Humbled by the Honor

First Foods

Baby Annette is starting baby food already! It is so much fun to have all the kids gathered around, enjoying her reactions, and cheering her on. I am excited about letting her explore new foods over the next few months and feel like we are on a good path to setting her up to be a good eater.

Here are some of the feeding items we are using right now:

Food Before One course by Rachel Coley from CanDoKiddo – I’m a huge fan and have learned so much from this OT mama’s blog and books. Two of my kids are picky eaters and while this may or may not be a fault of my parenting, I’m always open to learning more and starting things off as best I can. I took this course just before Annette started solid foods and really liked the baby-led spoon feeding approach she offers. Definitely worth checking out, even if this is your sixth baby to start solid foods. 😉

across the top row:

Beaba baby spoons – great for feeding baby and for hand over hand learning

Olababy spoons – perfect for baby to hold herself

NumNum spoons – great size for baby hands, fun for dipping

Kidsme mesh feeder – easy to clean, great for teething on frozen fruit

middle row:

Replay divided plate – nice deep sides that help baby scoop up foods

EZPZ mini mat – mini fits on the Ikea Antilop high chair we have

OXO glass storage – nice storage for homemade baby food

Beechnut Organic baby food – this is our fav! no added ingredients

bottom row:

Avent sippy cup – nice sippy cup without too many parts, I’m hoping to only use this for a few months and move on to open and straw cups

Bjorn cups – we’re using these even now! The sturdy bottoms are great.

Squeasy Gear resuable pouch – easy to clean, great for a smoothie on the go

ChooMee pouch toppers – a must if you are planning to use pouches

other:

We really like the Ikea Antilop high chair for being easy to clean and inexpensive. I am going to work on making a footrest for it as Annette gets bigger. I have a command hook on the back for hanging bibs.

Our bibs are all homemade with snaps. I hate velcro in the wash. I traced around a bib I liked and made a dozen or so. We also like the bibs made from kitchen towels.

yourkidstable.com – great resource for picky eaters

superhealthykids.com – food blog with kid friendly healthy ideas

Curriculum Fall 2018

I love looking at curriculum. I also love making my choices and having things planned out way ahead of time so that I can forget about it all when summer hits. 🙂 It is also nice having my curriculum plans on my blog so that I can look back through the years to see what we have done. Here is what I am thinking for the 2018/2019 school year… Oh and one more reason that I am planning ahead is that we’re about to hit high school with Lucy and I want to be sure I have a good plan for where we are headed!

Lucy (8th grade) –

Heart of Dakota Resurrection to Reformation (I am using all of their recommendations including Apologia Astronomy for science, an IEW writing book, Rod and Staff English 5, and Drawn Into the Heart of Reading. This is all scheduled in Heart of Dakota.)

Teaching Textbooks pre-Algebra

Duolingo Spanish

Piano and ballet lessons

Julia (6th grade) –

Teaching Textbooks 6

Duolingo Spanish

Piano lessons and possibly ballet

Esther (3rd grade) –

Beautiful Feet Around the World with Picture Books

Usborne Beginners Animal books and 100 Science Experiments

Reading – Sonlight reading 3 vocabulary and comprehension questions

Math Mammoth 3

Rod and Staff phonics 2

Rod and Staff Spelling 3

Cheerful Cursive

Piano lessons

Isaac (1st grade) –

Beautiful Feet Around the World with Picture Books

Usborne Beginners Animal books and 100 Science Experiments

Math Mammoth 1

Rod and Staff phonics 2

Heart of Dakota’s Emerging Readers Set

A Reason for Handwriting A

Colin (4yrs old) –

A Year of Playing Skillfully – we’re already using this lightly and love it

a math or a Rod and Staff workbook if he is interested

listening in to our Around the World studies

Annette (1 yr old) –

She will do lots of “being cute and disrupting things” I’m sure!

Much of what I am using for Esther and Isaac I have used before and am confident in (Math Mammoth, Rod and Staff, etc). I’m excited about the Around the World studies, this is new to us and looks fabulous! We have a couple of friends planning to use this also.

Lucy and Julia are continuing on with some things that have already been working well for them (Teaching Textbooks, Rod and Staff English). Heart of Dakota Resurrection to Reformation looks like a really great next step for them and I feel like it will prepare them well for high school. More focused writing assignments and history notebooking will be a good challenge for them. I am hoping Heart of Dakota will be a good fit that they can continue on with through high school. We’ve used some HOD in the past and for many years I have added HOD reading selections to whatever curriculum we used. I’m looking forward to using their full curriculum.

