Sorry about my bad mood while I was writing my last post... apparently the issue is with my web browser (the last update has some issues, it seems).
...and I realized this morning that I spaced out posting yesterday. Again, I apologize. I guess daily posts are an unrealistic thing for me, but there's no reason that I can't post more than my usual menu planning post.
Life has been busy. Last week, then again today, I went to my kids' schools to do a presentation for "AVIC" (Art Volunteers In the Classroom) for each of their classes (kindergarten, 2nd grade and 4th grade). LOTS of fun! The schools have paintings that the volunteers can choose from, or we can pick a different one (as long as it's kid-friendly, of course ...Tim Burton is *not*... ::sad face::).
I did "The Scream" by Edvard Munch... did you know that he did *four* different versions?
While we're still (kind of) in back-to-school mode, I wanted to share a few things that I've implemented with my kids that have really helped to keep all of us on track...
Morning checklists: I used Command™ hooks on our front door to hang cheap-o dry erase boards that I happened to find in each of the kids' colors (so they know which one is theirs at a glance). I glued a little ribbon on the back to make it easy to hang up. On school nights (or in the morning if I spaced it out the night before), I quickly run through what each kid needs to do to be ready to leave for school. I generally write it all out once at the beginning of the week, then just re-draw the check boxes daily.
Breakfast choices: I printed two 3x5 note cards, one with breakfast entrees and one with fruits. If we have another kids of fruit or maybe leftover french toast, I just stick a post-it note by the other choices. The kids stick their magnets (again, in their colors) on their choice before bed every night.
This makes my mornings *soooo* much easier! I can do minor prep the night before and breakfast is usually on the table by the time the kids get up (I try to get up half an hour before them.... when I can...)
Snack choices: Again, I printed on a 3x5 note card. Then I used a sheet protector to "laminate" it so that the kids can use the magnetic dry erase marker (that's next to it) to mark off what they've had. (Note: veggie snacks are unlimited, it's just on the check list to make sure that they take at least one)
Our weekday schedule: This one is the big one... I sat down one day and wrote out usual weekday schedule. Then I added pictures, printed it up and stuck it on the fridge. We use a little magnet to keep track of where we are in the day. (I also have alarms set for most of our evening stuff)
...Here's what our schedule looks like:
6:30 wake up
7:00 breakfast
7:45 leave for school
8:00-11:15 Mom's housework time
11:20(ish) Ollie gets dropped off at bus stop
12:00 lunch
12:30 Ollie's play time
1:00 Ollie's homework time
2:00 Ollie's nap time
3:00(ish) girls come home/snack time/play time
4:00 girls' homework time
5:00-5:30 kids' housework time
5:30 kids' t.v. time/play time
6:00 play time
6:30 dinner
7:15 kid #1 showers (other kids read)
7:30 kid #2 showers (other kids read)
7:45 kid #3 showers (other kids read)
8:00 bedtime/grown up reads
8:30 lights out!
...I'm realizing as I writing that this all looks a little overboard, but I have to say that, as a mother of three who also has ADD, it *really* helps me. Like A LOT. It seems to help the kids, too... plus, they think it's fun to check things off and move their magnets.
Would you try any of this, or do you think I'm crazy? (haha)
In a recent post, I mentioned another reward system for big jobs that they don't complain about and jobs outside of the house (like helping Kitty Gramma clean up around her house or emptying Miss Nikki's dishwasher). The funny thing is, a few days after introducing this system, I saw basically the same idea on Pinterest! I didn't pin it since I had already done it, but I thought the coincidence was pretty funny... great minds think alike, I suppose... or, you know, take inspiration from the eyebrow threading booth at the mall. So, what is it?
It's a punch card system!
They get ten punches and they get to pick something from the bucket!
The rewards!!!
(Don't tell the kids that most of it is from the dollar store.
What isn't is stuff that I've come across while cleaning)
The kids LOVE it. *And* they get to choose from a prize bucket at home or one at my best friend's house. HUGE motivator.
Try it. It works on my kids, let me know if it works on yours.
Well, I finally seem to have found something that works... The chores themselves have stayed pretty much the same, and the penny jars are still in place, but trial and error has given way to the latest incarnation of our family's chore chart:
This one was a crazy amount of work (which has made me more likely to enforce it, given the amount of effort that went into making it). Sawing the wood... sizing, tracing and painting the lettering... painting the hooks... designing, printing, stickering, "laminating" and outlining the tags... etc. Yeah, LOTS of work.
