Chore Chart

For a couple years now, Steve & I have been tossing around ideas for our children when it comes to chores.  We've read tons of articles and talked to other Parents with older children, I think we've heard it all. When it comes down to it though, we've learned that all children and all families are different. So this is what works for our family.

We believe that our children should do chores as members of this family to help out around the house. We also believe that they should get an allowance to start teaching them the importance & value of money & saving. Where we felt conflicted; we didn't want them to do chores only for money and we also didn't want to just give them an allowance every week, we want them to feel proud of what they've accomplished & think about what they are spending their allowance on and by just giving it to them neither of those things would happen.

We tried saying "this is your chore you need to do it every day." We found that without an incentive they didn't want to do it, and not only that but let's face it we don't have the energy and shouldn't have to keep reminding them 10 times a day to do their chores and then what happens in the end, mom ends up doing the said chore anyway.





So I came up with a Chore Chart!

That is visual enough for my 2 year old to understand but exciting enough for the 6 year old to use it. This chart holds them responsible for doing their own chores & will allow them to see results.



How I made it: 
I went onto Amazon and browsed their selection of Pocket Calendars, and chose the behavior chart, the link is below.

Then while I was waiting for that to ship I came up with age appropriate chores for each kid. Then I just went onto Word & found Clip Art matching each chore. I also Color Coded everything per day to make it a little easier to keep track.  After I made all the names, days of the week, individual chore cards, & tickets, I cut them out, laminated them and cut them again. The chore cards are about the size of a business card.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000EFM9NW/ref=oh_details_o04_s00_i00

Here is a list of the chores we have, which will change as they get older.
Each kid has- morning & evening routine, clean bed room, clean play room, and putting clothes away.
6 Year old- in addition to chores mentioned above sweep 1 room, empty dishwasher, feed the cat.
4 year old- in addition to chores mentioned above, dust 1 room, tidy front door (shoes, jackets, etc.)
2 year old- just has the 4 basic chores mentioned above, but obviously needs more guidance when doing some things, like putting clothes away, all the kids' dressers are labeled, pictures & words; with what goes in which drawer, shirts, pants, etc. so I'll make piles of like items for the 2 year old & he'll put them in the correct drawer. Just an example of how each chore is age appropriate and the expectations are different for each depending on their age.

As a side note. We have a seperate picture chart that shows our morning & evening routine, this has really helped our middle child stay on track. So for now we have included the morning & evening routine as part of their chores, until the routine is established.

How it works:
 Each day as a child does their chore they will flip it over & put it behind the other chore cards. At the end of the day or week we count up how many chores they have done & they get a ticket.


For the tickets, I just used clip art on Word & printed them off in different colors corresponding to the days of the week colors.

At the end of the week they can spend their tickets and shop at the "Mom and Dad Store" save their tickets to get a bigger item from the "M&D store" or trade their tickets in for money. 1 ticket= .10 cents.

For the M&D Store I just used a basket and went out & bought things that the kids enjoy doing. Play doh, art supplies, sticks of gum, match box cars, dino figures, coloring books, reading books, bonne bell chapsticks, jewels, stickers, action figures(on the cheaper side). Then I used garage sale stickers and just priced everything. If something cost me $1.00 then it is 10 tickets, I open any packages of multiple things like a pack of 2 headbands, 1 would cost 5 tickets. A pack of 5 lizards from the $1.00 store would be 2 tickets for each lizard; and so on.  I just keep a nice stock of things, and when I see things when I'm out and about I'll get them to add to the M&D store.

We've been using this chart for almost a month now, and every Saturday the children are super excited to see how many tickets they've earned & what they can buy. My oldest has saved her Christmas money & traded 2 weeks of chore tickets to buy a La La Loopsy. The 4 year old did just enough of his chores to trade in his tickets for a green lantern action figure, it took him 3 weeks & a few encouraging words but he finally did it and is so proud of that action figure you'd think it was gold!

Hopefully that made sense, if not feel free to ask questions!

Planting seeds in my heart

"She wanted to grow in beauty and grace, so she asked God to show her the seeds she should plant in the soil of her heart."

