Tuesday, January 15, 2008 - Kids Home Manager- Chores
After finding a household binder to be a great help to me, I have been helping my children set up one of their own. So far they have only 3 sections, Chores, Contacts and Computer. My son really likes the system we have been using, but my strong willed daughter has a bit of a problem, not so much with the system but with the chores. I have taken the chores that they are responsible for and broken them down into tidbits over the whole week. We have worked out a reward system that so far has worked. I got the idea from Kellie Ann a while ago. We use what we call allowance dollars. For every chore done correctly they earn 1 allowance dollar. A specified number of allowance dollars can redeemed for various things including cash. They can also lose their allowance dollars for unacceptable behavior in addition to punishment. For example: if they don’t do a chore they are required to pay a dollar and then they still have to do the chore, but not receive a dollar for doing it. May sound a bit confusing but believe me they get it. Last week my daughter was in a lazy mood. She ended up earning only 29 allowance dollars and paying in 12. Not a good week. We work on a rotating schedule with one child doing the dishes, kitchen, and dining room, and the other is responsible for pets and living room, then the next week they switch. The chores are very detailed and so far we have had no arguments about them not knowing what they have to do. This is a 2-sided chore chart. On the front there is a daily to do checklist, everyday duties with a passed parental inspection box for each day, and an ‘Other Things to Remember’ section for them to write any other events for the week. There is also a box to keep track of their water intake. (trying to get them in the habit) The backside has the chores broken down by day and room. Both weeks include bedroom work and a place for parental inspection. May sound military strict, but so far it has worked very well keeping up with who does what when.
Here are those charts for you to look at and download if you wish:
Pets and Living Room Week (front)
Pets and Living Room Week (back)
Dishes, Kitchen and Dining Room Week (front)
Dishes, Kitchen and Dining Room Week (back)
Allowance Dollars Reference Sheet
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Monday, January 7, 2008 - Home Manager-2008 Calendars
I meant to post these last week, but got sidetracked with life. I can’t imagine that happening to anyone else. LOL I’m also working on my template again and trying to separate all my printables into 2 categories; home and school. It may take a while to organize these but I should have it done soon.
Here are my simple 2008 monthly calendars for my home manager. There is a space below each monthly calendar for notes.
I also have 3, 4-month calendars for quick view. I use these for keeping track of paydays and other long-range events.
September-October-November-December
And lastly, I really liked this calendar for the year. Donna Young always has the greatest forms and this is one of my favorites for a yearly calendar. I use it to write birthdays and anniversaries in the spaces beside each month.
Donna Young Personal Calendars
If none of my simple calendars work for you, browse her site. I'm sure you will find something that suits your needs.
Now I know having so many calendars seems redundant, but I use each one for a different purpose and then have all my information easily accessible for transferring to my week at a glance pages.
We are working on managers for my kids also. But that’s another post.
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Tuesday, January 1, 2008 - Home Manager Dividers
Happy New Year!
One of the most common New Year’s resolutions is to be more organized, so over the past few days I have been working on my home manager binder more diligently. I have finished all my dividers and I am working on the pages I want to put into each section. I will be making the new pages available as I get them done, but for now I thought I’d share the divider pages. As I’ve said before, I make these in black and white, to save on ink cost. Each divider has a simple black and white graphic and a Scripture passage I thought fit the category. I've printed them on parchment colored card stock. I love the binders with pretty pages and bright colors, but I find them not to be very frugal for me. That's why I have chosen to make all my pages in black and white. I always print in ‘draft’ mode because it uses less ink, thus saving the cost of replacing the cartridge often. Also, for pages that I make a lot of copies of, like my "Week at a Glance", I can run them off at a copy machine fairly inexpensively.
I’ve listed the dividers in the order that I have them in my Home Manager binder. Hope you find something you like.
Schedules and Planning Divider
Celebrations & Holiday Divider
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Monday, November 12, 2007 - Christmas Planning Forms
As the holidays are quickly approaching, I have added a new section to my Home Manager. I have added a Christmas Card List that I have been using to keep track of Christmas cards sent and received. If we have not received a card from someone in 4 to 5 years I remove their name from our list.
Also included in my new holiday section are various gift tracking forms. The first form I am using is a Gift Panning Guide. This is a running list to keep track of perspective gift ideas, sizes, favorites, and interests of those that we give gifts. Another form in this section is a General Gift list with information about what I’ve got for whom, the cost, and whether or not it has been wrapped and/or mailed. I have another sheet that keeps inventory of things that have been ordered from a catalog or the internet. The last form I have I don’t keep in my binder because helps me keep track of what I’ve bought for my kids. I start with a set spending amount and keep track like a check ledger, subtracting each expense. This way I will be able to keep holiday spending on budget.
We actually haven’t started shopping for Christmas yet, but have a pretty good idea of what we will be making or giving. How are you doing?
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Friday, September 28, 2007 - Home Manager Notebook-More Calendars and Yellow Pages
I’ve added a few calendars to my notebook. I’ve put in a 2-month calendar for upcoming events, and a spreadsheet to record birthdays and anniversaries.