So, here's how it works... each child has two hooks -one for chores that they need to do, and one for the chores they've already done. The tags have a chore and a corresponding picture on the front and stickers representing the value of the chore; one sticker = one cent (for now... doing it this way should make it easy to give the kids "raises" in the future). Some tags are outlined in each of the kids colors, which makes it easy for me to pick out whose tags are whose, while others stayed white so I can hand them out to anybody. When they've finished a chore, they move it down. Simple concept. The extra hooks on either end are for any extra chores that I'd like done, but don't expect to be done... it gives them a chance to earn a little more if they want to. At the end of the day (or the next day), while I set up the next day's chores, I look at count up the stickers they've earned and pay each child accordingly (payments go into their penny jars).
Here's a list of their chores (and how many stickers they have on the back)...
These are the ones that each of the kids have and are expected to do every day:
pick up your bedroom (1)
pick up your stuff (throughout the rest of the house) (1)
make your bed (1)
put your laundry down the laundry chute (0)
Each of the kids have these, but they're not necessarily daily chores for them:
load dishwasher (2)
empty dishwasher (2)
wash/dry laundry (2)
sort laundry (2)
fold/put away laundry (2)
This one is for Moo:
practice violin (0)
These are the ones they take turns doing:
take out garbage (2)
take out both bathroom garbages (2)
take out recycling (2)
sweep kitchen (2)
sweep living room/dining room (2)
sweep O's room (2)
sweep bathroom/hallway (2)
sweep girls' room (2)
sweep kitchen (2)
swiffer living room/dining room (2)
swiffer bathroom/hallway (2)
swiffer girls' room (2)
swiffer kitchen (2)
swiffer O's room (2)
feed Fluffy morning (1)
water fluffy morning (1)
feed fluffy evening (1)
water fluffy evening (1)
litter box (3)
scrub toilet (2)
scrub tub/shower (3)
wipe bathroom (2)
wipe light switches/doorknobs (1)
wipe dining table/benches (2)
set table for dinner (2)
clear/wipe both living room tables (2)
dust living room (2)
dust dining room (2)
dust O's room (2)
dust girls' room (2)
straighten couches (1)
fold/put away laundry that isn't yours (3)
help with organizing (2)
I know it's a big, long list but they generally don't have more than one or two chores on top of their daily stuff. We've been doing this for a couple of months and it's really been working well.
In addition to this, I've introduced another reward system for big jobs that they don't complain about, jobs outside of the house (like helping Kitty Gramma clean up around her house or emptying Miss Nikki's dishwasher)... but I'll post about that another day (I think this one is wordy enough already).
Yes
folks, it's that time of year again..... THE KIDS ARE GOING
BACK TO SCHOOL!!!
---no,
I'm not excited... why do you ask?
...just
kidding... I can't wait!
Now,
I know the kids would be offended at this, so let me clarify: I'm
not excited that they'll be gone all day, I'm excited that I'll have
more time to focus on some of the projects that I've had on my to-do
list for far too long... and that it'll be quiet because
they'll be gone all day. ;o)
So,
I mentioned some of the organizational YouTubers that I've been
watching awhile ago (I'm not sure which post... maybe I'll link
to it in the future, just not right at this moment). One of
them is At
Home With Nikki, she does lots of organizational, time
management, cleaning and decorating videos (apparently she
has a blog, but I haven't checked it out at this point). About
two weeks ago she posted this
video full of back to school tips...
Well,
I jumped on it and went out and got supplies to make my own school
information binder for the kids. I'm so happy with it so far!
It has already helped me to stay on track with the little bits
of registration that we I was slacking on.
I want to tell you guys about my latest attempt to organize my family and our home: a "to do" list for the whole family!!! Mind you, this in in addition to the allowance jars and the family contribution flip-charts. (I know I've shared at least one of these photos here before, but I thought it'd be nice to see them all together)
A few months back, I took some inspiration from Pinterest and had the kids make their own flip-up chore charts... six chores each, nothing they can't handle. I honestly don't remember if I posted about them or not... and I can't find the pin that inspired it. I just don't have time, as I'm writing this, doing dishes, making dinner and yelling at encouraging the kids to do their chores....
Anyhoo, the charts worked really well for awhile, and they still kind of do occasionally, but the girls have started asking for an allowance. My husband jokingly said that we should pay them in pennies... So this is what I decided to do:
....We're expecting a worker's strike once they realize how low their wages are, at which point we'll increase their pay to a nickle per job. That's a pretty awesome raise.
Yep, it's that time of year again! I had the joy of sending my little ladies off to their new first grade and third grade classes on Wednesday, and mister O gets to start at his pre-K class on Monday! What am I ever going to do with myself with no kids home for half the day??? ...my hope is that I'll get more housework done...
