Semi Quiet
Its semi quiet here this morning thanks to a scheduled late start day. I wont need to wake up the kids til 830 should they sleep that long. It appears though that Gideon missed the memo on sleeping in on late start day. Oh well. He was already awake at 430 in the morning and Andrew managed(with lots of kicking and screaming on Gideons part) to get him to go back to sleep til 630. After that we were just out of luck on that front. So i got up and got him some breakfast.
Since Elaura is sleeping, and Gideon is mostly content toddling around, I have some time to blog.
As far as the kids and chores, its always a work in progress. Currently the 6 oldest have assigned room chores(kitchen,living room, family room, the two bathrooms and small areas) plus their bedroom. That involves picking it up, sweeping or vacuuming, changing garbage etc.Bedrooms have to be at least picked up. I dont always check to make sure the bedrooms are clean, so they get a bit of slack there.
I changed up the schedule recently. Previously they ate snack and did homework first, then chores. I found that really wasnt working well for our family especially with the older ones who had a lot more homework. So if their homework took them until supper, the room chores really didnt seem to get done. Im not so diligent in making sure they are finishing up that after supper. By that time in the evening, Im not exactly on top of my game :) And usually then the focus was on them finishing up dinner chores(loading dishwasher, sweeping floor, clearing and washing table, recycling).
So now i have them doing the chores before homework. Its been a bit of a learning curve. Katarina is so fond of doing it this way but it does force her to manage her time better and she doesnt slip under the radar either. Elijah has struggled a bit too in that he doesnt always remember to then do his homework after his chores. Overall i like it better, the house feels less disasterous and I can say yes to free time activities more readily in the evening.
My eldest two know how to do laundry and all of them can help sort and fold. Generally I find it works better if i handle the laundry for the most part and they just have to put away their own clothes. Which on days i do folding(working on trying to make that into an everyday habit) they have a basket of clothes to put away right away when they return from school, even before snack. Again one of those things I learned that it needs to be done right away or they forget about it.
The pet chores are assigned to specific rooms -- the downstrs bathroom has the dog food and water and has dog walking associated with it. The upstairs bathroom has cat litter, so that person is responsible for scooping it.
I have asked Katarina to be responsible for switching whatever load left in the washer at the end of the night(her bedroom is right off the laundry area) and to start a load when she gets up in the morning. If she forgets the morning one, thats not a huge deal, if the washer though is empty when i start, it just seems to help move things along faster. I recently added to Josiahs list, just picking up the bathroom and a quick sweep right before bed to Josiahs list. These two things are secondary and im trying them out to see if it will help make the household run smoother.
I really dont want to add more to the kids list, i think they do a fair share here now. Cleaning has always been a struggle for me and IM constantly trying to work on habits and ways of doing things to make it better. i have learned a little over the years. My stepmom never showed me how to clean or what to do, just usually sent me off to watch the little kids. So i came into the marriage not even really knowing how to mop a floor.
I find if i can keep things more picked up during the day(this is extremely challenging right now with Mr. Gideon pulling everything down right now) then chores in the evening go much smoother. Right now I have a friend who is helping me work on making simple things like loading the dishwasher every morning faithfully into a lifelong habit :) I realize this comes naturally to most people but Im pretty sure I missed getting the cleaning gene.
God is good ... all the time
MJ
Since Elaura is sleeping, and Gideon is mostly content toddling around, I have some time to blog.
As far as the kids and chores, its always a work in progress. Currently the 6 oldest have assigned room chores(kitchen,living room, family room, the two bathrooms and small areas) plus their bedroom. That involves picking it up, sweeping or vacuuming, changing garbage etc.Bedrooms have to be at least picked up. I dont always check to make sure the bedrooms are clean, so they get a bit of slack there.
I changed up the schedule recently. Previously they ate snack and did homework first, then chores. I found that really wasnt working well for our family especially with the older ones who had a lot more homework. So if their homework took them until supper, the room chores really didnt seem to get done. Im not so diligent in making sure they are finishing up that after supper. By that time in the evening, Im not exactly on top of my game :) And usually then the focus was on them finishing up dinner chores(loading dishwasher, sweeping floor, clearing and washing table, recycling).
So now i have them doing the chores before homework. Its been a bit of a learning curve. Katarina is so fond of doing it this way but it does force her to manage her time better and she doesnt slip under the radar either. Elijah has struggled a bit too in that he doesnt always remember to then do his homework after his chores. Overall i like it better, the house feels less disasterous and I can say yes to free time activities more readily in the evening.
My eldest two know how to do laundry and all of them can help sort and fold. Generally I find it works better if i handle the laundry for the most part and they just have to put away their own clothes. Which on days i do folding(working on trying to make that into an everyday habit) they have a basket of clothes to put away right away when they return from school, even before snack. Again one of those things I learned that it needs to be done right away or they forget about it.
The pet chores are assigned to specific rooms -- the downstrs bathroom has the dog food and water and has dog walking associated with it. The upstairs bathroom has cat litter, so that person is responsible for scooping it.
I have asked Katarina to be responsible for switching whatever load left in the washer at the end of the night(her bedroom is right off the laundry area) and to start a load when she gets up in the morning. If she forgets the morning one, thats not a huge deal, if the washer though is empty when i start, it just seems to help move things along faster. I recently added to Josiahs list, just picking up the bathroom and a quick sweep right before bed to Josiahs list. These two things are secondary and im trying them out to see if it will help make the household run smoother.
I really dont want to add more to the kids list, i think they do a fair share here now. Cleaning has always been a struggle for me and IM constantly trying to work on habits and ways of doing things to make it better. i have learned a little over the years. My stepmom never showed me how to clean or what to do, just usually sent me off to watch the little kids. So i came into the marriage not even really knowing how to mop a floor.
I find if i can keep things more picked up during the day(this is extremely challenging right now with Mr. Gideon pulling everything down right now) then chores in the evening go much smoother. Right now I have a friend who is helping me work on making simple things like loading the dishwasher every morning faithfully into a lifelong habit :) I realize this comes naturally to most people but Im pretty sure I missed getting the cleaning gene.
God is good ... all the time
MJ
posted by Megamom @ 7:03 AM
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