Cleaning Up.

There are many things I aspire to be. The kind of mom that has a house that is perfectly in order is one of them. Unfortunately that is not me, at least not yet, but I do hold out the hope that it will be someday.

Since this is the first day of Summer break, I thought that breaking in a new Chore Chart would be a good move. It isn't the most fun thing to do, but I know how messy the house gets when they are only home for part of the time and was worried about how it'd get with both of them home all the time. I also feel that with a baby coming soon that they need to have more responsibility. I used the generator on this website to create it. I liked that I could pick what the kids were into (dragons and fairy princesses) but also pick what chores I wanted to include.

I started somewhat small and put "Make bed, Put away toys, Put away laundry, and Feed fish" as the chores to do daily. Making their bed is each morning, but the rest are going to be done during the time between dinner and their bedtime routine. Their room doesn't have to be perfect, they just have to make an effort to put things away, and all the toys need to be out of every other room in the house. Putting their laundry away means both putting the clean stuff away in the right drawer and putting the dirty in the hamper. It is all stuff that really could add up if not done daily.

I also made my own Chore Chart. I have a room assigned to each day. Monday is the Bathroom, Tuesday is the Kids' room (this is when it is deep cleaned), Wednesday is the Kitchen, Thursday is the Master Bedroom, Friday is the Living Room, and Saturday and Sunday are maintenance days. I break down each room by what needs done (like cleaning the toilet or washing the bedding). Each day I do at least 1 load of laundry (washing, drying and putting away) and some I do 2. I also have dishes listed daily as well as sweeping the kitchen. Mine is printed out and laminated so I can put it on the fridge and mark off what is done daily, then erase it all at the end of a week. This saves paper/ink and also is kind of rewarding to see so much done at the end of a week. I also have budgeting, menu planning, grocery shopping, and a day to purge from a trouble spot added in every other week.

With this system my house is still never perfect, and I am still doing a dash to pick stuff up before company comes over, but the mess does not get past my comfort zone so I feel happy in my home. This helps us stay home more (saving on gas and the expense of whatever we do instead of being home) and makes me want to cook at home because I know that I don't have to wash anything in order to cook (saving on the expense of eating out). I hope that by adding the chore system for the kids that picking up will become second nature to them, and that they will become used to a clean home and want to keep it that way. If not, I hope that stickers work as a bribe ;)

Do you have a cleaning routine in your home? What chores do your kids do?

The Last day of Kindergarten

Today is my daughter's last day of Kindergarten. I feel like this is more difficult than her first day. For some reason First Grade just seems so much bigger than Kindergarten, like once she steps foot into that classroom time will just fast forward. She is excited though, just like her first day.

She has grown and learned so much in just a year. Her teacher even notes that she is ready for first grade on her report card. I plan to work with her this summer so that she doesn't regress and so that she is still able to jump right in to first grade and not feel overwhelmed.

One of the first things she'll be doing this summer is writing in a journal. I have a plan spiral notebook and I plan to have her write a few times a week. She may have topics to write about or just talk about what she did that day. I think it will help with sentence structure and getting used to writing a lot, rather than tracing or having to mimic what the teacher writes.



We also have a word wall that has many of the common sight words to for her to work on. The ones that go on the wall are the ones she knows. I am also using a sight word list to help expand the list of the ones she knows. In addition to sight words, I want to help her learn more vowel digraphs and consonant blends rather than have her continue to sound out each letter separately. With all the Reading Clubs and activities happening at our local Library, we will be reading a lot together and working on reading comprehension as well as reading on her own.

I am still trying to determine how we will approach math this summer. The only thing her teacher says she needs to work on more is the concept of "one more" and "one less" so I know we will be working more with that.

She has done so well this year in both adjusting to a new school and in learning so much. I bet that on Monday morning she will ask why she can't go to school.