I am so very tired of fighting my children about their bedrooms and how filthy they are. It is an absolute constant battle. And I refuse to clean their rooms for them while they go outside and play. It is way easier to do so, but what am I teaching them when I do that?
Anyway... becuase I totally understand the overwhelming nature of a messy room, I'm been trying new approaches.
- I've tried designated tasks. .. make your bed.
- I've tried designated colors.. just picking up things that are blue.
- I've tried threatening.. if I pick it up, it goes to Goodwill.
- I've tried... you get the picture.
Well, I think I have finally found something that WORKS!!! OH MY GRAVY!
At least it works this week. :)
I had Kylie take pictures of her room.
She then looked at the picture and identified a section that she wanted to focus on and went back and took a close up of that area.
Then she went and cleaned that area and took a new picture of it. TADA!!
Oh my word she was so excited!
Talk about celebrating small wins!
She then went back and looked at the original picture and we talked about what to work on next. She identified the area, took a picture of it and came back to me.
We discussed the poor state of her stuffed puppy dog and identified where everything went.
And off she went. A few minutes later she came back with a replacement picture.
And then she was ready to tackle THIS. Oh my.
She made it this far.
And so we stopped for the day.
No tears, no drama.
Would I have liked the entire room clean? Of course. But I really, really liked the fact that she did the work herself and that she was PROUD of herself!!!
that is a WIN people.
And what about Lexi. well.... let's just say the pictures we have of her before reflect hoarding practices and worse... She started working on her mess last night. She already has some dramatic changes!!
And maybe that is what is needed. A visual reminder of the progress.
Anyway, for now, we have a winner room cleaning strategy!
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