- Races. Fast races, slow races, races sideways, crawling races, "bug" or crab races, any kind of race to get from point a to point b, or to accomplish something that needs doing quickly (ahem, in less time than it takes a whole new species to evolve).
- MUSIC. Love it. Everytime we clean we crank up the music and dance. I despise cleaning. Hate it. It's just going to get messy as soon as I turn my back (or before, our lab sheds all year). So I HAVE to make it fun or it doesn't happen. Byproduct is that kiddo enjoys cleaning.
- "Kid Mop". Instead of dustmopping I'll drag kiddo around the house, in full giggle and shouts for M. to "go faster" (oy mommy's getting old, mommy CAN'T go faster). Got the idea because one time at IKEA I gave him one end of my belt and let him slide on his knees through the entire store. That was "kid sled". Their floors are WAY dustier than mine. (Boredom may breed creativity, but desperation does it FASTER). I only kid-mop occasionally, because he doesn't get the corners very well.
- Blitzkreig clean. Ideally put a tray of cookies in the oven and then clean like a bat outta hail so they don't burn. Nothing like the idea of burned cookies to light a fire under a slowpoke.
- Throw the breaker. As in, no electricity to MOST of the house. (I leave the fridge connected to power. It's amazing how different things become without electronics. From daily activities (like how our games change) to cooking hotdogs in the fireplace, or scrambling eggs over the BBQ. (difficult, btw). Using candles to see with. It's just interesting.
LOL... leaving the house with clothes on became SUPER easy courtesy of my son's preschool teacher. After explaining the reason for our lateness, she laughed and said "Just bring him to school in his PJs next time, and bring his clothes in a bag. It'll take him about 4 seconds before he'll want to be fully dressed once he gets here and all the OTHER kids are fully dressed." YUP. We only went to school half naked ONCE. After that all it took was "We're leaving at the count of 24 (or 17, or 136... pick a number, any number), dressed or naked, it's up to you."
Food... I've never stressed. Mealtimes were stressful in my house growing up... so I honestly don't give a rip. We play etiquette games, but we make them games (not standard rules of behavior). As far as food, he has food available to him all day. If he doesn't want something at one meal, I really could care less. It just gets wrapped up to be eaten later. He only liked certain veggies for AGES. So those veggies were served all the time cooked in various ways. My M. tried for 2 years to get him to eat peas from poetry ("I eat my peas with honey/ I've done it all my life/ It does taste rather funny/ but it keeps them on my knife!"), to rolling them into potato balls, to bribery, to threats. He just wouldn't. I really have no idea why she felt so strongly about peas. He'd eat broccoli, spinach, carrots, squash, asparagus, turnips, leeks... tons of things. But my mum. For some reason peas and corn are her "thing" and heaven forbid they weren't eaten.