom. Most parents will tell you that kids just aren’t interested most of the time, but! You do have a trick up your sleeve – the ability to reward good behaviour.
One of the best ways of ensuring that kids do help with the tidying and cleaning is to create a reward chart. It could be for the week, or after a number of successful cleans. Whatever it is, make the chores clear for your little one, and give them a star when they complete each one. Reach your desired amount and boom! They get a reward. It might be extra playtime, a treat or a comic. Whatever it is, they feel good and you feel good too. Everybody wins!
Put these tips into practice, come up with some of your own, and getting the kids to help with cleaning and recycling will be easy!