This past week I have been working on a spreadsheet of all the curriculum we’ve used over the years for each child. You can see across the top I have a page for each child: along the left side are the subjects, and at the top are the years, beside the year is the grade that particular child was in. I haven’t finished filling these in, but its been extremely helpful. I can quickly look and see for example that Isaac was only two when we did our human body study, so we’ll do that again with him. It also helps when planning for my younger kids future school years. We’ve been homeschooling for so long and with a variety of things; I don’t want to forget about any of these fun resources when it comes time for the younger ones!

Our Homeschool Day (and Checklists!)

This year I have kiddos in 7th, 5th, 2nd, K, a 3 year old, and a baby. Caring for the new baby and at the same time having another child reach school age (my K boy) seemed daunting this year. I feel like things have mostly gone well and at this point we’ve got a good rhythm to our days. We definitely had to make some adjustments to our schedules and chores and figure out what works and what doesn’t. Lots of planning and organization has helped, along with lots of flexibility too. Here is what our day looks like currently:

wake up, kids each complete a morning chore, eat breakfast
9am we say prayers together and start school
everyone does history together at the kitchen table
older girls move on to independent work such as piano practice, math on computer
while K and 2nd grader work at the table with mom
12:00 lunch (K and 2nd grader are done for the day by this point)
mom nurses baby to sleep – kids have reading time or Spanish on the ipad/ quiet play
big girls work with mom
3pm done with school, snack time
play time
5:30 or 6:00 dinner, several nights a week we take Lucy to ballet
everyone works together to clean up kitchen, clear table, pick up toys (see chart)
7:30 prayers
Dad reads out loud
8:30 head upstairs for brushing teeth, bed time

Each child has one morning chore – empty dishwasher, feed and let out the dog, take laundry to the basement and sort, or change hand towels. We used to have a checklist for these, but at this point the kids are good about getting them done without checking them off. This chart is laminated and hangs on our refrigerator. I write names on the lines with dry-erase marker and switch them weekly. The second row is where I assign meal time chores which also rotate weekly. My three year old doesn’t get put on the chore chart yet but sometimes he helps someone with their chore.

The school age kids each have checklists for the day. I print these off weekly, but they stay the same. It’s a list of subjects that they check off as they complete each one. Assignments within subjects usually stay the same so they know what to do (math = 2 pages, reading = 20 minutes, etc). I prefer using pencil instead of dry erase on these because I sometimes write in special assignments they need to remember or other notes.

For other chores we’ve switched to doing a family cleaning time on Sat mornings instead of doing them daily throughout the week. I have a checklist for that too! Some of these chores are easy enough for the smaller kids to do on their own, other times a child works with Dad or pairs up with an older sibling. We usually work for a couple of hours and get as much of this done as we can and then call it good. 😉

A few other things that help us function well… I keep a one week dry erase calendar on the fridge where we write in appointments, classes, etc. I also fill out and use a meal plan. Any thoughts or questions? What helps your family function well?

My No Nonsense Yet Very Thorough Baby Registry

I enjoy looking at Baby Registries, shopping for all things baby, reading reviews of baby products, and making my own lists of baby things I love. As a mom of seven, I’ve used lots of baby gear over the years. For most of that time, we lived in a very small two bedroom house. While I love baby gear, I have had to be selective about what I choose. In addition, I have no tolerance for low quality, redundant, or potentially toxic things. My choices reflect hours of research into current recommendations, reading real parent reviews, and much care in finding the most non-toxic products available. I am not working with a large budget, so if something is pricey its because it has proven its value. I tend to choose high quality, functional items that will serve our family for many years.

Of course you may make different choices than I have, but that’s the beauty of reading things like this. Every situation is different. Hopefully I can help you be informed and make the best choices possible for your family and precious little ones. Let’s get started!

