Week Seven - Playground Clean-up

We went to this park a month or so before, traveling 30+ minutes and passing numerous parks along the way, because we wanted to go to this specific park.  My kids call it the "fort park", I think you can see why, and it really is quite cool.

 

But last time, after we had eaten our little picnic, we were very disappointed to discover there was garbage everywhere.  Such a nice park, lots of kids enjoying it, but really too bad that no one was taking care of it.  We decided then, that the next time we came, it would be to clean up, at least some the trash. 

So when my niece and nephew were visiting, I thought it would be perfect (mostly because I thought it was one project I knew I could manage with two extra hooligans).  So after enjoying our nice, store-bought picnic, it was on.  For children, I concede that sometimes a little competition or a little reward helps the motivation factor, but I do like to keep it simple.  For this occasion:

Every time they brought me, the bag holder, a piece of trash, they got a Jelly Belly.  One caveat:  it only took me a minute or two to realize that I actually was not a fan of putting the jelly bean in the same hands that had just brought me someone else's old, yucky trash, so I turned to either popping it in their mouth for them or I put it in their pocket for later, after hands had been washed.  Call me OCD, but in the end, it worked out just fine and the task was made a bit sweeter.

The kids did a great job and were very satified with their accomplishment.   We had a great time and got something done at the same time. 

Why I like this project:

very low cost

the kids got it and could do it themselves

we could see the fruits of our labor immediately

lots of people saw us cleaning up and maybe now they will think about doing the same :)

and of course, we got to play while we were working.