unschooling and room cleaning
Pam Sorooshian
Rosie - always unschooled and now 20 yo and a college
student, on facebook this morning:
"Just pilates today (and the beach, and lunch, and soccer
and cleaning my room and other fun things like that)."
First comment on her facebook post: "Why did you put cleaning your room
on the fun times list?"
I cracked up --- Rosie loves to clean her room. She lets it get messy -
mostly with books and clothes lying around, and then she cleans it
thoroughly about every 3 or 4 weeks and does a bit of reorganizing, too,
each time. She eagerly looks forward to doing it and plans ahead to have
time for it. I have never, and I mean NEVER not one single time in her
life, told her to clean her room. She does it purely for her own
pleasure in doing it.
What I have done, many many times in her younger years, is gone into her
room and straightened things up for her. She often joined in, but not
always. Sometimes I did it when she wasn't there and it was a really
sweet surprise for her. I did it cheerfully. She's my youngest - my
older kids can remember when they were little and I used to get worked
up over trying to get them to clean up and help out, etc. But Rosie had
much more of the benefit of me having reached a much better place in my
own thinking about kids and chores, etc.
-pam
-pam
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
student, on facebook this morning:
"Just pilates today (and the beach, and lunch, and soccer
and cleaning my room and other fun things like that)."
First comment on her facebook post: "Why did you put cleaning your room
on the fun times list?"
I cracked up --- Rosie loves to clean her room. She lets it get messy -
mostly with books and clothes lying around, and then she cleans it
thoroughly about every 3 or 4 weeks and does a bit of reorganizing, too,
each time. She eagerly looks forward to doing it and plans ahead to have
time for it. I have never, and I mean NEVER not one single time in her
life, told her to clean her room. She does it purely for her own
pleasure in doing it.
What I have done, many many times in her younger years, is gone into her
room and straightened things up for her. She often joined in, but not
always. Sometimes I did it when she wasn't there and it was a really
sweet surprise for her. I did it cheerfully. She's my youngest - my
older kids can remember when they were little and I used to get worked
up over trying to get them to clean up and help out, etc. But Rosie had
much more of the benefit of me having reached a much better place in my
own thinking about kids and chores, etc.
-pam
-pam
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Colleen
*****I have never, and I mean NEVER not one single time in her life, told her to clean her room.*****
This reminds me of yesterday at our house - my mother had arrived from out of state to stay the night, and as bedtime approached I said jokingly to my 8 year old (the spare bed is in his room) "oh my - hope you cleaned your room for Gram's arrival!" and not skipping a beat he laughed and said "Nope, Mom - hope you did!!" <g>
I've never told him to clean his room either - I just straighten it up now and again when clothes start to pile up more out of the closet than in. He helps sometimes, but usually he bounces on the bed and chats with me while I clean :)
This reminds me of yesterday at our house - my mother had arrived from out of state to stay the night, and as bedtime approached I said jokingly to my 8 year old (the spare bed is in his room) "oh my - hope you cleaned your room for Gram's arrival!" and not skipping a beat he laughed and said "Nope, Mom - hope you did!!" <g>
I've never told him to clean his room either - I just straighten it up now and again when clothes start to pile up more out of the closet than in. He helps sometimes, but usually he bounces on the bed and chats with me while I clean :)