Breastfeeding:

Bravado Bodysilk Seamless nursing bra, 4-5 in various colors – my all time favorite nursing bra
2 sleep bras – mine are from Motherhood Maternity
4+ Undercover Mama nursing tanks in several colors – I wear these all the time, instantly turns anything into a nursing top.
lots of washable nursing pads with PUL backing – much more comfy than disposable
nursing clothes – I have a few tops and dresses from Latched Mama and Momzelle.
The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding book
Gia nursing pillow – worked much better than Boppy for me
Earth Mama Angel Baby nipple butter – softer than lanolin, works amazingly well
nursing cover with boning across the top – need to be able to see baby in the beginning days
Covered Goods nursing cover – better all around coverage, I use this all the time.
a couple of nursing necklaces – keeps baby from getting distracted or pinching mom! Try MommyNecklaces.com or PaxOrganicsforBaby.com
SmartyPants prenatal vitamins – tastes great, contains methylfolate, keep taking these even after baby is born
Tip: Get some OsoCozy prefolds and sew a strip of cute flannel down the middle. You will have super absorbent, super cute burp cloths!

Starting Solid Foods:

Ikea Antilop highchair – love the price point, also love that it doesn’t have potentially toxic padding with nooks and crannies that catch all kinds of crumbs
mesh feeder – great for teething babies or beginners to solid foods
ChooMee pouch toppers – protect baby’s gums from hard plastic pouches, also allows baby to hold the pouch himself because it won’t spill out, love these!
BEABA first stage silicone spoons – others were too small, too big, too bumpy, these are just right
Olababy silicone spoons – great first spoon for baby to hold
Ikea Fabler kid size silverware – great price, we have an entire drawer full
RePlay divided plates – just deep enough that you can serve applesauce, yogurt, etc in the sections. Also, the deep sides help babies who are learning to feed themselves. Made of recycled non-toxic plastic.

Sleeping:

4-8 aden + anais muslin swaddling blankets – multi-purpose must have! The Aden ones from Target are cheaper but smaller and rougher. Splurge for the nicer ones if you can.
aden + anais dream blanket – thicker than the swaddles, I love the cotton as opposed to most synthetic polyester blankets that aren’t breathable. Works in a toddler bed also.
aden + anais sleep sack – comes in a thin and a thicker, warmer style too.
flat place for baby to sleep – We are using a DockATot with Annette. So far she seems to sleep well in it and it keeps her close to me, but away from blankets and pillows in our bed. An Arm’s Reach Cosleeper or a crib pushed up next to the bed are other options we’ve used in the past.
Pack N Play – for naps downstairs (bedrooms are upstairs), traveling, a safe place to play, etc
Dream On Me pack n play mattress – so much more comfy than the standard pack n play bottom. One of my kiddos slept in a pack n play for several years on this mattress
2-3 American Baby Company organic sheet, pack n play size – soft, great quality
American Baby Company waterproof mattress pad, pack n play size – soft, great quality
video baby monitor – We didn’t need this in our tiny house but I use one now.
white noise machine
Twilight Turtle – My kids love these; we own at least four of them.
nightlight or clip on reading light – for night time nursing and diaper changes

Diapering:

Seventh Generation wipes
a few packages of Huggies or Seventh Generation Newborn and size 1 – for the first weeks, overnight, and when out and about
Cloth diapers – Some of our favorites are Blueberry Newborn Simplex, Green Mountain Diapers prefolds and workhorse fitteds, and then BumGenius one size pockets with snaps once baby is bigger.
kitchen trash can with flip top lid and 2 pail liners – for cloth diapers
diaper bag – my current one is Vera Bradley
diaper rash cream – look for a cloth diaper safe one if you’re using cloth, Grandma El’s is working well for us.
wet bag – for soiled diapers or wet clothes, etc

Bathing:

Earth Mama Angel Baby shampoo and body wash
Skip Hop Dunks bath toy – Skip the toxic rubber ducky and go with these BPA free, Phthalate free, PVC free dunks. They are great for pouring water over baby when washing hair and rinsing.
baby bathtub – we have The First Years brand
one pack of baby washcloths – nice for getting tiny baby wrinkles clean. I skip the baby towel and use a regular one.

Health and Safety:

Baby ComfyNose nasal aspirator – yep, gross, but it works amazingly well
Exergen temporal artery thermometer – so easy to use
Cleanwell natural hand sanitizer spray – keep in the diaper bag and use often
baby scale – We usually have a rough start with nursing so I like being able to see that baby is gaining weight well.
baby hairbrush and comb
tiny nail clippers
outlet covers
amber or hazelwood necklace – these are adorable and we’ve seen some good results with these, especially the hazelwood for Annette.

