Kids and Chores

I've always so badly wanted be the kind of organized mom who always has her house in order: who always has all the important papers neatly filed away, who always knows where the scissors are, or even just the household phone...of which we have FOUR, who can manage to cross everything off her "to do" list, and who always remembers the passwords on the computer.  But I'm not an organized mom.

With that said, I wasn't surprised when chore charts didn't work in our home.  I've purchased three different styles in the past year, all with good intentions, but our lifestyle is not one that allows for everyday chores such as "set the table for dinner" when half the week we just eat picnic-style around the coffee table.  Our schedule and lifestyle are really not conducive to hanging up a chore chart and filling it up with daily tasks.

Nevertheless, I still wanted a clean house, and I wanted my kids to help me with it.  At their ages, they're more than capable of helping out and lightening my load a bit.  So after brainstorming, I found something that worked in our crazy disorganized home.

I filled a mason jar with tasks that can be completed by my kids.  About half can be done daily (but we'll live if they're not), and the other half are weekly chores.   If it's a daily chore, I put an asterisk at the end.  The kids know to put this back in the "To Do" jar when the job is complete.  If it doesn't have an asterisk, it gets put in the "Done" jar until the beginning of the following week.

Our rules are as follows:
1. They must do two jobs per day.
2. They are not paid for these jobs.  This is part of being in a family.
3. They cannot put their slips back in and try for a "better" jobs.
4. They may trade a job with someone else, so long as that is agreed upon by both parties.
5. They get to take a break on the weekends, or if we're out of the house all day.

To be honest, my children are not outstanding at all of these jobs.  Sometimes they are great, and sometimes I get frustrated when they don't realize that simply pulling the tops off of the weeds does nothing beneficial.  My 5 year old has no idea what a baseboard is, much less how to wipe it down.  But I remind myself that we're working on habits now, and proper form takes times.  I always ask them if they are proud of their work, and praise the heck out of them if they stayed focused and tried hard....even if there is no obvious indication that work was attempted.

Do I still wish I was organized and put-together?  Of course.  But thankfully I'm learning that households can be a wee bit chaotic and still get things done.  And that kids can figure out a ton of other things to do with unused chore charts and their coordinating stickers.  =)

Homeschooling Lesson #1: How to copy paper

I'm really no stranger to homeschooling.  After only 3 months of middle school, my parents pulled us all out of public school and began the journey of de-socializing us.

Oh I jest.  That didn't happen until our second year of homeschooling.

We began homeschooling for the sole purpose of avoiding the evil that was our local middle school, fully intent on returning back to society come 9th grade.  But strange things happened and we made friends.  Like, good friends.  Friends that went on to lead normal lives and that I still frequently talk to.

I managed to graduate high school, attend and graduate college with honors, and build a little family of my own in the process.  And now I'm in my second "official" year of homeschooling my little champs.   And that's no small feat!  I have a kindergartner, firsts grader, and second grader this year!

When my kids are in kindergarten, I do very little as far as official schoolwork.  I buy about a thousand glue sticks and round-tip scissors at the beginning of the year, and a couple workbooks (strongly recommend Explode the Code!).  I teach math by also teaching cooking and we read Roald Dahl.  Now that I have a first grader and a second grader, we use a lot more curriculum and worksheets, and last week I learned that I was lacking a fundamental albeit crucial and necessary skill for any homeschooling parent:  I didn't know how to copy paper.  

I started out optimistic.  I had my coffee (all aspects of homeschooling require coffee), and my two piles of paper going: to copy and already copied.

Such beauty.

I learned right away not to lift the copy lid too fast, or else the paper would fly out the back and land behind the 200lb filing cabinet.  However, despite the immediacy of my lesson, I managed to do this 5 more times.  So then I learned a new lesson:  don't keep sliding the filing cabinet back against the wall. 

This is a top view of the paper having fallen behind the cabinet.