In preparation for school,
the girls spent some time making a WHOLE BUNCH of hair accessories!
Here is my girls' debut as bloggers; a tutorial on hair accessories:
Rye: We made alooooot of crafts!
Moo: Mommy helped us with our hairbands and such...
Rye: ...and we were late for dinner....
Moo: We used barrettes and hair ties,
and for some of the hair ties, we wired beads on.
Rye: I wired beads on a headband and it is really pretty....
and we did a lot of headbands.
We also hot-glued beads and jewelry glued this really pretty headband,
and it has a matching hair tie.
Moo: I made a Hello Kitty headband, it has Hello Kitty ribbon on it.
We hot-glued the ribbon on so that it looks wavy.
We put little dots of hot glue on in different spot and we pressed the ribbon onto the glue
- and then we did it to both sides.
Rye: I made a barrette with a hot glue gun,
but I found the button yesterday... it came off of the barrette.
I learned to not put a button on a barrette using hot glue.
I should have used a wire or jewelry glue.
Moo: I made a purple, fuzzy headband with some trim
that you could put on lamps or on the bottoms of purses,
because Riley and I were talking about maybe doing that for our next project.
I made the headband by taking some trim and I jewelry glued it to a headband.
I had to pinch it really tight so the trim wouldn't move while it was drying.
Then, I took some of the excess trim and then I, um, took a purple hair tie (so it would match)
and I found a wire that would go with it -I like yellow, so I did a yellow wire- it was a small wire.
I wrapped the wire around the trim and then I twisted it onto the hair tie.
Rye: Mommy made this pretty clip.
It had gold trim on it, and ribbon flowers.
She jewelry glued it all onto a clip.
And she made a big barrette with a button holding some feathers together,
she hot-glued them and then jewelry glued the hot-glue onto the barrette.
Moo: I have a tip for people who use barrettes for crafts;
don't hot glue the stuff down.
You should use jewelry glue because hot glue and metal (or plastic)
don't stick to each other.
Hot-glue the, like, feathers together and then get your barrette ready
and put some jewelry glue on it after the hot glue is dried.
Please give my girls feedback and let them know how they did! Thanks! <3
I'm sure if you live anywhere in the Midwest you're getting sick of hearing people talk about just how insanely beautiful the weather has been. I mean c'mon, it's bee in the upper 70s to low 80s and its not even spring break! All of this warmth and sunshine has me in the mood to garden, but I'm a little wary of doing any real planting at this point, especially given that it's suggested that planting should begin in early May for our area.
Well, I *did* go ahead and plant one measly little packet of rhubarb swiss chard seeds... figuring that it's a cold weather crop, so it *should* be fine. Hopefully it survives if we happen to get another frost (which I'm praying we don't!). I also got a bunch of seeds started, some to be transplanted into the garden and some in pots, all of which can be brought inside if we have to.
There's a whole bunch of stuff here...
radishes, mustard, two kinds of swiss chard,
arugula and tom thumb lettuce!
Again, there's lots here... buttercrunch lettuce,
cucumbers (the "regular" kind and some for pickles),
three of four different kinds of tomatoes and eggplant!
Yesterday, I got the kids outside for most of the day (again) and this time I remembered to bring the camera! I didn't manage to get any good pictures of my baby plants (swiss chard, arugula and buttercrunch lettuce are all coming up!), but I *did* get these...
All three of these pictures are plants that have surprised us...
this is our first spring in this house,
so it's fun to see what kind of flowers are coming up!
Yay, springtime! We tore a bunch of bulbs out of our garden and moved them to another area, not expecting them to flower (or even survive, for that matter) but the crocuses have blossomed and the daffodils a budding (again, no good pictures of those yet)! I also managed to get the kids to help out with cleaning up the leaves and sticks around the fire "pit" (it's not really a pit, it's more of a fire thingy.... I'm not sure what to call it). The idea of yard work has been a lot more fun for the kids since we got our compost bin a few days ago, for some reason they think it's lots of fun to watch things decompose. Oh, who am I kidding? It *is* fun!
Moo hard at work.
Our pretty pile of sticks and logs that we
cleaned up from around the fire "pit."
Obviously, the kids have gotten a lot of play time in as well...
O and Rye chasing around soccer balls.
The girls had a friend stay overnight,
so this was a good chance to get some
quality cops and robbers in.
O in Daddy's truck.
Getting all of that energy out!
Now, I know I'm going a little overboard on the pictures, but it was too gorgeous not to take tons of them! ....so what's my favorite part of being outside?
