The gals over at Mom Loop are helping keep me accountable this week!  We are spring cleaning and I get to show before and afters of our Quirky House.  Yesterday’s assignment was the dining room.   As with everything, we had to think of a way to make cleaning the dining room a fun family affair.  Maybe your kids will enjoy helping you sock mop your floors!  If you are looking for other ideas to involve your children in household chores, check out out collection of activities and ideas.
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Steps to Sock …

My house has clutter, lots of clutter and I am often in awe of some of those super organized mommas!  Nicole from Restrained Chaos has offered to guest post a few of her organization tips… I love them!  They are cheap and easy!  Hope you can take and glean from them as I have.  Here is Nicole in her own words:
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Now, I can’t give the key to total organization. This is not because it’s a secret from Martha Stewart’s vault or hidden in a remote (and very clean) monastery …

I don’t know about you, but my storage areas were seriously lacking in organization or neatness in this house. Usually, about 6 months in to a house, I go through and put up hooks, baskets, buckets, buy lg storage Tupperware, etc so the spaces look decent and can be used.  That 6 months is quickly coming to a close and my storage areas could use some serious help. My garage is my pantry, garden shed, school supply closet, and camping/travel equipment storage area.  It has a lot of jobs and …

More ways to use chores to teach your kids…
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Mopping, wiping, vacuuming and learning:

I use mopping to work on memory skills. Did you already mop here? How can you tell? With our table top we can easily practice deductive reasoning. The area without crumbs and greasy hand prints was wiped down, the other areas still need attention.
With mopping, short-term memory is more important. Often the floor looks about the same. So we work on developing our short-term memorywhile mopping.  Where have we mopped? Where …

My kids love cooking with me. So how can I use those moments adding ingredients, mixing and stirring to teach my kiddos? Here are some of the learning ideas I came up with:
Cooking with your toddlers:

Sequencing steps. It is important for kids to follow specific steps in a process. Example: First, mix eggs, butter and sugar. Then add the flour. Finally, spoon the cookies onto the cookie sheet. This is a great time to discuss consequences and make predictions. If we skip …

Our “theme” for this week is doing chores with our kids, what ways can we use chores and reoccurring daily events to teach our children educational concepts (math, verbal skills, reasoning, etc.) as well as instill in our kids a sense of value for work and appreciation of effort.  I love how excited my kids are to contribute to our family.  Now I only wish I were more willing to take the time and let them help me more often!
Here are some ways we have used washing the dishes as …

I have three kids all under four and they love being useful, feeling needed, knowing that they contribute to our family.  And, I love to look for the sneaky ways to help my kids learn without realizing it, or without the confines of a structured environment.  Chores are a great way for my kids to contribute, for learning to occur and for us to get more done in a day.
Sorting laundry and math skills:

Counting, learning one-to-one correspondence, or learning that “1″ means 1 item.   Kids Love to Know explains …

We are studying water this week and I was thrilled to have found some very old, shriveled up sponges.  Sponges, water and two little bodies meant lots of wet fun!  Here are five ways that we played and learned about water.
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We began by measuring our equal parts of water in a few small cups.  Then our experiments began:
1) we poured the water quickly on a completely dry sponge.  What happened?  The water splashed everywhere.
2) we poured the water slowly on a dampened sponge.  What happened?  The water filled the sponge.
We …

Ever want to know what to clean next?  An advertisement for a cleaning service was left on my door and it reminded me of all the areas I need to clean more often.  Maybe this list will help motivate you too!
Bathrooms:

Tiled walls, bath tubs, showers
Shower Door
Vanity and Sink
Mirrors and Chrome fixtures
Floors cleaned and mopped
Toilets cleaned and sanitized
Window sills, ledges and blinds dusted
Cobweb removal
Doors and Door frames/jams handwiped
Cabinet facing wiped

Kitchen:

Counter tops cleaned and sanitized
Outside of range hood cleaned
Top and front of range cleaned
Drip pans and glass surfaces wiped
Sinks cleaned and chrome …

This tip comes from Esther and it has helped revolutionize my not-so-clean, but hygenic and fun house.  She said to set aside 15 minuets each morning and afternoon to do a chore.  Put all your unusal chores into a jar and pull one out.  That is the one you get to work on for 15 minuets and if you finish it before the 15 minuets are over you pick another one.   I am amazed at how much I am able to accomplish in a mere 15m.
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Here are some of …