Posted in Home Management
This past fall, I grew discouraged over the length of time it took my kids to get ready in the morning. When I came across a CD program online that set a morning routine to music, I thought "Great idea, but I'll do it myself!" The tasks featured in the program would not have been all that helpful to my family, but my husband James and I took the concept and created one of our own tailored to our family.
First I made a list of all the tasks that the kids needed to accomplish in the morning and listed a time frame that I thought would be appropriate for each. Next, I located short, upbeat classical pieces or kids' songs that would fit the time needed. James found a blank tape and recorded his voice cheerfully greeting the children and instructing them step-by-step through the morning chores with music following each instruction. (Since the kids hear my voice for the majority of the day, we decided to have James give the instructions.) Some of the chores differed with each child. For instance, my daughter was told to brush her hair while the boys cared for the guinea pig. Finally, I made a chore chart on the computer with each child's chores listed and a place to check them off when completed each day.
The original CD program recommended rewarding the children with a one-on-one date with a parent as a reward when a certain number of points were achieved. We used that reward once with each child, but then changed our minds. We told them that we didn't want them to feel like they had to earn time with their mom or dad. We wanted to just spend one-on-one time with them whenever we felt like it. I suggested that we change the reward to a book for each child which they thought was a good idea. Recently, after about a month of work, each kid earned a book.
As to the effectiveness of the tape, it works wonderfully! Though it took some time to set up, we are extremely pleased with the results. The tape reminds the kids what needs to be done in an orderly fashion and they are motivated to get each chore done in the time frame to earn a point. There has been less "forgetting" and more timeliness without nagging. I've been able to take care of the baby without distraction, knowing that they are getting their jobs done!
We have used the morning routine tape in our family Monday through Saturday (later start on Saturday) since early October. My seven year old daughter says that she has the tape memorized and doesn't really need its prompting anymore. Maybe we ought to test that claim sometime! My nine year old son still likes the tape. Prior to the tape, he was the most likely to space his duties and dawdle. The tape has been a cheerful, upbeat way of keeping him on task. My ten year old son appreciates the tape, because it helps them to get going faster, which allows a timely start and finish to homeschooling each day. He says that he doesn't want to ever quit using the tape! Of course, they all enjoy the positive reinforcement of rewards.
Works for me! To read more helpful tips, visit Rocks in My Dryer.
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Posted in Home Management
The following is a repost in order to share this idea with WFMW participants:
The messy collage of pictures precariously held up by magnets all over my refrigerator has been getting on my nerves. This week I decided to try a new idea.
Sophie has a French memo board in her room where she puts pictures of her friends and cousins, as well as birthday cards, or presently, Valentine's cards. She did such a nice, neat job of arranging it, that I decided to figure out a way of attaching such a board to the fridge. I bought a board, found strips of magnets that I had saved, and with a glue-gun, attached a generous amount to the back of the board. Here is the result:
For more Works for Me Wednesday tips, visit Rocks in My Dryer
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At the end of last week, I came across a CD program online which sets a list of chores to music to make mornings flow more smoothly. The kids are to check off each chore that they get done before the music is over in order to earn a point. After a set number of points are accrued, the children are entitled to a one-on-one date with a parent.
When I saw the program, I thought "Great idea!" but the chores listed weren't really geared towards our family, and it wouldn't be worth the money to us. This weekend, James and I made our own tape instead. Since the kids hear me give instructions all day long, James recorded his voice instructing the children what to do next. We selected mainly short upbeat classical pieces according to the time frame we thought necessary to complete each task.
So far, the kids have used the tape Monday and Tuesday mornings and it really has been helpful, especially for Matthew and Sophie. The tape reminds them what needs to be done in an orderly fashion and they are motivated to get each chore done in the time frame to earn a point. There has been less "forgetting" and more timeliness without nagging. I've been able to take care of Logan without distraction, knowing that they are getting their jobs done!
James and I are looking forward to taking turns taking them out on one-on-one "dates" about once-a-month when they earn their points!
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Posted in Home Management
In
the interest of getting real, I have a confession to make. A
recent post of mine was titled "Returning to Regularly Scheduled
Schooling". Yeah, well, school has been postponed.
I got
a week's worth of schooling in, but it was very stressful with a
newborn. Some people are able to read aloud to their children
while nursing the baby. Not me. I lose my place too much
with all the shifting around and stopping to burp the baby and then
changing him.
I also set foot in my basement.
AAAAaaaaaaaah! What a mess! And it wasn't just the
kids. The organization of our storage room had gone downhill to
the point where useless things obscured the useful items, making them
useless as well. The mess of the basement also effectively
rendered me useless as far as homeschooling. I can't keep it
together upstairs with the feeling that the chaos is going to spread.
This week, I've been using the moments leftover after taking care of
baby, laundry, and meals to purge the basement and establish some
semblance of order. Several bags of trash sat at our curbside
this morning, and a pile of items awaits a trip to Goodwill.
