The Journey Towards Home - From Mess Maker to Home Maker

2006-Feb-26

Scheduling with Children and baby on the Way

Posted in Home Management
One of the reasons I joined the Making It Home yahoo group (and am making routines and such) is because I am hoping for an easy transition. I have three girls (6yr, 4yr and 2 1/2yr) and am due with our first son in a few months. I am trying to teach the girls a little bit more and expanding their chores so that they will be doing much more to help Mommy. I would LOVE to know what you are doing/have done. As for me, some things I have done:

*I took one shelf in the pantry and put the kids cups, plates, bowls there. The children are able to help unload the dishwasher and put all their dishes away. (I will try to share a picture of this --- I am waiting for hubby to take the pictures off the camera and put them on the computer.) They are also able to set the table. The girls LOVE this. Even the 2 1/2 yr RUSHES to the kitchen when she hears the dishwasher open. She loves to put the dishes away, and they all love to be able to set the table themselves. This has to be one of the best things I did. I lost a little bit of pantry space, but the joy on my girls' faces when they saw this shelf was priceless!

*After every meal, each child is responsible for putting their dishes in the sink.

*After every meal, one wipes the table/placemats and one sweeps the floor. The youngest sweeps the floor after breakfast (when there is the smallest amount of mess), the next oldest after lunch (where there is a bit more mess) and the oldest after dinner (with the biggest mess on the floor AND she gets what the other two left behind).

*They each have their own toy drawer (one of those stacked plastic drawers you get at Walmart). They take out one toy at a time and put it back when they are done. I have made a new rule (after all the recent reading I have done) that if they take out another toy without first putting the other one away, they lose the toy.

*They are responsible for folding their clothes and putting them in their drawer after laundry. They also help fold the towels (the oldest can actually fold them in thirds!!!!). =^) The oldest is currently learning to fold sheets.

*Every morning (following the shcedule), they make their beds and clean their room.

You can see my schedule on my blog. I have already tweaked it a bit and need to add those in.

The evenings are free for Daddy and me time (although there are a few nights where he does have to work late and on those nights I do personal things like blogging, scrapbooking, home business, etc.). I donÂ’t have it in front of me right now and have NOT memorized it yet.

Anyways, just thought I would share and am anxious to hear what others are doing.

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2006-Feb-26 - Tip

Posted by Anonymous
Hello there, fellow MakingItHome member Lindsey here. I have a 5, 3, and 2 year old and praying about adopting one more. Anyway a tip I find very helpful (and since you already have 3, you might have figured this one out) is this:

When we are going places like walmart, etc where the traffic is busy, I have the children get out of the van and once they do, they must place both hands on the van. This way I know they are not running about, perhaps getting in harms way while I am either unbuckling car seats, loading groceries, whatever. They MUST keep their hands on the car until I have everyone ready to go. They also have been trained that if they disobey this rule, they will get a little swat on the hand to remind them, which they do not like. We've never had a hard time since implementing this rule. Hope that helps? You're going to do great!

Lindsey www.justenjoythejourney.blogspot.com

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