Sunday, February 10, 2008

What did I get myslef into????

I stumbled Upon this website that was about the "cleaning fairy" It was someones idea and they were trying to make money off of it. I thought the idea was good and worth a try, but i didn't think that I need them to pull it off. So I decided to try it out on my own. The "cleaning fairy"is Santa clauses sister and she goes to all the kids rooms that are clean and leaves them a note and a little treat. The idea behind it is to try and get your kids to be excited to keep their rooms clean. Well it worked intstantly for me. The second I told jakob about her he ran to his room and got it all cleaned. The "cleaning Fairy" delivered a few hours later with a note and a coupon to go to chucky cheese left on jakobs bed. This was a few weeks ago and I never could of imagined the monster that I would of created. Jakob is frantic about keeping his room cleaned, and also about the cleaning fairy. He is constantly checking to see if she came. And when she hasn't he has a melt down because he thinks his room isn't clean enough or heaven forbid she forgot him. Now when I started this whole thing I was prepared. I went and found lots of little fun treats that the the cleaning lady, I mean fairy could leave behind. I was naieve in thinking that I could leave 1-2 treats a week. You see now I have a much bigger problem, all 3 of my kids have started to clean their rooms constantly. Which I am more then grateful for, its just that Its getting to be way to much. I didn't want to give candy as treats so I have been leaving things like finger paints, puzzles, books, notebooks, coloring books that sort of thing. But man does that add up fast. And as many of you know all of my kids birthdays are in March( I know poor planning) This year jakob and alexa birthdays are on hoildays( saint patricks day, and easter). And with this thursday being valentines day and the valentines man NEEDS to deliver something good. He has been asked by 2 certain someones to bring more transformers( I am ready to be out of transformer phase). So my question is what is a mother to do? With cleaning fairy treats, valentines man, birthdays, easterbaskets, I just have no idea how to pull it off and not spend to much money. I don't want to stop the cleaning fairy cause well its working wonders. But how can I go backwards and start leaving less exciting treats. And my goodness, how do you celebrate a birthday and easter on the same day with out one trumping the other. I guess we will see what happends. Wish me luck.

2 comments:

Sunshine said...

I know with my class I gave them more rewards at the beginning of the year or when they start to forget what they are supposed to do, but the other times it is more spread apart and more random, but they still know the possibility is there so they do what they are supposed to. Maybe the Cleaning Fairy could leave a note that she is visiting a lot of children and doesn't know exactly when she will be there so he needs to keep his room cleaned always. Then perhaps she could gradually spread her visits apart. Hopefully he will still know she could come and if he lets his room get messy she could leave a note saying she came and wanted to leave a treat, but couldn't so she will try back later. I don't know since I don't have kids, but these things usually work with my class.

Laura Jex said...

man. Sounds like a good and bad thing. Maybe you can make a chart and after a whole week of keeping his room clean you can give him somthing......not sure