My kid's rooms were getting out of control. I tried telling them to clean their room and was met with complaints such as "but it's too hard!" I tried asking them to clean a little every day and I tried assigning Sunday as the day they clean the whole thing. Nothing was working.
That's when I came up with an idea.
"Hey, you want to play Fifteen and Fifteen?"
"How do you play that?"
"I'm going to set the egg timer for fifteen minutes and during that time you clean your room. When the timer goes off, I'm going to set it again and you can play 15 minutes of video games. But you HAVE to clean during that first fifteen minutes or you lose a turn and I have to reset it for more cleaning. We keep going back and forth until your room is clean. When your room is clean, you win the game! Want to play?"
They loved the idea. Their rooms were spotless by the end of the day.
A few things I think are important to the success of the game:
1. I am a little flexible about resetting the timer if I catch them not cleaning. If they get a little distracted and need redirection that's normal for their age. I don't want to keep resetting the timer for them to be cleaning forever because the game won't be fun anymore and they won't want to play. If they are making progress, I just set them back on track and let them keep going.
2. It's important to note that I normally only allow 30 minutes of video games on a school night, and one hour on a non school night. Video games are never allowed before bed. They must turn it off at least an hour before bed time. I believe this is one of the reasons it worked so well. They were looking for an opportunity to earn more time. If your kids are allowed a long period of video game time every day, it may not work. If that is the case and you want to shorten the amount of time they are allowed in order to try the game, I would not introduce the game to them the same time you are giving them the bad news. They will associate the game with the sudden decrease in privileges and they will hate the game. I would say, let them know a few days in advance that there has been too much video game time and you're going to give them an allotted time, whatever works for you. Then after a few days, maybe even a week introduce the game.
3. The timer is important because it is a physical, tangible way for the kids to measure time. It is much easier for a kid to see how much time they have left, if their time is over, and it makes it more like a game, like beat the clock. Also, without a timer, one could lose track of time and play or clean (but more likely play) for more time than allotted without even realizing it, defeating the purpose of the game.
4. Now, when I say video games, what I actually mean is screen time. They could, instead, watch videos on youtube (careful of the content!), play the ipad or computer, or watch tv.
5. I also like to go in every once in a while and pay a specific compliment. "Good job!" is too generic to me. I like to be more specific. For example, "Wow! Your bed looks so nice and neat!" or "I like the way you organized your Skylanders!" They feel so proud and it reinforces their love of the game.
6. You can adjust the times. Sometimes we play Thirty and Thirty or Twenty and Twenty. I usually let the kids pick. Letting them pick gives them some control which they love. And whatever they pick, it's going to be the same amount of cleaning and playing.
Let me know if you do something like this!
Comment below and tell me how you get your kids to clean their room! :)
