memory boxes...

Part of getting my house summer ready involves going through all the school stuff and either trashing it or saving it.  For years I had no way to really store my kids stuff. A few years ago I saw some clear hanging file folder boxes on sale at Costco and I knew I had found my answer!

Each one of my kids has their own box with their name on it.  Inside are hanging folders for each grade. Early Years, Preschool - 12th Grade.  All papers and projects from the year go into the folder.  School pictures, report cards, my favorite artwork or homework.  There is also enough room that I also can keep things like their baby book, and other items too.

I scan all these items for scrapbooking purposes and then store them in their boxes.  I try to do this each month.  It is amazing how things don't pile up anymore when you have a place to put it!

chore charts...

I made these chore charts 3 years ago and they work great! You know it's a keeper idea when I use it multiple years in a row! 

Each year I usually do a bit of tweaking because they are all 1 year older.  I have a summer time version and a school time version.  This is a picture of our summer charts. Each kid gets their very own half sized clipboard with enough charts to last the summer.  1 paper lasts 1 week. Taped to the back of the clipboard is the cleaning chart of what I expect when they clean their bathroom and bedroom. And yes...for the "help Mom" chore I make them come up to me and say: "How can I help you today mom?" 

I have found that having a chart is extremely helpful for my kids.  Even my older kids sometimes need a reminder of what is expected each day.  In our house you don't get paid for chores.  You do your chores as part of our family to help our home stay nice and clean.  Also, no one can go play with friends (or hang out if your older than 11 yrs old lol) until after 10am and not until your chores are done.  If they dink around all morning and then their friend shows up at the door ready to play....sorry kiddo...not until your chores are done!

With 5 kids all trying to get chores done and me also trying to get my stuff done is another reason I love the charts.  I need the charts!  There is no way I can remember all of their stuff! If they say their chores are done I usually respond with: "okay, bring me your clipboard."  I run down their list of chores and ask if each thing has been done.  Lots of times there are a few things "forgotten" that need to be completed.

I have also found that most kids need structure and routines.  Summertime is the hardest because they go from the structure of school to nothing unless you provide it for them.  These chores take most my kids about an hour to complete.  That is just a drop in the bucket of a beautiful summer day!

Organization makes me happy!

summer schedule...

I just love summer! I love the warmth and sun. I love the popsicles and trips to the pool. I love it all! What I don't love is thinking of ways to keep my kids happy and busy the whole time! We have the rule that you can't play with friends until 10 am, but my kids get up so blasted early that 10am seems so far away! Last year I added some school work and chores to our summer morning routine, and it worked SO well that I am totally doing it again...and I thought I would share...

I found some awesome notebooks for the kids that look a lot like the papers that my boys were bringing home from school.



It has a place for them to write a few sentences and then draw a picture above. I got them at Target. I also picked up a few Math books. So here is a run down of our new schedule:

8:30am-Breakfast
9am-Write in journal or do 1 math page
9:15ish-20 minutes of reading
9:45ish-do chore

Chores with my kids has been hard for me to implement. I don't know why...I grew up doing chores, but coming up with age appropriate chores has been hard. Last summer I started the whole chore thing...it has worked great and once they were into the routine it wasn't hard to keep it going through the school year too! Here is what they do: my 8 year old cleans the kids bathroom and my 7 year old cleans the 1/2 bath down stairs. By clean I mean wipe down the counter and mirror and take out the garbage every day. On Saturdays, however, they will do the Saturday version of the chore by not only cleaning the counter and mirror and taking out the garbage, but cleaning the toilet and sweeping the floor too! Even before we started my boys were saying,"What about Bailey?" (my 5 year old) ...In her journal I have her come up with a sentence and I will write it for her and then she will draw a picture to go along with it. For reading time I will read to her instead and her chore will be to help keep the loft clean.

I have learned that more structure to our mornings helps with the boredom that seems to always set in an hour after they wake up!!

About 2 years ago I got a great idea from a neighbor of mine. We were talking about having things to do during the summer to keep our kids entertained. She said that she made of list of fun things to do and fun places to go. In the fun jar you place things that you could do everyday like eating Popsicles, playing in the backyard pool, going to a park, having a picnic lunch etc... the kids get to draw out a slip everyday. Then in the adventure jar you put places to go and you do once a week. We draw ours on Sunday and then plan a day that week that our adventure can take place! These are places like the zoo, the city pool, children's museum, planetarium, aquarium, splash park, having a sprinkler party with friends, getting ice cream from Arctic Circle etc... My kids had fun putting the lists together and then I just printed them out and cut them up. I got the jars at Walmart and used a rub on alphabet to put the titles on the jars. My kid love it and I can't wait to pull them out and do them again this year!