Gear:

Babyhawk Mei Tai
Solly Baby Wrap – lightweight wrap, so nice for the newborn days
Ergo
Floppy Seat shopping cart cover- possibly my most used piece of baby gear. This one is padded and covers the whole seat, also works on restaurant highchairs. Keep it in the car!
bouncy seat – limit use of this in favor of floor time though
infant car seat
stroller – loved my Graco single stroller, we use a Graco sit n stand type double now
dresser/ changing table, changing pad and 2-3 covers – our current set-up is a dresser/ changing table combo. We’ve also done without a changing table in the past and just stored baby’s clothes and diapers in a few available drawers in my dresser.
rocking chair or glider
exercise ball – some of my kids hated rocking but my bouncing on the ball while holding them was soothing
Note: I don’t recommend a Rock N Play, swing, jumperoo, doorway jumper, or exersaucer based on OT recommendations for infant development. Also, they’re expensive and huge.

Clothing:

Zutano fleece booties – these actually stay on! Check your sizing, baby won’t need them in the summer, but for colder weather these are fabulous.
Robeez leather shoes – soft soled is best for baby’s foot development, we use these once baby is mobile
Baby Bling headbands for a girl – super soft stretchy bands that don’t annoy baby
Note: We use lots of footed long sleeve jammies, soft cotton dresses or one piece outfits, a sunhat or bonnet in the summer, a package of onesies… I don’t recommend registering for clothing as people will buy it for you anyway and you will quickly have too much.

Toys:

Ikea Leka baby gym – fabulous price compared to other baby gyms. I LOVE that this one isn’t overwhelming with lights and music and too many patterns. Skip Hop also makes an adorable wooded theme play gym that is nice and calm.
Jellycat stuffed animal – these are the softest most adorable stuffed animals. I choose just one for each of my babies. 🙂
Pottery Barn cotton crib quilt – I love having one of these to lay on the floor for baby. I go ahead and buy the matching crib sheet and pillowcase too so that once baby is in a toddler bed they will have a nice set.
Begin With a Blanket by Rachel Coley – written by a mama OT, best collection anywhere of unique ways to play with your baby and ensure their healthy development – I’m a huge fan of this book and her blog candokiddo.com
Soothies pacifier – the only pacifier we use. The shape of the nipple (wider at the base) helps baby to suck with lips flanged out, in a way that mimics breastfeeding. Other pacifiers allow baby to suck with lips closed down, not helpful when you are both trying to learn to breastfeed.
Wubbanub – trust me on this one! When baby spits out her paci, this little stuffed animal keeps it from flying across the room or bouncing on the floor.
books – lots of board books, Indestructibles books, Usborne books, cloth books, any and all books!
Oball – so great for babies to grasp, lightweight, stuff it with scraps of fabric for baby to pull out
a few wooden toys – Haba Kringelring, Haba Rattling Max, Haba triangles
RePlay links – safe plastic, use for play or to connect toys to the car seat or stroller
Wee Gallery black and white cards
Lamaze Freddie the Firefly – a favorite!
Winkel by Manhattan Toys – this is a favorite easy to grasp toy
Comotomo teether – perfect lightweight size for baby to grasp

Questions about anything you see (or don’t see) listed? Feel free to comment! If I think of anything else we love I will come back and add it. What are some of your favorite baby registry items?

Shopping List by Orchard Toys

Colin just got this fun little game for his third birthday. Shopping List by Orchard Toys, found on Amazon. Players take turns choosing a face down card, if it matches their shopping list they get to put it in their cart. If not, it gets returned face down for another player to find (similar to Memory). Colin is so excited when he finds a food on his list, its hilarious! “Yay! Carrots!!!”

We did go ahead and buy the fruits and veggies booster pack. It comes with two carts and shopping lists and the needed groceries. The backs of the cards match the others, so the pieces fit right in as far as playing the game. I have a couple of very picky eaters – getting them shopping for fruits and veggies is a good thing, even if it is pretend! This allows six people to play (four people can play the original game without this booster pack).

veg

Game pieces are all super sturdy; I can see this being a hit for quite some time here! We’re having fun with this and just wanted to share it with you all! Do you have a favorite game? Do tell! 🙂

DIY Light Table

There are several versions of this floating around Pinterest, but here is how I made our simple diy light table.

I used a clear box (one with a mostly flat lid), foil, white tissue paper, white Christmas lights, scissors, and tape.

Cover the inside of the box with foil, shiny side up. Cover the lid with two layers of white tissue paper. Add Christmas lights and play!

Search Pinterest for “light table play” and you will find all kinds of unique and fun ideas! We picked up some gel window clings and some translucent beads at Hobby Lobby. Colin is getting some animal x-rays for his birthday soon. There really are all kinds of amazing ways to play with a light table!

