Chore Chart

      I broke down and created a chore chart today. Next week my schedule will kick into hyper-drive and I'm feeling the pressure now to get everything planned and "perfect" before it begins. Of course, I don't plan to actually achieve perfection, but a little organization does wonders for my motivation. The tasks on this chart reflect what my children have already been doing for months, but I hoped to allow a little more room for responsibility and personal growth and a little less of me nagging them to get things done.

      I sat down with the girls and discussed what we'd be doing. We talked about being responsible and ways they could help out around the house. While I drew the chart and cut out the little velcro pieces that are crucial to the plan, the girls came up with their "chores" and drew corresponding pictures.

      I also took this time to COMPLETELY sugar-coat the word "chores." I told them that chores help them learn about responsibilty and help the family to operate. I gave them examples of chores that we adults do and gave examples of what would happen if no one contributed. For example, if no one took out the trash we couldn't have friends over because our house would smell too bad. The sillier the example the more they liked the idea.

      Being master manipulator Mom, creating a positive vibe around chores was my first tactic, and creating space for me to throw in my own "special" chores was my second. They have a list of Every Day Chores on one side (which, again, they are already doing) and the other side houses the Special Chores. Every Day Chores are currently making their bed, brushing their teeth, dressing themselves, picking up toys, and watering the plants. Right now, "special" chores include picking up dog doo-doo and taking out the bathroom trash. These will be placed next to their name only when the need arises. I am planning on taking full advantage of the extra spaces under Special Chores and adding my own little pictures as I see fit.

      When they complete a task they move the chore from the "To do" to the "Done" column. Right now I have expressed that we will have a morning chore time and an afternoon chore time and these are their oppurtunities to finish their responsibilites. I am in no way awarding or punishing for the completion or incompletion of their duties. I think it's important that they understand working together as a family is simply a duty that must be done daily.

       Aubree chose a daily chore to pick up shoes at the end of the day. I was very surprised and impressed when she came up with this all on her own. Children love to help, and encouragement and enthusiam is really all they need for a reward in my opinion. Raulee insisted that I make a space for "Ants" on her chore chart. I have no idea what she intends to do with "Ants" but if it is important for her to accomplish regularly then it's important for me to remind her to do it.

      At this point, I see no problem implementing this technique because they are used to doing these helpful tasks. It will just be easier for me to say, "Check your chore chart," than, "Why haven't you made your bed yet?! Why are you still in pajamas?! Why are these toys everywhere?!" or, "Why haven't you taken care of your ants today?!"

SKILLS--Multitasking

I asked her to bring me a brush.

Nothing gets in her way when she's eating candy.

DIY Story Boards

      While perusing the craft aisle in Walmart yesterday (never a good idea--I always find something I 'have' to have) I saw some felt rectangles for 27 cents apiece. I have always admired the library's story boards made of felt so I figured I'd get a few and try to make my own. A few days ago I purchased a hot glue gun (for a different project we're working on) and I knew the girls would love a few googly eyes here and there for the characters so I dug those out of my craft supplies box.

      I sat down with the girls and asked them what story they'd like to "make pictures for." They immediately thought of The Three Little Pigs. We have a story book of The Three Little Pigs so I used that for inspiration. I wanted to keep it very simple. I drew the characters with a permanent marker on the felt and cut them out. Glued on some eyes, and maybe a hat, and voila: an interactive story board.

      I spent just under an hour to create three pigs, a wolf, and three houses. The girls LOVE it. They use bits and pieces of the story to start their own stories. I love the creativity it allows them.

      This morning I sat down and made another one in about half an hour. I'm guessing I'll do at least a few more--it will be a great activity I can pull out when they need something to do. (Like for Raulee while I'm teaching Aubree) I'm planning on keeping each story in a separate  labeled ziplock bag. When I asked this morning they requested Jack and the Beanstalk:

      It was much more simple the second time around for some reason. In the future, I'd like to expand the idea by letting them draw their own settings and characters and come up with a story entirely on their own.

