Little Helping Hands (Part 3)

Annnnnd I'm back! After multiple camping trips, and some Fourth of July fun in the sun, I feel that we have been fully embracing our first summer vacation (first-because my oldest just finished Kindergarten, and before that summer was just a warm continuation of the rest of the year :)

Here is where you can find part one and part two of this series. And now on to the Rewards!!!!!!!!

First I would like to say that I do not feel that children should recieve rewards (money, prizes, toys, candy) for jobs that they should be doing anyway...making the bed, keeping bedroom/playroom tidy, putting laundry away, picking up meal dishes etc.  I have no problem paying kids to do jobs that are above and beyond their normal daily routine.  I know others feel differently about this topic, but that is my opinion for my household.

In other news...WHINING is the bane of my existance!!!!!

While the chores in the first two parts of this series are getting done, it is not whine or nag free. So, I needed a reward system, not for doing the chores, but for doing them whithout a whiny voice and without me (or Dad) having to remind them to stay on track every 30 seconds.  Here is what we came up with:

Tickets!...I bought a roll of raffle tickets at Wal-Mart for $3 (I'm pretty sure there are enough on there to last us through the kids graduating college).  The kids can earn up to two each per day, one for the chore list and one for the bedtime list.  BUT they only get the ticket if they complete the list without whining ever...and without too many reminders from mom and dad (we do give them a couple of freebee reminders, because they are only 3 and 6, and we understand that it is easy to get distracted :). We are VERY strict about any whining=no ticket, and after several months the kids have caught on.

What is so great about a ticket? Well let me tell you!

Family movie night!! About every two weeks, we write a family movie night on the calendar so that the kids can see it.  I purchase or rent a new movie that no one in the family has seen yet.  Then while the kids are doing their bedtime list that evening, Dad and I set up the "movie theater" and "concession stand." The kids must have a certain number of tickets to get into the movie, and then they can use the others to buy concessions (hot chocolate, popcorn, theater syle boxed candies, etc.) They may only purcahse one of each item...and if they don't have enough to buy one of everything then they will just have to work harder for next time.

I was thinking too, that now that it is summer we could offer more than movie night for the tickets...12 tickets for McDonalds instead of homemade sandwiches for picnic at the park? 6 tickets for a popsicle from the popsicle man? Save up and use big time tickets to have a pizza party at our house with school friends?

Best part? you set the prizes and the prices! So only offer what you can handle, and what would seem special to your kids :)

Do you do rewards at home? How do they work? I am always open to new ideas!!

Disclaimer: I did not come up with this idea completely on my own (although I did tweak it from the original), I saw it somwhere on a blog...but now I can't find where I saw it. If you know where it came from please let me know so I can credit the right blog :)

Little Helping Hands (Part 2)

Welcome to part two of this series, you can find part one here.


Along with our bedtime routine every night, we have these little "check lists" everyday.  

Anything with little check-boxes will work, but if you want these exact ones you can find them as a free download from Clean Mama.  

Everyday I write out 4 "chores" for each kid to complete. They get to check off as they go with a "special" ball point pen that matches the color of their list for the day (the colored pens make this SOOOO much more exciting!! lol)  We have been using this method for about 6 months now...and still going strong! :)


I think this method is still working for us for three main reasons:


1) For the first two weeks of doing this, I also made lists everyday for my husband and I. We all worked on our lists at the same time. I wanted my kids to see that EVERYONE does chores for the good of the family as a whole, not just kids being forced by parents ;)


2) I try to keep the chores age appropriate and very specific. If you say for a child to "clean your bedroom," they will walk in and stand there not knowing where to start...after they have been "cleaning" for 15 minutes (or in child time "forever") they will feel that their room is clean. By your standards it is not clean. Now in the child's eyes they have a never-ending chore, because it will never be clean enough by adult standards, commence child meltdown. 


Instead, when picking chores try to be very specific and pick tasks that have a clear beginning and end. Examples: "Pick-up all the toy cars and put them in the car bin" "Pick-up all the stuffed animals and put them in the basket" "Find 5 toys on the living room floor and put them away in their special spot" etc.  This way the kids can be successful on their own, knowing where in the room to start the cleaning, and being able to see that there is a clear end to the chore.


I also try to make one of the four chores each day  one that is "exciting" (meaning not picking up toys). These might include: using a disinfectant wipe to clean something (coffee table, playroom table, dining table, door knobs, bathroom counter etc.), sweeping with a child-sized broom (kitchen floor, playroom floor, etc.), or the most fun of all...getting to use the spray bottle to wash windows or mirrors! :)


3) Doing chores this way keeps things fresh and new. They get to do something different every day, so it doesn't get boring, and things usually get done well and not halfheartedly.


We have a 3 and 6 year old, and these types of small chore lists work well for us. Each task is right at each of their skill levels, and when their list is done, they are done for the day. They really love giving me their completed lists!  As they get older, the chores will grow with them.


This is what works for us so far....I would love to hear what works for you!
Next post is all about rewards!!

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!

The Ladybug Ball

Last year I joined pinterest so that I could plan a bridal shower for my cousin...in the course of looking for party ideas, my 5 year old daughter, Ryan, spotted a darling ladybug cake and instantly decided that her sixth birthday party was going to be a ladybug party so that she could have THAT cake!

Ryan is one of those kids (even when she was a baby) who plans an idea out completely in her head, down to every last detail, and then expects that you can duplicate what is in her head through mind reading, anyone else have a kid like that?  Luckily as she has gotten older she is better able to describe what she is thinking, which is usually a very good creative idea!