No copy job is complete without the fear of God 

being put in you by these three words:

I had to copy about 100 pages and I have no clue how to change the cartridge on this machine.  So I did what any normal woman would do - I copied my pages anyway. 

 (P.S. I totally won that challenge.)   

After doing half of my copying, 

I had to flip the pages over and copy the backside.  

I analyzed that machine over and over, picked up printed pages and simulated them going through the machine, and deduced the correct direction my papers needed to face to print correctly. 

Guess who printed them wrong?

So here's to all you new homeschooling mommies out there 

(or the veterans who failed to learn the art of the copy machine):

1. Put your printer in the center of the room, where a fallen paper does not equal a workout.

2. Have your husband put in a new cartridge before you begin your job.  Or don't.  ;)

3. Stock up on glue sticks and scissors - you're about to make yourself a huge pile of scratch paper.

All Tangled Up: a Rapunzel party

Yesterday my niece turned 4 years old.  She is one of the most hilarious and sweetest little girls I've ever met....and she absolutely adores Rapunzel.  So what made more sense than to throw her a Tangled-theme birthday party?  When my sister mentioned the idea, we both hit the internet and started brainstorming ideas (my sister found most of them).  Here is the party in pictures:

the decorations:

I know it's hard to tell, but this painting is HAND DONE by my talented sister.   

This is another painting she did, along with a homemade yarn lantern.  So cute!

Rapunzel's hair.  We also did a brown braid and paired it with some (paper) scissors and had that hanging out on the bathroom counter.   =)

Another glimpse of Jenny's painting, along with the streamers she made.

And of course there had to be color-coordinating flowers!

What Tangled party would be complete without Rapunzel herself?  My niece spent most of her party dancing and singing with her friends and her favorite princess!  Rapunzel also practiced her painting skills on the cheeks of all the party guests.   She was awesome!

the food:

The obligatory veggies.  Something has to be healthy, right?

We kept it simple for the kids:  premade pb&j and chips.  

Jello adorned with clementine boats, perfect for lantern-watching.

We put some of the food in cast iron pans.  =)  The adults were fed rustic rolls, cold cuts and cheese with an array of spreads: chipotle ranch, pesto and honey mustard.  We also did some caprese skewers for munching on.

For drinks my sister served strawberry lemonade and iced tea.  Yummy!

the cake:

A friend of mine did a killer creative Rapunzel tower and I was determined to do one also.  

I printed out a mini version of Flynn Rider's "Wanted" poster - I thought it added a nice touch.

Another view.

The waterfall. 

By the end of the party, my niece was exhausted.  Her mommy persuaded her to take a "5 minute break" which turned into an hour-long nap.   

My guess is the party was a smashing success!

Smoothies and Pinterest

I recently taught my two older kids how to work our blender, which has turned smoothie-making into a four or five-times-a-day occurrence.  That's actually fine with me because they put healthy things like frozen berries and greek yogurt into them.  Or, at least I thought they were using the greek yogurt.  It finally occurred to me that all the yogurt was still sitting in our fridge, untouched, so I asked my daughter which yogurt she was using.  She showed me...

I really need to teach her to read better.  But at least it was the European-style sour cream...the kind that uses milk as its only ingredient.  But still, ewww.

And then there was my son's smoothie.  Our recent peanut butter purchase suggested using the peanut butter in your smoothie, so my son insisted on listening.  He said it tasted really good so I suggested he write down the ingredients so he'll remember how to make it in the future:

Cantaloupe??  Gag!  But he was proud of it so of course I praised his...uhhh....creativity, and that was all the encouragement he needed to make another one an hour later.

Oh, and I finally pintered  pinterested  made something from pinterest!  Something tells me we could use a few more coloring books but, thanks to Target's school sale, we have plenty of crayons. =)

Sure, judge me for making the easiest thing I could find, but it's done and the kids totally love it.  Now they can color while they drink their sour cream and cantaloupe smoothies.  Yum.