      P.s. The hot glue gun was only about seven bucks and the glue sticks were about five. Definitely an investment I don't regret. I'm sort of beyond frugal so I don't like buying things unless absolutely necessary, but this was worth it. I would eventually like to buy a big piece of felt and staple it to a board so they can play together on a large backdrop. The aforementioned frugal-ness may prevent that from happening for awhile, though. :)
     

Conquistadors at Coronado Cave

      After the girls soccer game today we packed up a lunch and lots of water and headed to nearby Coronado National Memorial. At  http://www.stateparks.com/coronado_national _memorial.html  it says, "The cave has been called by several names including Montezuma's Treasure Vault and Geronimo's Cave. Legends claim that it was used by the Apaches as a hide-out when being pursued by the U.S. Army and in the late 1800's it was not uncommon to find arrowheads in the cave." It's a half mile hike up steep and rocky terrain.

  We encouraged the girls by telling them we'd get to go inside a cave at the end of the trail. They did great. About half way up we stopped for a light lunch.

  
      After about another twenty minutes we spotted a tiny waterfall and arrived at the cave. Part of the trail featured rock stairs. This is the last few steps before the cave.

      I wasn't quite prepared for what we were about to encounter--the opening was steep and difficult to navigate. We each chose a "partner" and slowly made our way down. The pictures taken obviously don't do justice to what we were actually experiencing.

Aubree peering down the opening:

Aubree and Travis are almost to the bottom:

My partner about halfway down, yelling, "I'm in a CAVE!"

Vast and dusty:

We discussed Native Americans, early explorers, stalactites, and stalagmites. The girls loved "exploring" on their own.

 A little dirty...

They had a great time.

      They also, under close supervision, both climbed out of the cave by themselves! I'm very proud of them. It was a tough hike that was well worth the experience.

Pinterest Project: 3D Hands

      Today we took my sister, who has been staying with us, to the bus station. She's been here since we moved to Arizona to help me with the kids. After working for awhile, we decided I can stay at home so she is on her way back to Illinois. She was a great help! We waited an extra forty-five minutes for the bus to arrive and the girls bawled for a good twenty minutes on our way back home. I figured we needed some cheering up.

      A few days ago I saw a cute idea on Pinterest so we tried it out when we got home.

      This was the original idea:

http://pinterest.com/pin/176203404141565292/
    
      The project is to trace your hand with pencil on a piece of paper, draw a straight line to the pencil lines, add a 'bump,' then draw another straight line to the other edge of the paper. Then you continue on the entire paper. The result is an optical illusion that looks like a 3-D hand.

      I must say it was much harder than I anticipated. Right off the bat I realized it would be impossible with Raulee (age 3) and very difficult for Aubree (age 4). The first step was tracing their hands. I used graph paper (you can use a ruler) to help with straight lines. This didn't help much, though.

    

     For Raulee I just drew the lines and let her color it.

Her finished product:

      Aubree attempted a few of the lines herself, but I ended up drawing dots for her to follow. She was very disappointed she couldn't do it by herself at first, but then finished the project quickly when I assisted her and she saw it taking shape. She was SO excited when we finished and made me take this picture so "people would think her hand was really on the paper."

Her finished project:

      Final verdict: this activity is much better suited for older children--even I had difficulty! Ha. In the beginning they were arguing over who's hand I was going to trace first so I chose the dog to show them how it was done. I'm sure she was pleased to be a part of the fun:

      Afterwards we spent some time looking at optical illusions on the internet. Aubree marveled at how her eyes "tricked" her.

      Now they're eating ice cream and watching one of their favorite shows. Our crafts are on the fridge and my sister is half way across the state. I'm very thankful for the time we had with her and can't wait to see her again.

But....How Do I Get Anything Done?!