Well 10 months is a long time for a little girl to wait for her party, but the day finally came!  And since she was the bounciest, danciest, smiliest girl at the party, I think all went as she had planned.

Welcome to the Ladybug Ball!!

The birthday girl with her cake made to her exact specifications :) ...(luckily for me my sister-in-law is an amazing cake maker! Her cakes are always beautiful and delicious!)

My niece is learning to face paint, and volunteered to come paint all of the little girl's faces, they were delighted!

We took pictures with each friend.  I made the ladybug tutus as one of the party favors, because everyone needs something fancy to wear at a ball.

The party girls making ladybug puppets.

Make a wish!!!

Playing "ladybug popcorn" with the parachute, while listening to the "Popcorn" song by Bare Naked Ladies...if you have never listened to any of their children's songs you should!! They are genius! In the parachute are small red loofas (2/$1 at Target) that I turned into lady bugs by sewing on a large black pom-pom.  Their goal was to "pop" the ladybugs out by shaking the chute up and down. There are no words to describe the decible that the squeels of delight reached during this game!

We also played bean bag toss with ladybug bean bags, but I forgot to take pictures of them playing this :(

And what ball would be complete without dancing?!

I made the ladybug goody bags out of canvas and Costco ribbon so that the girls could use them later as a purse...take home goodies included: a ladybug tutu, a baggie of ladybug pretzels, a ladybug bean bag, a ladybug loofa, ladybug puppet, some ladybug bubbles (3/$1 at Target), and ladybug silly putty ($1 at Target)

All of the girls seemed to have so much fun, especially with the dancing and the parachute!  Thanks for stopping by!

Ladybug Bean Bags

Here it is...my first attempt at a tutorial...no judging (or at least do it silently).  I thought I'd start with something easy for me and for you...bean bags.  Only these ones aren't normal squares, they are fun little ladybugs, that I made for Ryan's ladybug birthday party.

What you need:
*red fleece
*black fleece
*black thread
*red thread
*sewing machine, or a needle, or both
*bean bag filling for your bugs (you can use actual dry small beans, or buy those little plasic pellet things in the doll making section at your local craft store)
*small, sharp "snippy" scissors

I am using fleece to make the bugs because it is soft, snuggly, and super easy to use since it doesn't fray.  Start with an oval slightly larger than the size you want your finished ladybug to be, cut out two at the same time.  Then cut a black piece the same size as your ovals.

Using ONE of your red ovals, lay it on top of your black piece, and draw out a ladybug using a sharpie.

Sew (using your sewing machine or hand sew) using your black thread on your lines...I drew a center line, do NOT sew on the center line!!! I just used it to get my dots even :)

This is what your bug shouldlook like on the red side once the lines are sewn.  As you can see, I am terrible at sewing circles on a machine, but don't worry, the imperfections will be hidden!

Here is what the black side should look like....now take  your scissors and cut around the black top of your bug, using the red as your guide, so that they very top of the head of your bug is curved.

Use your small sharp scissors to carefully cut around all of the lines you have sewn, leaving behind the head and your dots, and exposing the red underneath.  (This is where you can make your lumpy circles look nice and round).

Now the top of your ladybug should look like this...(okay, so my spots are still lumpy...but none of the kids seemed to notice :)

Use your other red oval, and sandwich the black spots inside.  Using your machine (or hand stitching) sew around the edge with the red thread, stop before you complete the oval leaving an opening.  

Turn the bug right side out through the hole, then fill it up! You may wan to use a funnel if you are using the plastic bead things (definitely saves you a lot of clean-up!).

Once your bug is full, hand stitch the opening closed...and you have a ladybug beanbag!!

Good for throwing at your big sister...

...Or you can make a nice ladybug board and play bean bag toss!

Valentine Round-UP

Okay, so Valentine's Day is done, and I haven't been on here forever...so I thought I'd do a round-up of all the lovey-dovey projects we did for Valentine's Day.  Included are links to all of the sites where I found the projects as well as their wonderful tutorials.  Enjoy!

I found this idea on Pinterest and immediately fell in love with it.

A cute heart wreath made of...you guessed it...FELT!  But it looks like lovely Valentine roses, and can add a little bit of Valentine love to your house.

Or you could give it as a gift....

Total cost for me was about $6...I used my JoAnn's coupon for the foam heart, and bought the felt on sale 3/4 of a yard should be good, and you need straight pins.  A wonderful tutorial for this project can be found at The Idea Room.  She says to use a 3 inch circle which, in case you were wondering, is the same size as a regular soup can (I used diced tomatoes).  Also, if you have a good movie to watch you can finish this project pretty fast, I made mine start-to-finish in one movie (the 6th Harry Potter) so approximately 153 minutes :)

Next up are some valentines for friends at school.  Since I just bought a new serger, we decided to sew Ryan's valentines this year.  She wrote on all of the hearts and I sewed them onto the little "baggies" which were then filled with packets of valentine fruit snacks from Target.  The idea for these came from one of my absolute favorite blogs: MADE.  All of her tutorials are unbelievably easy to follow (even for beginners) and everything turns out so cute!! You can find a tutorial for these valentines at her site.

I ended up buying WAY WAY too much fabric for the valentines, so we decided to make a cute valentine skirt for Ryan to deliver her treats in :) ...again the easiest skirt tutorial EVER!

And what Valentine outfit would be complete without a festive hair-do? This cute "heart hair" looks complicated, but really is very easy just a few ponytails and two braids...plus with a full video tutorial, I'm sure you could all figure it out :)

Hope your February was full of L*O*V*E