Our cleaning 'game"

We have a family home evening game called the obedience game. We took turns drawing slips from a jar and had to be obedient in completing the tasks. The boys loved it and I couldn't believe how willing they were to do things just because a piece of paper said to. Now if the request had come from me I would have gotten a big fat NO.
Saturday morning Ryan was gone hunting and I had a day full of cleaning ahead of me. It is always easier for me to work on projects with help so I put together a cleaning game for me and the boys. I wrote all the things we had to accomplish on slips of paper and put them in a bowl. Some of the papers said everyone had to do it so we would race to make our beds, get dressed, etc. Some said that Mom had to do them (which the boys thought was great!) To break up the chore, I threw in some "do the cleaning dance" ones. We turned on some tunes and took a break. The extra treat was if we were done by noon we could go get ice cream (Ethan had a free Sundae coupon at Artic Circle for reading).
It was so great to have help and the boys learned how to do some chores that they have never done before. They took pride in doing the job and were excited for their turn at drawing a task. This is one idea I will definately stick with!