      I love my kids. You love your kids. This is no mystery. However, when my kids got old enough to start eating every piece of lint on the floor I ran into a real problem... How was I supposed to get anything done?! I can't ensure that my three year old isn't eating out of the trash and clean the entire house at the same time. I can't answer my four year old's NEVER-ending questions and read more than one sentence in a book about homeschooling at the same time. Children can be annoying and bothersome no matter how much you love them. I've approached this problem by embracing the chaos and allowing myself necessary time away from them.
      For the first few years of their lives I insisted (to myself) that I needed complete quiet to accomplish anything. "I need to wait until they're asleep." "They need to be laying down watching a movie if I'm EVER going to get ANYTHING done." Not only is this impossible, but it also creates another problem. If they're "bothering" me I then blame them if I don't accomplish what I set out to do. Very unfair of me, but it's true.
      Cleaning is an easy one--have them help. Sometimes when I can't think of anything for them to do (while I'm vacuuming, for instance) I give them a wet wipe and set them loose. For some reason, they love getting to clean whatever they want. (Get them to clean up spots on the floor!) When they were much younger I just strapped them to me in a carrier and went about my business. Reading or accomplishing any work is a bit harder, but still possible.
     I have begun to set goals for my homeschooling endeavor this year. Deadlines, if you will. At the libary we go to you get a book for three weeks. I'm determined to finish each book I get by the time it's due. Of course, I could always renew it, but I'm finding it more motivating to finish books this way. I have two books due tomorrow. And I'm only halfway through one of them. It's crunchtime.
     This morning I realized I had a lot of work to do today. (And yes--it is WORK.) Right after breakfast I set up my work station in the dining room and started planning things for the kids to do. Aubree is currently engrossed in her abcmouse.com account (VERY worth the $7.95 a month--I will be doing a blog on that later) so I set up the laptop across the table from me. Raulee is a bit more challenging. She has to wear an eyepatch on her "good" eye and it's honestly hard to come up with things that she will do while wearing it.
      Raulee began by playing her DS. Here, she's pouting because she lost her game. (Probably due to her poor sight.)

   Since that didn't last long, I chose to let her play with beads. The first activity was very simple--move all of the beads from one bowl to another with a spoon. When she started complaining that she couldn't see I thought she may enjoy sorting the beads so I grabbed an old egg carton.

     Aubree just chugged away on the computer. Eventually Raulee decided she needed to spread out the beads to see them better and they got dumped everywhere. Not a huge problem since picking up beads is great for her eye and small motor skills.

     Meanwhile, I read my book and took notes. I have a few 97 cent notebooks for taking notes and I've found that doing this not only provides an easy to look at list to review when needed but it also ensures that I'm actually getting something out of the book. A big part of setting up together like this is that I'm not always 100% focused on what I'm doing. I try to acknowledge most of what the kids say. I throw in "mmm-hmms" and "yeahs" while I'm deep in thought, but, more importantly, help them when they need it and praise them when necessary. Without taking notes, I would not retain much of what I get done. When I reeeeally need to work on something for longer than this scenario provides I take the time after they go to bed to do so. Taking time away from my husband is not ideal, though, so I try to incorporate what I'm doing during the day with the children. After about an hour and a half, the kids have run off to play together in the playroom. And I have some quiet time to write this blog and throw dinner in the crockpot. (Bbq chicken-yum)

      The other important part of "embracing the chaos" is realizing that you simply cannot be Supermom 100% of the time. You will wear yourself out. Your children will be sick of you and you will be sick of them. I have read repeatedly (and believe whole-heartedly) that you need to give yourself time DAILY to just be you. To engage in an activity you enjoy doing. To be a person outside of your mom role. For me, this time manifests itself just after lunchtime. I've done most of the cleaning by then, the kids have been fed, and I've spent most of the morning breaking up squabbles and answering the bazillion "why" questions they've come up with. Just after lunch, they are allowed to do whatever they want so long as they don't interupt me. I usually play the guitar or read. After a half hour to an hour I'm recharged and ready to play a game or read a story or go shopping or whatever else needs done. Without this brief intermission from mommyhood I truly believe I wouldn't be as productive the rest of the day. You know what will motivate you. Take some time to take care of yourself. It is important to not get carried away, obviously. A pedicure a day may cause some financial issues. But, seriously, take care of yourself so that you can take care of your family with a renewed spirit.

Morning Walk Mishap

      Yesterday was my husband's birthday so I decided to let him sleep in by taking the dog and the kids on a long walk. They took turns pulling the wagon,

walking the dog,

and smelling the flowers.

Raulee really liked climbing up the landscaping rocks and the girls asked me to take a picture while they were at the top.

I was enjoying their great commentary on their rock climbing skills when Raulee ran into a bit of trouble....

Seeing she was in no immediate danger, I just laughed and took pictures while big sis rescued her.

We're out a skirt, but she learned a valuable rock climbing lesson.