Birthday and Anniversaries Chart
Now that I have finished adding calendars to my notebook, I’ve started on a new section- contacts. Basically this is going to be my own phone directory. The first page I added was the Yellow page. This is for all those business numbers that we call every so often and have to search for. I printed it out on yellow paper to make it quick to find. I made one with headings for those regularly used numbers and a blank one with just column labels.
The next page will be a family and friends directory. Still working on those.
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Friday, September 14, 2007 - Household Notebook-Cover & Week at a Glance
I have been working on my Home Manager whenever I get a spare second. As any mother can attest, those are few and far between. I am using an old zipper binder that has clear little pockets to put pictures into on the front like the kind for photo albums. I chose to use pictures of my family and home as inspiration, including a silly picture of me at the beach this summer pretending to be Super Mom (not). I included that caption to remind myself that I don’t have to be ‘Super Mom’; I just have to do my best. I put Titus 2:5 as a scripture reference in one of the pockets. I like the idea of the little pockets because I can change 1 or all of the elements, as I like.
The past 2 weeks I have been using a ‘Week at a Glance’ page that seems to be working well so far. On it I can record events, menus, things to remember to do and other sanity saving information. I’ve made a few modifications to my first one and will be trying each over the next few weeks to see which one works best. I’ve chosen not to use color or too many graphics to save on the ink. I was able to clean the catchall room this past weekend and this weekend I will be tackling the pantry. Slowly but surely it is all coming together and is amazingly still staying clean. The kids have been very good in the evening doing a ‘once over’ their bedrooms every night. They are very proud of themselves and so am I.
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Wednesday, September 5, 2007 - "Away Days"
The past couple of days, in addition to schoolwork, the kids and I have had what we now call “Away Days”. You might think that we have been adventuring around, but in reality we have been deep cleaning bedrooms. This is something I usually attempt about every three to four months (sooner if I can’t walk to the beds) but this time we tried something a little different and it worked pretty well. Adapting some of what I’ve recently learned and what I already knew about ‘deep cleaning’, this is how we went about the tasks. I made 4 signs, “Put Away”, “Give Away”, “Pack Away”, and “Throw Away” and attached them to 3 laundry baskets and a trash can, respectively. Then I set the timer for 30 minutes and the three of us started working on my son’s room using the baskets for our sorting. After 30 minutes was up, we took a 10 minute break, then I set the timer for another 30 minutes, took the containers, went into my daughter’s room to clean and sort. We went back and forth like this until both rooms were completely de-cluttered. The rule was if you touched something it had to go into one of the four containers. After everything was sorted, we started with the “Put Away” container. Everything had to have a home in order to keep the item in the room. I gave them to the count of ten. After that time I asked them re-evaluate and to decide if it was just clutter or something they really wanted. A lot of things ended up in the “Give Away” or “Pack Away” piles after they thought about it. After packing the “Give Away” and “Pack Away” piles, we took the checklist I had made and finished all the tasks on the list. Their rooms look quite nice and they are very pleased with the results. I was very happy that I was able to get them to actually work together and not argue or fight. By everyone knowing what each pile was for the whole job was lot smoother and amazingly fast. Yesterday, after schoolwork and skating, I attacked my bedroom with the same method and the same results. We will be tackling different rooms a little at a time until the whole house is the way I want it. Hopefully, by using the checklist each night before bed, we’ll be able to maintain order a little better.
What I’ve done is placed ‘X’s on the tasks that I don’t require them to do each day. That way the job doesn’t seem so overwhelming. I’ve made a list for each child to put into their own notebook along with other checklists to help them do their chores efficiently.
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Wednesday, June 27, 2007 - Lists
I am a list person. I find that the older I get, the more I forget, so I tend to rely on my lists to keep me on track and focused. I have made some basic lists that I use regularly and I keep a daily ‘to do’ list handy to be sure I don’t fall too far behind. That isn’t to say that everything on the lists gets done, but it helps me to remember the 101 little tasks that may go undone because I didn’t think about them. Now that I have learned how to make my documents PDFs and found an online storage place, I thought I’d share with fellow ‘list’ users some of my most used sheets. (I just love using Excel.) They are simple and straightforward checklists.
Camping Checklist- We have a popup camper and we use this to be sure we have everything we need for vacations.
Clothing Packing List- This helps me be sure that I pack enough clothing for our trips. I put the number needed in the # column, and the first letter of each persons name in the blocks beside the #. As I pack I mark the appropriate block.
Grocery List- This is the list I use when doing major shopping. It has a place to mark if I have a coupon for the item.
Grocery List 2- I keep a copy of this on the fridge so that when we run out of something, it can be marked as being needed. Everyone in the house knows that if it’s not on the list, it will probably not be bought on the next trip to the grocery.
Household Cleaning Charts- This is my newest tool. My kids had ‘trouble’ doing their chores to my liking, so I made these to help them know exactly what needed to be done and what I expected. So far they have worked pretty well. At least there are no more excuses that I didn’t tell them to do something.
It would be great if someone else found these useful.
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