Oh my goodness... God is definitely speaking to me right now!

I have one of those inspirational desk calendars, on my desk of course, given to me for hosting a party. It says "This little calendar is one way to add flair and inspiration to all your days. Filled with quotes & scriptures sure to lift your spirit and put sassiness in your soul, it'll equip you you to face challenges with the sophistication by the One who always puts you in the best light." How awesome is that!?! An added plus... it's zebra print! ;)

Ok so first the Blog is called the blessing is in the seedd, because on crazy days it is hard to remember that my family is a major and THE biggest blessing ever.

Second, if you've been following me at all on Facebook you know that life is just crazy right now; Steve is at NCOA, schooling for the military, in Germany for 6 weeks. The kids have been in school for a month so all the Autumn plays, PTO stuff, Bake sales, after school activities, teacher meetings, all happen this month. Also we're having some assessments done on base so I've been driving there a lot. Had a horrible, but now humerous, "explosion" incident with my child & groceries. The 2 year old has decided he wants to potty train now and scream his head off when we're in public places. Halloween is just a few weeks away. It's just been a rough week.

I feel like one of those clap-o-meters. You know those things that look kind of like a thermometer & the louder the clapping the higher the meter rises. It only takes one stupid little thing to get me all worked up. A post someone makes on FB, the kids fighting, having to repeat myself 10x in  20 minutes, cleaning up a potty training accident, having to give the kids a bath when all I want to do is lay down and read a book.

I know things can be worse and I also know that growing in beauty and grace are things I definitely need help with right now. Maybe a little bit of patience as well, but we all know what happens when we ask God for patience... 3 words... Elora, Derek, & Dylan. ;) I love my crazy seedd's, they are tremendous blessings. It's all about perspective, right?

Do mom's forget...

...that their child was once a toddler? A friend posted a vent on FB about how it was annoying to go shopping while having to listen to a kid scream the entire time & was frustrated because the parent tuned them out while the rest of the store had to listen to the kid, she ended the vent saying "have some consideration and bloody parent!" AHHHH It took EVERYTHING I had not to post a comment. After stewing for a few minutes I asked myself, does she seriously not remember what is was like when her child was a toddler? Then I came to this conclusion... They must have been through what I'm going through, and it was so traumatic that they just eventually blocked it out. ;)

Maybe this post bothers me more because I am IN this phase right now, and deal with this everyday.

Dylan is a screamer, if he doesn't like something or gets bored then he screams as loud & as high as he can. I realize that he's screaming for a reason, and will 99% of the time stop what I'm doing and ask him what's the matter to try and tell me what's wrong. Usually 97% of the time it is because he wanted something & I said no, so when I remind him "No, Sorry Dylan we aren't getting candy today." The screaming continues... if it is convenient I will just leave, usually head straight to check out or if the lines are too long I have also left my cart of stuff. But if I have to get groceries OR I made the 30 minute drive to base just to get these items then I'm going to get those items. I re-assure him that it won't be long. The re-assuring works great with Derek, who gets bored very easily with shopping, not so much with Dylan and so then I just have to grit my teeth, Smile, and bare it!!!! I apologize to everyone who makes eye contact for the screaming and try and get out as fast as I can.

It's a phase that most toddlers go through, they are learning so much at once like patience, controlling & expressing their feelings, and battling boredom!! All problems when shopping with mom.

I am getting better at just gritting my teeth and getting through it but the embarrassment is still there and while I'd like to think people understand and are sympathetic to my situation I then hear a friend blame it on the parents and other people agreeing with her, I'll admit it knocks me down a bit and as unrealistic as it is I do want to just stay home with him and not take him out. Again, I realize how unrealistic this is, especially with Steve in Germany for 4 more weeks.

I can't wait until we are out of this phase, but until then I'll just keep calm and carry on, a common phrase here in the UK that I'm sure was invented by a mom with multiple children in their early years.

Even more confused

So my impatience got the best of me again, dang it! I posted on FB how my heart is super happy for Derek, and it is but the more I thought about it my brain is more confused.

