Chores.

I thought about my kids' chores for a year before implementing them and we've been doing the system for almost a year with great success.  I and the kids have a daily chore chart-we love it (my kids are 3 and 4 now)!!  If you're looking to start family chores or looking for some fun ideas here's a step by step guide:

1.  Decide Daily Jobs.  

My kids:

clean their rooms

tidy the toy room

and do a mom's choice chore every day.

To remind them I:

googled pictures of the chores

printed them out

and put tape to kind of laminate them.

We then taped them inside a lower (so the kids can reach) kitchen cupboard on the left side (leaving room to change out the monthly calendar).

 

 

 We wondered what the kids (3 and 2 at the time) could possibly do for the extra chore...maybe weed?  But I have found that the kids can do so so much.  I now just look at what needs to be done.  Some ideas for chores for small kids:

weed

vacuum

sort, do, or put away laundry

wipe down blinds, couches, tables, etc.

unload the dishwasher

clean the bathrooms (they really can clean the bathrooms!)

 empty garbage

 

My daily chores (mine are different every day):

Mon-vacuum and mop all the floors

Tues-kitchen

Wed-bathroom

Thurs-bedroom

 Fri-laundry

Sat-tidy all

 I googled vintage pictures...this, like the kids', is taped above my monthly calendars to a kitchen cupboard.

 

2.  Print monthly calendar.  Click on the April below to go to the website I use to print out my calendars.  You can tell from the old pics, I used to have plain calendars until I found these cute ones.

3.  Decorate monthly calendar.  We go to the dollar store to get a ton of seasonal stickers for cheap.  The kids love doing this-it sets a fun tone for the month's jobs.

 

 

4.  Do chores.  After finishing their daily chores, the kids put a sticker (again from the Dollar Store) on their calendar day and get a coin to put in their piggy banks.  Annie painted and decorated and painted her piggy bank and I painted a monster truck bank for Apollo.

 

 5.  Spending Money.  After the kids have been collecting their money for awhile, we put their coins in a ziplock (after giving some money to our church that goes to helping people) and go to the dollar or thrift stores (or a normal store if their is something they want).  They learn they can spend their money on little things or save for a big toy.

 6.  Monthly Reward.  The kids weren't always excited about doing their chores every day or didn't always want to finish them in the morning.  We started giving them a monthly reward if they do their jobs every single day.  This month we decided as a family to go to Pump it Up (like a big bounce house with slides and activities) as a family if they do their jobs every day in April.  I googled and printed off a picture of a bounce house and put it by their calendars as a reminder.  They are so so excited.  This monthly reward is what makes the whole system go so smoothly.

The "why" behind it all.  I'm very thoughtful about motherhood (maybe it's the physics/chemistry teacher background).  I thought a lot about how I would implement chores in my house.  I knew this would set the tone for how the kids view money, working, and chores. So here are the reasons I set up the chores like I did:

-Rewards.  Some people reward their kids with tv, computer time, etc.  What ever we reward our kids with is what they look at as important or we make it desirable.  I really didn't want to reward my kids with candy, tv, computer time, etc.  I want them to desire an active lifestyle and things like family time. 

-Money.  I love that I can be at a store and the kids will be asking for things and they really have to think twice before they spend their money on it.  They take ownership.  They can be shortsighted (which is sometimes fine for the little ones) or they can save longer for something they really want.  They are also learning about money and counting.

-Calendar.  I tell them as they put their stickers on what the day and date is.  They are learning their numbers.  Sometimes we'll put extra stickers on special days (birthdays and holidays). 

-Some people reward their kids for every little job their kids do.  I chose to have a set list of jobs so it would stay consistent.  I didn't want to have to give them a coin or give them something every time they did a job because I knew I wouldn't have the time to follow through.  They get asked throughout the day to do extra jobs and are not rewarded.  They are part of a family and as part of a team, they need to do extra outside of their jobsto help out just because.

-Celebrate.  The kids take pride in doing their jobs and are thrilled when they finish.  We do high fives and celebrate.  Everything about this system is a celebration.

-Keeping it clean.  The kids' rooms and toy room are clean every day (it's the entrance to our home).

-No hassle.  We are an on the go family.   With a lot of things that fizzle out after the thrill of starting it, this system is super easy to carry out.

 DIY Silhouette Paintings.

This is my mom's brilliant idea.  She came for Parks' birth and Christmas and while she was here did a lot of house projects.  She thought it would be fun to add a little of Carleton into a room.  

This is how we did the bike paintings:

1.  From left to right - Light source. Bike.  Canvases.  We propped up Carleton's bike in the garage (it's dark)in the middle with a lamp (without a shade-a flashlight would work well too) on one side and a canvas on the other.  I moved the light around until a cool shadow formed on the canvas.  Just move the light as close to the object as you want until the shadow comes clear on the canvas.  

2.  With pencils, outline the silhouette that is made on the canvas.

3.  Paint. 

 Here's a close up.

 Mom went home and did the same thing with her geraniums.  She painted her bathroom gray and added her geraniums in this pretty yellow.  She wants to try some other silhouettes too.  I might do one of Carleton rock climbing.

