Cleaning Games

When I need my kids to help me clean just asking is not enough. I always try to make some sort of game out of it so that its fun for them. One of my favorite games works best at night. We turn on every light in the house and when a room is finished being cleaned we turn the light in that room off. The goal is to have a dark house. Sometimes I have let my kids watch a movie with the lights off if they finish in time. They LOVE pretending we are at a movie theater.

Tonight as I was cooking dinner for my kids I had the idea of them trying to clean and beat the microwave timer. In the 3 minutes the microwave was running our whole living room and dining area were picked up. It amazes me how fast kids work when they get excited about doing it.

Another cleaning idea is one I got from a friend. She said she would turn on music and they would clean one room while they listened to a song. When a new song came on they would switch rooms, and this continued until the house was clean.

Do any of you moms have any fun cleaning games you would like to share? I'm always looking for new ideas.

Oreo Cookie Suckers

I have made Oreo cookie suckers before in the past, and am going to do them again for Easter using Spring colored sprinkles. I had planned to write out the directions here in the blog but found this. I have always done mine using the double stuf oreos. Also, instead of just pressing the chocolate dipped stick to the filling I take a small chunk out of the filling where I'm going to put the stick. That way the stick is even with the filling. They are so easy to make and are incredibly delicious! I will post a picture when I do mine.

Point System

We started a new point system recently that I found here. Some of my friends have asked me about it so I thought I'd just post this link. So far it's going pretty well. The kids are still adjusting to the idea of getting points for good behavior and losing them when they're bad. But as far as their eating habits and watching tv it has worked wonders. The kids don't want to pay for junk food when they can eat a healthy snack for free. Plus, they only will watch about an hour of tv each day instead of jumping from one show to the next. I'm hoping that with time they will grasp all the concepts.

The Beginning

Yesterday I was at my neighbor's house with my kids having green eggs and ham in celebration of Dr. Seuss's birthday. We started talking about the different things she has done for her kids on various holidays and she had some AMAZING ideas. Since my kids didn't start school until this year we haven't really gotten into celebrating these types of occasions. Then came my idea to start One Mother to Another.


I wanted to start a blog where mothers can post ideas for fun things to do with their kids, but then I started thinking that this would be a great way for us to also ask questions and get advice from other moms. So, here's to the beginning of One Mother to Another. I hope it's a success!