Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Things that work...

Every year our homeschool group has a "favorite things" night. It's a chance for women to share what worked for their homeschool and life in the last year. It could be anything from a particular curriculum, to a discipline technique or a way to get their kids to do chores. Anything goes. It's a packed house on "favorite things" night, becuase, frankly, it's a wealth of fabulous ideas. So even though "favorite things" night is months away I thought I'd share mine.

TIC TACKS - (I actually stole this idea from another homeschool mom, but it's brilliant) One of the major stressors of getting out of the house was getting everyone in the car and ready to go. Often I'd say, "Get in the car.", only to go outside and find 3 kids throwing handfuls of grass into each others hair in the front yard. Or sometimes they would be in the car but not in their seats. The ways to not obey this direct instruction were almost endless - until the tic tack. It changed everything. Now the deal is everyone gets a tic tack when they are buckled safely into the car. Everytime. Now I go out to the car and find kids buckled in and waiting for a tic tack. It's amazing how an itsy-bitsy candy will motivate. Hey, but whatever works, and this works.

PLASTIC PLATES - Okay, I stole this idea too, but there's no law saying my ideas must be original.

Walmart was having a clearance on their "china" so I picked up plastic plates, bowls, cups and silverware. Each kid gets his or her own color. And they can ONLY USE their own color. After every time they eat they must wash their own stuff and re-set the table. Even a four year old can be trained to do this acceptably. What's the benefit? Independence, of course. And less work for me. The dishwasher is run less. The kids discover how nasty it can be to clean up oatmeal that has become encrusted on a bowl without a word from me. I can tell who's making the messes and who's not doing their job. And did I mention it's less work for me.

KIDS DO THEIR OWN LAUNDRY - Okay this one isn't fool proof. I still have to do some quality control. But laundry was fast becoming an overwhelming chore to me. I could never seem to get it all done and put away. Well come to find out even very little children can sort colors and start the washing machine. An eight year old can empty a washing machine and a four year old can load a dryer. And, believe it or not, with just a smidge of supervision my 4 year old folds laundry better than my older kids. Truthfully, they don't do a great job. But they do it, and I don't, and that's worth a lot. Really, is it necessary for things to be folded immaculately when most kids just rifle through their drawers anyway.

BENEFITS: 1)Less work for me 2)kids are more careful with their clothes when they've got to wash them. 3)I don't get as irritated when they dig through their drawers cause because I didn't just get done folding their clothes.

PRIVATE SWIMMING LESSONS) I know the rec center kind of swimming lessons work for lots of kids. But my kids were very hesitant swimmers - partly because they have no body fat to speak of. They are literally blue when they get out of rec center pools, and being that cold isn't conducive to learning.

So now I'm paying through the nose to have my kids learn to swim in private 10 minute lessons in a heated pool. And my kids are learning to swim. It's some of the best money I've spent on kids activities.

Okay, baby's up...gotta run.

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