It is that time of year again... Micah is turning 9 tomorrow and I am in shock that time has flown by! He is excited of course, although we tried to convince him that they have cancelled all birthdays for children under the age of 20. He didn't buy it. We went and got the cake mix and icing so I will make his cake tonight after dinner. So it is all ready for tomorrow. I gave a couple of suggestions for his birthday menu and he has agreed to:
Breakfast~ Pancakes & Bacon
Lunch~ He thinks he's having Ramen (haha - he doesn't know that Dad and I have a surprise for him.)
Dinner~ Manicotti & Garlic Cheese Biscuits
Unfortunately for him - school is not stopping and he will still have his chores to do.
With the smell of Autumn in the air we have revamped the way the house is run: from scheduling to chores and keeping a menu. I have been revamping my household manual and Joel has been helping me iron out a few of the kinks.
Our first was chores. This has always been a sore spot. Not because the boys didn't ever do any they just did not seem very consistent (parents fault). So we started a new chore system which I recently learned about. It is from the book Managers of Their Chores. We are using Chore Packs. What is that? Well to put it simply... their chores for Morning/Afternoon/Evening are in a plastic pouch which they can clip on to their shirt or pants. When it is chore time (we have a schedule) they take their packs and use them to see what they must do and in what order as their chores are numbered. This eliminates the need to constantly look at a chart or mark things off as they do them. When a chore is complete they put it in the back of the pack and go to the next one. Part of the process is learning how to actually do certain chores individually like cleaning the bathroom. So they know what is expected the chores are listed wipe sink,counter, clean toilet, ect. Eventually they will move up to clean bathroom as a chore and not have each step laid out for them because they will know how to do it.
Also we have started an allowance. This is not tied to their chores. Every couple of weeks we take the recycling down and they get paid what they make out of the recycling. On average they make approx. $10-$15 every 2 weeks. Which is not to bad as far as they are concerned. The only catch is... Joel & I have final say on what they can buy (I do not like Ed, Edd & Eddy - so that video game is a no)and they need to save $2 for offering ($1 a week). Other than that they are pretty free to do with it what they want.
The other book which has greatly helped is MOTH (Managers of Their Homes. This has been a real eye opener in trying to schedule our day with school, housekeeping, errands and other odds & ends. I am in the process of tweaking our schedule but for once I think we may be actually able to keep one.
Other than that we have been chugging along like normal. I spent my morning chore time putting the pile of baby stuff away. So now it all has a home other than the office closet and floor. I meant to start my Holiday Plan last week but am running a little behind as other parts of the house seem more important at the moment. However, I did get my card list, menu, and basic present guide planned out. So that's a start if nothing else. I am a spreadsheet addict so I made spreadsheets for it all and placed it in my household manual. Now to just make sure I use the manual - that's the biggie :-)
Well... I am off to do a few things before I start dinner. Hope everyone has a wonderful evening.
1 comment:
Am going to pass these books on to friend that is training her daughters to help clean. they are about the same age as your children. I think she will like what you are doing.
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