Getting your child to help you out at home can be challenging. I know that Adam really enjoys getting his toys out but is reluctant in putting them away! Adam is only three so I need to remind myself to not be too hard on him but having simple rules in place is essential for the future.

I’m going to test one thing out over the next couple of weeks that will hopefully start rewarding Adam in the right way. I saw an image on Instagram yesterday and it was all about how to reward your child with other things and not just sweets. It’s easy to fall in to the trap of rewarding your child with chocolate. I’m sometimes guilty of doing this myself so this post is a gentle reminder to me and not just advice to you.

I’m going to explain to Adam that we’ll have more fun time together if he helps out with jobs around the house. Simple things like tidying his toys away and taking his dirty dishes in to the kitchen would be a big help to us. He does it sometimes but not all the time. If we get it right with Adam, in theory Emma should see what Adam does and follow. I think by offering him a game of football in the garden or a trip to the park instead of chocolate is the correct way to get him to do this. By the way, we don’t give him chocolate all the time but we do use it sometimes as a reward tactic.

There are a few other things we do with Adam that you might find useful. One of them is getting him to make his bed on a morning. We simply pretend to time him while he makes it and see if he can beat the time from yesterday. We do this while he gets ready too and see if he can beat his Sister in getting ready.

One other thing we always do on a morning is listen to music. Forget the TV for a second, it’s far too easy to come down and sit your kid in front of the TV. Do this sometimes but not every day, it’s a bad habit in my opinion. Instead we play music and dance around the house. I know this might sound crazy to some of you but I know Amy will be reading this and nodding her head. Music helps you get in a good frame of mind for the day ahead and we love it.

Adam also has his own spot in the back garden. He has a little wooden house and a sand pit next to it. This is his own little area that he looks after. He has his own plastic spade, fork and garden gnome too. When Amy and I are doing the odd job in the garden he feels like he’s helping out by looking after his own patch.

We’ve recently introduced Adam to our Nintendo Wii. We weren’t sure how he’d respond and if it might be too difficult for him. He loves the tennis, golf and bowling games the best. He has hit more strikes than me! We keep Adam motivated by praising him for being active. If his confidence gets knocked a little we remind him that he’s doing well and it’s the taking part that counts.

This post is part of my ‘Exercise and Kids‘ section. This topic is of huge importance to me now and I intend on leading by example.

Thanks again for reading, I always appreciate it.