Last week we had an appt with a speech therapist to do her assessment on Derek. After 1.5 hrs she came out and asked if I'd been working with him over the summer, and continued to say he has improved tremendously since June, he only struggles when asked to repeat a sentence, she doesn't think his scores will qualify him to be seen.

Today he had an appt with the Occupational Therapist for his assessment regarding his fine motor skills. He barely passed, only 1 or 2 points made the difference. He struggles with his grasp while holding a crayon, pencil etc. and holding scissors. The OT said "There isn't anything wrong, or malfunctioning, in his brain, it's just the muscles that need to be strengthened so I will put in a recommendation, but can also give you ideas, tips, tools and exercises to do at home." GREAT!!

So overall my heart is super happy because the things we did over summer to prepare him for going to school full time, has worked! That was very evident, he has grown by leaps and bounds which is so exciting and I'm so happy for him. However in the back of my mind, I am still left with so many questions.

I spoke with the Dr at his 4 yr checkup back in March and expressed my concerns and was immediately referred to a bunch of people within the school system. All the details are in the other blog post. Now that the assessments are done, I'm still left with mostly the same questions and concerns I had before. I know this is just one of many steps, and I'm not sure what I was expecting them to say. There is no clear answer, and they aren't medical professionals so I definitely wasn't going to receive a diagnosis, not sure if I was hoping for one.

He really has improved so much in only 6 months, so I know some of it is maturity related. He starts school full time on the 24th, right now he's only going for 2 hours a day to get him used to the classroom etc. I am still nervous for him but not as much as I was 6 months ago, that's for sure.
I can't end the blog without some pics of my handsome boy:

HAHA SO I'm going through some of my blog posts and noticed this draft, I never published it because I was still in the mentality of "my kids aren't perfect but noone else has to know that!" Yeah what a difference a year makes!! After hearing Derek's evaluation and then reading this, things make so much more sense now. So here's the unedited blog post from July 2011.

A comedian by the name of Anita Renfroe has a theory called the "room in da womb" theory. With the 1st baby, there is not a whole lot of room in there so they are over achievers, and must fight for every inch in there. With baby #2... "Hey look at this, it's kind of comfy in here, but wait it looks like there was someone in here before me hey that's not fair! And I'm going to tell her it's not fair for the rest of my life!" Baby #3 "Hey look at this, there is tons of space in here, I'm loving this, I'm just going to relax in here!"
This description fits my children perfectly! The personality of Son #2 is wearing me down lately. Derek is definitely his own person, which I'm sure I will be very happy about when he is a man and with a family of his own, but right now I would say he is definitely my strong willed child. Terrible Two's... no way, that was easy! How old is that saying anyway, because every mom of boys I know has agreed that it should be called the Terrible Three's!

Today we went bowling with a group of other mom's and their children, we know them very well. Before we entered the building we went over all the rules. "We will be on our best behavior, we will not eat here except for some cupcakes so do not ask because my answer will be no! Do you understand what I said, please repeat it!" Oldest child, "yes mom I will be very good and won't bug you or ask you any questions." Middle Child, "yes mom." My response... "ok what did I say?" "umm... what?" So I proceed to explain again but this time using 10 words or less... ok repeat what I said. "K Mama!" Sigh... ok just going to settle for that.

We are all having a great time, except for the high pitched screams coming from child#3 who is always content until he's out of food and then he'll let you know. By frame 4 "Mama, I'm hungry! I'm hungry! Mama, Mama, Mama!" After I told him no about 20 times, he decided to take a friends snack, another little girl saw this and didn't like that he had her snack and tried to take it from him to give it back. Derek was not having this he proceeded to push, slap, and pull her hair to get her away from the snack pack that he had a death grip on. Yes... this is my son. I grabbed all 3 of my children and left the bowling alley mortified and cried the entire way home.

This is the same son, who sneaks things into his bed that we have no clue where he even gets them from like purple puffy paint, magazines, straws, juice boxes(we never have juice boxes in the house), snacks, and of course dino's. Sigh... some day he will grow out of this... someday!