Little Helping Hands (Part 1)

This is the first in a three part series on how we get our kiddos to be helpers around our house.

First a little background about ourselves and our parenting "style."

We have two kids: a 6 year old girl, Ryan, who is just about to finish up kindergarten (mommy sob), and a 3 year old boy, Axel, who is coming to the end of his first year of preschool (I would swear we brought him home from the hospital just last week!).

We like our kids to be independent. We are here to love, help, and support them throughout life, BUT not to DO everything for them.


We are not really schedule people, we like to hop on board whenever the opportunity for fun presents itself!

Also, I am not organized or tidy...clean, yes...tidy, no.  But I also don't function well in a mess. I am a walking contradiction, lol.

All of my friends (and anyone who has known me more than 5 minutes) know that I am not very organized, so I was suprised when 2 different moms asked me this week, how I get my kids to help around the house? My kids must have been extra helpful in public and on playdates! (We can all dream, right?!)

SOOOO I thought I would share what works for us. Its nothing new, I'm not reinventing the wheel. I just took little bits of what was working and made them bigger, and got rid of the things that didn't work for us. Take what you like, ignore what you don't :)

PART ONE:

I know I said we are not schedule people, and we're not, EXCEPT at bedtime. My mommy brain shuts off at around 8, really! So we have always been pretty strict about having a bedtime routine that gets the kids in bed by 8. I made these bedtime charts for the kids and had them laminated. They get to check off each item with a dry erase marker (which they love to do). My lists were inspired by the ones created by IHeart Organizing, but I wanted to adjust them a little to fit our own routine. Feel free to use/alter mine to your liking (I think you sould be able to edit them).

 (The pictures help Axel remember what to do since he cannot read yet)

The chart includes a couple age appropriate chores mixed in with normal bedtime stuff. Each child has to pick up the same number of toys in their room as their age, as well as their dirty laundry.

(Ryan is really into math equations right now...not sure how that relates to the chart, but as long as she is checking off her stuff :)

That's it! hide some chores in your normal routine! Pick ones that would logically fit in that time slot...it doesn't seem out of place to have your kids to pick up all their dirty laundry, if they just changed out of their clothes into their PJ's...teach your kiddos to take their plates/cups out to the kitchen after a meal...race to put all the bath toys in the basket before the water all drains out!...you get the idea :) Little logical things that they wouldn't identify as a chore because it makes sense for anyone to do at that time.

Bonus for you (and me), chores are getting done as the day goes along instead of having to stop everything for the dreaded chore time!

In my next post I'll talk about other chores, and how I get my kids to help, and then a post on everyone's favorite topic, rewards! Yay!

A Boy and His Dog (Sometimes I need a little help from my friends)

Meet Axel.  A fun loving, 3 year old boy.  He loves to dig, jump, run, swim, eat frosting off of cupcakes, and "nuggle" with his mama each night before bed. (Doesn't he just have the most squishable cute cheeks that make you HAVE to kiss them?!)

Meet Stitch. A loveable pup whom Axel adopted this past summer from Build-A-Bear workshop. Stitch loves to accompany Axel on all of his adventures; in the car, in the back yard, he likes to be dressed up in funny costumes, and wear tennis shoes, and to hide under blankets, and to be drug around on a leash through the dirt for a walk in the "park" in the back yard. (He's a very tolerant dog) And Stitch's most favorite thing to do is to snuggle with Axel at night in their Lightening McQueen bed.

Unfortunately for Stitch, there was an "accident" in bed the other night. Stitch seemed to have absorbed much of it :(

I adore Stitch, but man did he STINK! He was banned from coming with us in the car, and from snuggling on the couch, or being anywhere within my smelling range. Poor Stitch.

I didn't know what to do. His instructions (as with most stuffed animals) said surface wash only with a damp cloth, but obviously that wasn't going to help. I didn't want to just toss him in the wash, because if he got ruined we would have an even bigger problem on our hands.

So, I put word out on Facebook (like any desperate mom would do!). And of course my mommy friends had the answer...a pillowcase in the wash! DUH!! I am pretty sure I already knew that, but I panicked :)

Now, thanks to a pillowcase with a hair-tie at the top, some laundry detergent, and a little ammonia, Stitch is smelling fresh as a petunia!

Axel, Stitch, and my nose thank you Facebook friends!