getting ready for the day

The morning rush can be a crazy time of day and telling a child to hurry and get ready, may just get you that familiar blank stare.  The process of getting ready seems fairly normal to an adult but can be a bit harder for the little ones.  Kids complete larger tasks easier if they are split into smaller assignments.  To help them (and you) out in the morning, create of list of morning tasks that they can look at and check off some how.  It may just take the whole process from wild to wonderful.
Here are a few tips:

• Use pictures for younger children.
• Start with just a few tasks and work up to more.  Don't make the final list too long.
• Give them some easy things like eat breakfast and get dressed (the easiness of these may depend on the child).  It helps them to stay motivated to finish the other things.
• Let them learn responsibility to complete the list and then show you when they are done. 
• If you want to include a reward for finishing but here are two things to keep in mind:  Adults finsh their morning tasks in order to do the rest of the exciting things for the day.  Adults may get benefits but they don't usually get paid money for getting ready in the morning.

The list making idea also works well when you say "go clean you bedroom" or "it is your job to clean the bathroom today".

The charts above are protected by a copyright and not to be copied for commercial use.

family chores

One of the best bits of parenting advice that I ever received came in a casual conversation in a group of moms.  One of them shared with us how she had divided chores between her children.  Each child had a different kitchen chore each day and a different room in the house to care for.  The chores were rotated through the family so that each had a turn at each chore.

I loved this idea because:

It is the simple, easy and worked well.

It keeps the chores fair and no one can say "I have to do that all the time".

Everyone who eats, gets a chance to cook and clean-up.

Everyone who lives in the house, has a part of it to clean up.

To give you some ideas on how it may work, here is how it works at our house.

Each of our five children's names are on a chart.  For every day of the week they each have a different kitchen job and for the week there is a room in the house that is their responsibility to pick-up/clean.

Our kitchen jobs are:

Chef-  Decides the dinner menu from the weekly menu list,assists in preparing dinner and sets the

table.

Clear Table:  Clears the table, puts away all leftover food, and wipes off the table.

Dishes:  Loads the dishwasher, washes any extra dishes, and wipes counters.

Dishwasher:  Puts away all clean dishes from the dishwasher or drying rack.

Sweep:  Sweeps the floor and takes out the garbage.

This has been a great way to spend one on one time with the kids.  One of the best times of the day is making dinner with the child who has chef and chatting about their day.  They are learning reading and math as we follow recipes and on busy night our teenagers can make a great dinner on their own, because they have been learning this way for so long.

Our weekly jobs are:

Living Room- Family Room- Kitchen- Bathroom- Playroom  --Pick up each day and clean on cleaning day.

The kids each have their favorites and least favorites but it helps them to understand that it all needs to be done.  When company calls and a quick clean-up is in order, everyone knows what they job is.  And after being responsible for picking up a highly used room for a week,  they are more careful about leaving their own stuff around.

This has been a great system at house for many years.  I love when I need something done, I know who to ask and that it creates of feeling fairness and teamwork.  Hopefully if you are reading this, looking for some inspiration for your family,  this have given you some ideas.

The chart above is protected by a copyright and is not to be copied for commercial use.

the general family store

My husband and I have spent the last few weekends on ladders painting the outside of our house.  Our kids have been so excited to paint until they learn that most of the work is really cleaning, repairing, and taping.  Their enthusiasm dwindles and they begin asking, "Why are we doing this, again".  It has been a good reminder of one of the most important principles that I have learned as a parent.   This being that : the feeling of joy for a job well done is learned response after lots of experience and not a natural reaction.  Kids can work and help, but they do not get the same sense of accomplishment we as adults do.  They may need a little extra incentive for a while until they grow and learn through expereience.  So basicly, until they learn that they feel better and can function better in a clean room, they don't care and may need some other reason for cleaning it.  (Some of us may take a little longer than others to reach this point and may need to use the reward system longer or maybe say, forever.)  As was mentioned in an earlier post, money may not be the best reward option, because getting paid to clean up after yourself is unrealistic.  Getting extra free time, fun activities, and other rewards may be a little closer to real life. 
This is where the family store comes in.

Here is how the basic idea works:
Kids complete a list of tasks
Kids receive some sort of token for that.
Kids get to barter with the tokens for what they want.

Here are the tips for implementing the idea:

• Use humor, fun and creativity!!
• Make sure the completion of tasks is well understood for both you and them.
• Tokens can be anything you want:  marbles, the little tickets you buy in a roll, self created family dollars etc. (this may be a fun little family acitvity- create you own monetary system and design the currency)
• Kids should be responsible for completing their own tasks, requesting the "family dollar" and then keeping those "dollars" in a safe place.  If needed the bank may decide to give away free savings envelopes to their customers.
• Find an area of the house to set up the store.  We like to use a cupboard in a central area that we can close or that we can leave open to display all of the wonderful options available.  This can be a good opportunity to use, learn and teach marketing.
• Fill the store with things that you kids think are fabulous.

Store products will be different for everyone but  may include:

certificates for: a day without chores, a trip to the movies, a personal night out with Mom and Dad, a fresh batch of homemade playdough, a trip to the zoo, a trip to the bookstore and free book, cookie making night, a date with grandma, a backyard party with friends, screen time, etc.
toys
candy
accesories for well loved toys -dolls, trains, action figures, bikes, vidoe games,etc.
sporting equipment
hair  and clothing accesories
seasonal items--sidewalk chalk, diving toys, cook back to school supplies, trick or treat flashlights, etc.
gift items for others
small items like playdough, bubbles, jacks, cars, etc.


We have loved this idea because:
Our kids are much more excited to complete chores if they are working towards something.
They have learned to be responible to not only earn "dollars" but to keep track of them.
They have learned that they may not be able to have eveything at once but to work for one thing at a time.
They have learned a little about marketing--seeing things make us want them more, exchange rate--when they want something at the store they are quoted the family dollar price, and convience store prices--candy can be expensive there.
And mostly because we have watched our kids who cleaned their room and loaded the dishwasher for a little reward, grow into teenagers who clean their room because it creates a better place to study and hang out with friends and who load the dishwasher simply because it needs to be done.

If you have any questions about the family store, leave us a comment, we would be happy to share anything we have learned.