Noah is getting to the age now where he entertains himself very well with his toys, whilst mummy can get on with doing housework but also he is at the age where he can start to help me with certain chores – which makes life a lot more fun for Mummy! Needless to say the chores take double the length of time to complete, but when its more fun and we do it together, it doesn’t really bother me. I have a lot of patience, which I feel is an essential part of making family chores fun.
We have been learning tidy up; which to Noah is of course a game in itself. We pack away his Mega Bloks, one by one into the tub; sometimes involving a game of chase around the coffee table and Noah throwing them across the lounge for Mummy to catch and put into the box herself. Alternatively, Noah takes his bloks and hides behind the curtains for Mummy to come and find him and the small collection of bloks to be tidied away!
We have also been learning tidy up in the kitchen, where I pass the non breakable pots and bowls to Noah after they have been dried up and he puts them away in their drawer. He does this one by one and in between each item, we have to close the drawer and re-open it – who know’s why, but it is funny and he’s helping still.
The other family chore we have been learning is to empty the washing machine and put the clothes into the tumble dryer, Noah loves taking out all the clothes after they have been washed; again, one by one. I put clothes in the tumble dryer for a short while after washing to take the dampness off of them before hanging on the clothes horse, the tumble dryer is a metre from the washing machine. So we take out an item of clothing and walk over to the tumble dryer and throw it in the big hole and then giggle, run back to the washing machine and repeat!
This is probably why the chores do not get done very quickly in our house, but it makes me laugh watching Noah’s little mind working and finding out what he is going to do. Next stop is using the Cordless Sweeper that we have and maybe hanging the washing… how can we make that fun Noah?
Another way of making life fun for Mummy is to be a little silly every once in a while, why not? Recently I have taken part in a fun game with John Crane Toys that involves taking pictures of the little wooden Granny – I made her do a bit of my ironing! What? I can’t do everything!

MultipleMummy
March 25, 2012Great ideas – I love the idea of catch to tidy up! That is genius. Mine love wiping and hoovering! x
Kate
March 27, 2012Oh bless that Wooden Granny – so funny. I wish Youngling would help tidy up a bit better. Instead he just makes a bit more of a mess in an attempt to help. lol. I think I will try and make it more fun for him – can’t wait until he is old enough to do the washing up for me though 😉 xx
Donna Bird
March 30, 2012Start them young I say. I think its a great idea. I love that granny has been doing the ironing. She can do mine if she has the time 😉