What I Made Wednesday {The Chores Game}

Fight the chore doldrums with this easy-to-make game that will get your children begging to play it over and over again (I went too far on that last part, sorry). Chores aren't my idea of a great time but the task is necessary. To make it fun, veil the task as a game. And, when you can get your kids involved in helping, there are life lessons being learned (a nice way of justifying child labor - kidding). Let's face it, nothing's cuter than a 5-year old holding a dust rag!

What You'll Need
- lots of ping pong balls depending on your list of chores
- a Sharpie pen
- a kitchen timer
- a nice storage bin to contain the balls and timer

What You'll Do
1. Gather the cheap labor children and come up with simple chores that are age-appropriate for all involved.

2. Write each chore on a ping pong ball with permanent marker. One chore per ball.

3. I like to have one ping pong ball be a FREEBIE and another be YOUR CHOICE.

4. Dump all the ping pong balls into your container.

5. Equip the busy bees appropriately by having all the supplies readily available in one central location.


How to Play
Now the fun part: getting the house back into shape while teaching teamwork. Have everyone agree to a specified time say 10 minutes. (As tempting as it is, don't start your teeny tiny cleaning crew with a time more than 15 minutes - they'll catch on too quick!) Set the timer and yell GO! Each child will close their eyes (no peeking) and choose a ping pong ball and make a mad dash to complete the written task at hand. 

When complete, the unsuspecting, but very willing participants will come back for another mission from the ping pong task master. When time runs out, the person with the most ping pong balls wins. If you don't like the competitiveness of it then set family records and try to beat your previous scores as a group.

 

This game is an equal opportunity employer - are the kids too young to read? No problem, just draw the task onto the ping pong ball. This craft is fun and easy! Your kids will learn responsibility, you'll get a tidier home, and you won't have to answer to the U.S. Department of Labor (or even the health department depending on how dire your circumstances).

* On a serious note, DO NOT expose your younglings to any kind of chemicals, etc. It is up to you to determine what your children can handle in way of cleaning supplies. The Swiffer Dusters are a great non-toxic dust rag that really gets the job done. (No I did not get paid by Swiffer to say that but if they'd like to have a sit-down, I'm all ears.)



Linky Party for W.I.M. Wednesday coming soon, but feel free to share your crafts and recipes in comments now, if you'd like.