This blog has lots of amazing ideas for light table play too!

Gift Giving

Lets talk about how I keep track of gift giving for my kids’ birthdays and Christmas. We have birthdays spread out all across the year. Add in Easter, Christmas, all the special holidays, and we are always celebrating something! We try to keep gifts to a minimum for reasons of space and not overspending, but I do enjoy shopping for my kids and selecting just the right things. How do I keep track of it all?

1) Amazon wishlists – I keep a separate running wishlist on Amazon for each person in our household. When I hear a child mention something he or she is interested in, I add it to the Amazon list in their name. When Grandma asks for gift ideas I can quickly reference the child’s list and make some suggestions. I also take a look at the lists every now and then and check for price drops. Occasionally I am able to snag something special at a lower price. Putting things on the wishlist also gives me time to knock them off the list if the child decides she is no longer interested in that item or I realize it’s something we should really do without.

2) Storage – I have medium size plastic boxes in storage with each child’s name on them. Whenever I make a purchase I immediately put it into the box for that child. This helps me easily see what I have. I also keep a running list on my phone so that I can check my purchases without going into the storage room. I keep track of what each gift costs so that I can stay within budget. The larger box in the photo contains items for giving others outside of our family whenever the need arises – new baby gifts, birthday gifts, etc. Sometimes I will put a sticky note with a name on a gift if it is for my niece or nephews.

3) Smart Shopping – I will often buy things ahead of time when I see them on sale, an Amazon price drop, or if I need to purchase a certain amount to get free shipping I will go ahead and get something I know one of the kids wants and stash it away. In March I was ordering an astronaut costume for Isaac’s birthday and saw this adorable dinosaur cape but I didn’t have any more money left to spend for him. They only had a few in stock and we needed more boy dress up stuff and it was adorable so I went ahead and bought it for Colin’s birthday (which is in October, yes I am that crazy). Other times I will maximize my spending and make a large order. For example, hosting an Usborne party, the more you buy at once the more free books you get. Buying ahead like this saves money, but thats also why I need to keep track carefully of what I already have.

4) Minimizing – At Christmas we have been giving each child three gifts (reminiscent of the three gifts mentioned in the Bible that the wise men gave Jesus). We also do stockings and we celebrate the twelve days after Christmas with fun outings as a family, special desserts, and so on. The three gifts are not always toys. We gift books, new pajamas, religious items, etc. Grandparents also spoil the kids with plenty of gifts and toys. Last year it all seemed like too much so we may cut it down even more. Siblings draw names and have one sister or brother to shop and wrap up a gift for. (Last year I assigned names and secretly gave the children each the sibling that I felt they needed to work on loving the most!)

5) Streamline – For holidays aside from birthdays where the children are all getting gifts I make them fairly similar. For Easter they all got a nice coloring book, the girls got flip flops, and the boys got small toy boats. Last Christmas each child got some books, a Playmobil toy, and the icon of their patron saint. Their gifts are not always exactly the same but it helps me to think in categories like that and get each child one toy, one book, and so on.

When a birthday rolls around all I have to do is check the list of things I have, show Grandparents the Amazon wishlist, and then pull out my box of stored gifts and wrap them up. Phew! That seems like a lot while I am trying to explain it, but it works for me! Any other gift giving tips or tricks you would like to add?

Wooden Trains

One of our favorite gifts to get at Christmas and birthdays is a cool new piece for our wooden train set. Just adding a bridge or a stoplight makes the whole set seem new and fun all over again. I love having plenty of pieces because all the kids enjoy playing together when we get out trains. The older girls are great at making complicated track designs for the little boys to play with.

The trains and track (except for the train station and the parking garage) all fit in two under the bed plastic boxes. Most of our pieces are Brio and we find them to be high quality. Melissa and Doug track pieces work well also. The parking garage is Brio and is super sturdy. Colin and Isaac got it once as a combined Christmas gift. It connects to the train track also.

Some of our favorite pieces are: (links are just for fun, I’m not an Amazon affiliate)

Starter kit with awesome sturdy bridge

Brio suspension bridge

Brio cargo harbor set

Brio crane boat

Brio light signal

Brio magnetic bell

Brio railway crossing

Brio ascending track and stacking track supports

train tunnel

turn table

train station

Brio tow truck – fun with the parking garage cars

Brio dump truck – cargo works with the crane

We also have a local toy store that sells track by the piece. Its fun to grab a few more curves, an adaptor piece, more straight track, etc.