One organizational tip that I implemented was to go through our stacks
of games, removing the gameboards and pieces. I stacked all of
the boards together in a Rubbermaid container along with labeled
ziplock bags containing the pieces. The games take up much less
space now and will be more manageably portable when we take them to
camp etc.
Since one of my sisters and her family are visiting next week, school will have to continue to wait.
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We live in a four-bedroom house. Evan and Matthew share a room, and we have a spare room which I had set up as a schoolroom. With the impending arrival of our fourth child, we've converted the spare room back into a guest bedroom which will also be the baby's room.
With the loss of a schoolroom, we thought of having our basement finished, but we decided upon finding out the cost to save up for that project to tackle in the future. Instead, we've been "doing school" on the main floor of our house. This past week, I just came up with the idea of putting our china cabinet to more practical use.
My china cabinet, in the dining room, was given to me by my grandparents when they moved to the Home for health reasons (the same Home where my mom is administrator). They decided to give the cabinet to me, because James and I bought our dining room table through the classifieds, and the style was a perfect match. I have enjoyed having china displayed in the dining room, but practicality won out this week. I moved all of the displayed china into a kitchen cabinet and moved the schoolroom supplies (which had been stored in the spare room closet) to the cabinet. At first, I intended to hang curtains inside the glass doors to hide the clutter, but then I found baskets at Target which sufficiently contained the supplies while still looking nice (I think). Here is the end result:
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It's
nearly 1:30 in the morning, and for the time being, I'm giving up on
elusive sleep. The baby apparently thinks that it's time for
acrobatics or for practicing martial arts moves. I've already
been killing time by sitting on the couch, daydreaming, and by reading
a chapter in a book.
I'm "nesting" already, because if I don't get started now I'll never get done!
Okay, "nesting" is probably an exaggeration, but I certainly got more accomplished today, or rather yesterday, than is usual.
My kids' rooms have been sliding into chaos rather frequently lately,
and I decided to focus on taming the messy monster brazenly living in
our midst. With the help of Sophie and Matthew, I focused my
sights on Sophie's room. We cleaned out her closet toy box and it
turned into the official household stuffed animal container which is
now residing in the basement. I cleaned out her closet of all
clothes that will never fit her again and prepared a hand-me-down bag
for a friend at church. Somehow, we excavated two kitchen-sized
trash bags worth of trash from the room (how that's possible when the
room gets cleaned up on a weekly basis, I don't know!) One side
of her closet floor is now reading central, holding a large rubbermaid
container of books beside a smaller crate ~same contents. We
moved her dollhouse into the other side of the closet, but in a place
where she can easily pull it out to play with it (and hopefully, just
as easily, put it back!) The room is now officially dejunked,
organized and clean...I hope it lasts awhile.
The kids and I,
maybe overambitiously, also tackled two other toy boxes, one in the
basement, and one in the boys' room. We emptied the
basement box into piles of categorized toys and began the process with
the boys' box. We are turning the boys' box into a baby/toddler
toy box to be moved out of their room and the basement box will now be
the one "big kid box."
We now have three bags of the kitschy toys that all children accumulate along with old clothing to be taken to Goodwill.
At the risk of being considered overzealous, I will confess that not
only did we clean and organize, but I catalogued the remaining bedroom
toys or activities on a master check-out list which is now in a plastic
page protector hanging on a bulletin board on my desk. Each item
has an "in" and an "out" box beside it. I need to purchase push
pins for each item which will travel back and forth between the boxes
according to each item's status. The kids will just have to
mention to me what they are getting out and move the pin. Only a
reasonable number of pins will be allowed to simultaneously reside in
the "in" boxes. A half an hour or so before supper, I will take a
look at the check-out list and remind them, one item at a time, about
what needs to be checked back in. At least that's the plan.
I'm reasonably satisfied that the plan will work, because we've mostly
successfully operated a check-out system for basement toys.
My kids actually enjoy using and making lists. Evan, especially is in a list-making phase: from typing and printing out a list of "Fort Rules" (I told him that his list broke rule #6, which states: "No ordering around"), to making his own chore list on a clipboard in his room, to informing me~ when I requested that he stop wearing the same shirt everyday, even if clean~ that he intends to make a chart listing his shirts in a rotational pattern through the days of the week... a boy after my own heart!!!
It felt good to tackle a project and accomplish it (mostly). Maybe I'm partly paying the price now, being too wound up to sleep, but maybe it was worth it...this time.
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The messy collage of pictures precariously held up by magnets all over my refrigerator has been getting on my nerves. I made it a project to come up with a solution. I don't even like the magnetic picture mattes or frames that I've tried in the past.
Sophie has a French memo board in her room where she puts pictures of her friends and cousins, as well as birthday cards, or presently, Valentine's cards. She did such a nice, neat job of arranging it, that I decided to figure out a way of attaching such a board to the fridge. I bought a board and found strips of magnets that I had saved and with a glue-gun, I attached a generous amount to the back of the board. Here is the result:
