Scavenger Hunts With Chores

Hey, all you parents out there! Are you having trouble trying to motivate your children to do their chores? Well, me too. But recently I tried to make a game out of it, and lo and behold, it WORKED. They did them. Now, I'm not so naive to think this will continue indefinitely, but as long as it's working NOW, we're gold. What's working? I came up with a scavenger hunt for chores. Let's get into how it works.

First off, I'll tell you the chores that my son and daughter are responsible for doing each night...and they're not that difficult! You'd think that by the time they get to be eight years old, I'd have a handle on this, but nope. I don't. Not yet, anyway. Each night, one of them has to clean out the litter box. That was the deal when we got my son Paul a kitty; he had to clean it...as well as Rita, my daughter. She also wanted the kitty, but I told them right upfront that I was not going to be responsible for its litter box. I thought this would be a good way to teach them responsibility, and how to care for an animal.

The other two chores that I make them do are cleaning up their rooms and sweeping the floor (our living room is tile just one room for them to sweep).

So. What I do to make it fun and to turn nights into scavenger hunts is to hide little clues in, on, and around the areas that they're cleaning. But they're not just your everyday clues; they're WORDS. And the words don't really mean anything until all the words are put together at the end of the chores, making them into a phrase. The phrase will spell out some sort of question like What should we have for a treat? or May we have some candy?, etc. But I try to switch it up, just in case they guess what it's going to say before they're done. That eliminates cheating!

So by the time they're done, they both get to ask me or my husband their question, and we have to be ready to give them an answer, AND we have to be ready to have the answer be something they would like; something that actually IS a reward. That way, they don't get discouraged with their chores, and it feels like they've accomplished something.

In case there are other parents out there trying to motivate your children to do their chores in fun ways, try this! It works for us, and I hope it works for you!

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