Do you have any train lovers at your house?

Bending

This was in a frame on the wall at the dentist office where we took Annette to have her tongue and lip ties revised at just ten days old. Maybe I was super emotional at the time, or maybe this is spot on, but it hit me strongly that day.

On Children
Kahlil Gibran

Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them,
but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children
as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,
and He bends you with His might
that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer’s hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies,
so He loves also the bow that is stable.

———————————————————————-

I have heard of children referred to as “arrows” or talk of having a “quiverful” of them. Its a neat description, but what struck me here is that the work of the bow is to bend. Yes, my children are arrows and they will fly swift and far; I am the bow and my work is to bend. That bending speaks to waking up nights with crying babies, bending. Serving meals and washing countless dishes, bending. Giving more of myself than I ever thought possible, bending.

Lord, let my bending be with gladness.

Chore Charts

This is the chore system we’ve been using for the past year with good results. Each child has 1) a helper chore – they do this throughout the day whenever it needs to be done, 2) a morning chore, and 3) an afternoon chore. My 12 and 10 year olds switch chore charts weekly and my 7 and 5 year olds switch weekly as well. This way they get different chores but they are still age appropriate.

Chore charts are laminated and posted on the bottom half of the refrigerator where the kids can reach them. They use a dry erase marker to check off the chores as they are done. Everything wipes off with a kleenex easily. I love having it all together like this so I can quickly see who has done what and give reminders.

Across the top are the helpers for the week – emptying the dishwasher, setting the table, and clearing the table. My “set table” helper is also who I call on for meal prep help when I need it. We have a prayer helper who gets to read the list of names we pray for and help Daddy with the incense during evening prayers. My girls (ages 12, 10, 7) rotate through the helper jobs. We include Isaac (5) in the prayer helper rotation. I could probably add him back in to the other helper jobs now too but we tried it earlier last year and he was struggling with the jobs. I switch the names on Monday morning.

My big girls (12, 10) morning chores are feeding and letting out the dog or sorting laundry (gathering all the dirty laundry and taking it downstairs and sorting it into baskets by color). Their afternoon chores include cleaning a bathroom sink and mirror (we have two bathrooms to clean), folding a load of laundry and putting it away, cleaning a bathroom toilet and floor, tidying and vacuuming the mud room, or refilling bird feeders and sweeping the porch. On Fridays everyone picks up one room of the house so that I can vacuum everywhere. On Mondays when I switch things for the week Lucy and Julia will switch charts.

My 7 and 5 year olds either feed the fish or go through the house putting fresh hand towels in the bathrooms and kitchen. With so many people in the house we change the towels daily. In the afternoons they swiffer the kitchen/ dining room area, empty small trash cans on trash day, wipe light switches and door handles with a disinfecting wipe, fold laundry, tidy rooms, and add more toilet paper to the bathroom cabinets. Not all in one day of course! Esther and Isaac switch charts on Mondays too.

I have the chart set up so that I have a laundry helper to fold and put away a load nearly every day. When it is Isaac’s turn (5) I usually put in a load of washcloths and kitchen towels so that they are easy for him to fold.

There are a few things we need to work on. As you can see, the younger two often skip a few of their chores throughout the week. I offer a choice of a small candy or 50 cents for a completed chore chart at the end of the week. My bigger girls usually get everything done and choose 50 cents. I may increase this a bit so that they have more to divide up between save/give/spend and because they have been doing a great job helping out with things.

Our kiddos know that everyone working together helps our house run smoothly. If we are struggling with chores I will sometimes tag something fun on the end: “Lets finish up our chores and then we can all go for a walk.”, or “Once we get this living room picked up we can get out a big puzzle.” and so on. Of course sometimes its: “Get your chores done now or else!”. We have a quick general clean up time before bed where everyone picks up toys and things that get scattered around the house. On Saturdays we will sometimes work together on extra chores – picking up sticks outside so Daddy can mow, helping mom put away groceries, etc. Sundays we try to keep for church and relaxing/ doing fun things together. I remind the kids often that “many hands make light work”.

“How long do you think it would take Daddy to pick up all these sticks by himself? If we all pick up 10 sticks, how many is that? Wow! How nice it is that we have so many people here to help! How many hands are working right now? 6×2=12 thats so much more than just one person with two hands!” and so on. Teamwork!