We love summers days! In the morning the first one up is.....the kids. They usually wake up and read or play in their rooms for a while, sometime they come climb in bed with us. Steve gets up and ready for work so he can be out the door about 9am. I get up before he leaves. We eat breakfast between 8 and 9 am; it depends on when I get up and if we eat cereal or a warm breakfast. In the morning I try to get the kids dressed, Vin and Ree to practice piano, and a few chores done. The kids usually just play and make a mess. I try to get to the gym three times a week to exercise. After lunch of sandwiches or yogurt and toast, I let them play some more or we watch a movie then play. They like to play on the computer and video games. I try to use those for rewards for practicing piano or cleaning up their toys. About dinner time I start telling them to clean up their toys, by now there is usually a pretty good mess. Dinner time depends on how I feel and how much time I have. Sometimes it's quick like hamburgers or breakfast for dinner. Other times I try to give myself extra time to make something that takes more time, like fajitas. At dinner time there is usually still a mess. So after dinner we try to get the cleaning done. Steve gets home about 7pm. And he helps me motivate the kids to get the cleaning done. My older two know what needs to be done when we say "Clean up". The younger two need us to say "Put this toy in that bucket". After the kids are in bed I can get some cleaning done that I haven't done and need to do.
As for household cleaning. I try to take a day to get the bathrooms clean (my kids are old enough to help with that a little), another day I try to mop, etc. I try to get everything cleaned once a week although most of the time it takes me two weeks to get everything clean, then I have to start at the beginning again. Another thing that help is I made a chore chart and occasionally Steve will say "Ree if the tubs are clean by the time I get home from work today I'll give you $5." Or he'll tell Vin "If the toilets are clean when I get home I'll give you $4."
We used to turn on the TV and let the kids watch cartoons in the morning. I have a harder time getting them to get dressed and ready for the day when we start with the TV on in the morning. So this summer we've been encouraging more play.
UPdate
14 years ago
2 comments:
Sounds good to me! Will you ask Steve if he would be willing to stop by every so often and tell my punks........on my way home from work if the toilets are cleaned I'll give ya 4 bucks? With all of these boys we have serious toilet issues. :o)
I love reading about what everyone does! I try to do the say thing with the mop one day, laundry the next, bathrooms... I like it that way! Jared says I should do a little each day and that would be less work for me but I can't decied who is right! You are a great mom!
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