Love these two products!!  Swaddle Me.  Bumbo.

I didn't have these with my other two kiddos but wish I did.  I love the Bumbo.  I can set Parks in there and he feels like he's part of the family.  He can "sit up" in it and join us at meal time or I can put him on the counter and chat with him or sing to him as I clean.  He can sit and watch the kids play with their Legos.  It will be great to have later when he can eat solid food.

 

Swaddle Me.  I have swaddled all my kids.  Parks always wiggles out of his blankets and gets cold and twice I found him with his blanket over his face.  This is when I decided to by the blankets with velcro.  I love them.  He loves them.  It's like a signal to him that it's time to sleep when I put them in them.  I got both of these products from Babies R Us.  Great shower gift.

3 Week Healthy Challenge.

 

 

Carleton called me the other day to say he booked a cruise to Mexico for our anniversary in May.  I want to get ride of the rest of my baby fat so we're doing a three week challenge (adapting it to our lifestyle) from the Whole Living magazine Martha Stewart put out.  Go here if you want some new healthy recipes or want to try the challenge with me.

 

Here are some tips I thought I would share for those wanting to try some healthy new meals but want to save time:

1.  Double or even quadruple recipes.  Sometimes healthy veggies and foods are hard to to find.  Nice, because you only have to find the foods once, use less dishes, etc.

2.  Freeze.  I made a bunch of the Green Machine Smoothies.  I have some in the fridge for tomorrow and two Tupperwares full in the freezer.  I put a post-it on each including the name, serving size, and date so I can have some for later.   I did the same for the soups.

3.  Get the kids occupied.  When I want to get a lot done, I sometimes call the kids' friends over to play.  They play so well together that we can get a lot of done around the house.  So, if it's more of a headache to have other kids over, maybe dad can take the kids for awhile so you can dedicate some time-chopping veggies takes forever.

 

Yummy trail mix. 

 

Surprise Cookies.  

I was reading one of the old Sesame Street books the other night to the kids.  Cookie Monster made these cookies so we decided to try them out-one of my first activities with the kids after Parks joined us.  I found a sugar cookie recipe off the internet.  We filled the centers with all different kinds of chocolate chips, then folded them over and cooked them.  They were yummy.

 A Peek at some Projects.

I've been wanting to get my house more organized for awhile...crafts, Tupperware, pantry, etc.  Shannon gave me some great tips and I've been looking at ways I can organize things.  I'm going to do a whole blog post on some fun things I've found.  Last month we organized the pantry, bathroom cupboards, Tupperware, and some kid craft supplies.  I'm excited to show you.

 

I grew up with my mom refinishing furniture and making our home beautiful.  She could find some of the most random things (I think my dad wondered about a lot of the stuff she brought it) but she always made them look so amazing afterward.  We have been living in apartments for the last few years and had to get rid of a lot and I could never buy many furnishings because we didn't have the space.  It's been so fun to have my sis and mom here to help me decorate the house.  These are the projects we've been working on:

-Nightstands.  Added some black glaze to Annie's pink night stands (I bought at a flee market)

-Shopped.  Bought a little dresser and cool antique night stand from the salvation army.  I also went to Home Goods and Cost Plus World Market (thanks for the suggestion Christie) and found a bath mat, towels, and a shower curtain.  At a thrift store we found awesome candle holders (I'm going to paint them) and a beautiful vase.

-Moved Toy Room.  Switched the toy room from the entrance front room to the back half of the living room.  It looks great.  Pics coming soon.

-Rearranged and added furniture.  My sister and parents have been storing furniture for me at their homes.  When they found cool things from thrift stores, they would send me a picture text and ask if I wanted it.  Now we have a lot more furniture in the house...and  lot more work to do!

-Parks' Crib.  Went to Jenny's fabric, in Fountain Valley, and got some darling material for Parks' room.  My mom sewed all his bumpers and pads together on his crib.  She got a stain pen to clean up all the scratches on the crip-looks amazing

-Toy Room Piece.  Went from a throw-away piece to a show piece thanks to Mom and Heidi!

-Crayon Art.  I'll take a pic.  We melted crayons on a canvas for Parks' room-turned out awesome.  Apollo got in on the action and made one for his room too.

-Piano.  My great grandma gave me a piano that she got when she was six years old.  We tried cleaning in up a bit-still needs tons of work!

-Desk.  My parents brought me a vintage, roll-top desk they found.  My mom glued and fixed some of the drawers.

-Molecule Mobile.  Carleton bought a vintage molecule set that I put together.  Now we'll hang it up over his crib.  He'll love all the colors.

Years ago I found this storage piece?? Not sure what it was.  Carleton thought it was a shoe rack from some bowling alley.  I got it for $15 (Carleton was not excited).  Somehow it came through every move with us.  Carleton didn't want it in our house.  My sister added wood, molding, and rollers.  They stained and sanded it.  Looks like a piece from Restoration Hardware now!

 

Here are Annie's nightstands that were glazed and wiped.  They look so pretty in her pink and black room. 

I learned so much about refinished different pieces.  I'm exited to show you the finished pieces and share what I learned.