This post may contain affiliate links.
Jamie
Raising a family and running a home is not an easy job. I know I don’t need to tell you that mama, I see you… thinking tomorrow will run smoother because you had a “stern talk” with your “little in the middle”, or you’ll have more time tomorrow because you got ahead on the meal prep or laundry. Maybe you’re breathing a little easier today because your pickiest eater actually swallowed a green pea without it coming back up and you just KNOW he’ll be eating kale by the weekend! The reason I SEE you, is because I AM you!
I am always trying new things, new parenting hacks, new strategies to trick my people into thinking I’ve got this! Truth is, I do “have this”, but it’s not because I’m “doing” more of anything.
I have discovered the “art of the chart”! As a former elementary school teacher, I love a good chart. I love a checklist. I love all things goal-oriented, it just took me a few years to start implementing the same “idea” in my home. I’m going to share with you some of the routines and kid-expectations that work for us, in hopes of inspiring you to use these same strategies, or come up with a few that may help things run smoothly at your house.
I realize you could go totally crazy with this kind of thing, but I have found balance and refrained from driving my family nuts with lists (so far), so use caution when first implementing some of these. I’d hate for your people to rebel against them, or you!
Our Breakfast Menu
For years, I woke the kids up by saying, “Good morning precious love angel, what do you want for breakfast?” Seriously. What was I thinking? And then, I would get annoyed when they didn’t pop up and tell me what they wanted to eat… 2 seconds after they woke up! It’s comical now, but then, it was a source of contention. That’s how we started our day, everyday.
Once we did that for longer than I care to admit, I started asking them the night before (when I remembered to) and wrote it on a sticky note next to the stove. This didn’t work long because no one was hungry after supper and so no one could decide! After these failed attempts at it, I made a plan… a menu to be exact!
This is when our breakfast menu was born! It’s been the greatest blessing to our mornings, and it’s helped my picky eater be more open. I compiled a list of our favorite family breakfasts that we normally ate, I didn’t add anything weird, and presented it to the kids! To my surprise, they loved the idea! I got absolutely no push-back or groaning.
Now, they like to check it before bed or wait to be “surprised” even though it never changes. We eat the same breakfast, on the same day, every week. Kids will make a game out of anything, so I let them own it. Every once in a while I’ll hear a brief complaint or moan when they first sit down, but guess what? They eat it! It’s all foods they like, so I’m happy!
I found this adorable counter-top chalkboard that would make a perfect menu and it even comes with a chalk pen! I linked it for you… truth is I may order it for myself too!
Tabletop Wood Framed Chalkboard (includes chalk pen)
Our Serve Charts
Like most American families, our kids have always been rewarded for chores. They earned a sticker (10 cents) each time they did what was asked of them. Once they earned ten, we paid them $1.00. One day, something dropped in my spirit and my thinking changed. I started to wonder if they would ever learn to serve freely if they were only required and encouraged to do the bare minimum. Maybe I was overthinking it, but it’s just how I’m wired.
After some thought and prayer, I decided to change our “chore chart” into a “serve chart”. This meant my children would no longer get rewarded/paid to perform tasks that they were expected to do, but would earn money when they went above the requirement and/or took on another child’s chore. Let me explain.
My older kids Penelope or “P”, 4 & Clark, almost 8 each have a few things they are consistently required to do (make beds, feed Henry our dog, pull trashcans in from the road, pick up their plate after a meal, get the mail, etc.) In the past, they earned a sticker when the task was done. Now, using our new and improved “serve charts”, they are rewarded when they see something that needs to be done, and do it. If Penelope notices that Clark left his plate after lunch and picks it up for him, she gets a sticker. Yesterday when Clark grabbed P’s favorite stuffed rabbit, “Mow Mow” and brought it to her in the car, he earned a sticker. If one of them helps me with one of my “chores” without being asked, they get a sticker. You get the point.
I have seen a positive change in them and am looking forward to seeing quite a bit of growth until serving becomes a habit, which is the hope!
The simple “chore chart turned serve chart” I created for us got a makeover and is available if you like the idea and want to download it. You can edit it and use it for your little ones too! Download the new and improved version HERE!
chart with fresh fonts and colors!
Clark’s Checklist
This is more of an “idea” than a checklist for you to duplicate for your family, although it is editable and I’m linking it for you, as always. I hope this idea might inspire you to create something similar if you are wanting an older child to take on some independence.
Clark will be 8 at the end of the month and needed some added responsibility. I could tell because he wants to make things in the kitchen all by himself, he enjoys riding his bike around the corner to Nan’s all by himself and I see him interact (when he doesn’t know I’m watching) with his little sisters often helping them with things he can do all by himself. He thrives when he is the leader and “owns” a task if that makes sense.
I originally came up with a few things I wanted him to do in the mornings to help me out, and then I told him about it. When we were talking I realized that it was quite a list, and honestly, hard even for me to remember everything. This is when I decided to make him a checklist.
It’s more of a mental checklist, although your child could physically check things off as he/she did them if that’s what works. (Tip: Laminate a checklist and use a dry-erase marker to make it reusable) For us, we hang this above his light switch for him to quickly look at before he comes down in the mornings.
You can download Clark’s checklist HERE!
Tip: I use a set of hooks mounted in Clark’s closet to lay his uniforms out for the week. This helps me see that everything is washed and ready, it gives him a “visual” of how many school days are left in the week and it keeps him organized while giving him a sense of independence. I plan to do the same for Penelope when she starts first grade.
Jamie
Our Pajama Basket
As you may know, keeping up with laundry is not a strength of mine, although I am working to change that, it was out of this disdain that my smartest, most life-giving idea was birthed… the pajama basket!
After Daisy was born, my mom (who helps me with laundry, thank the Lord) and I were really shocked at how much laundry there was. Even for a family of five, it was pretty insane. Obviously most of the extra laundry was due to the fact that I had a newborn changing outfits 2-3 times on a good day, but still. Also it was summertime so there were swimsuits and towels, extra sweaty clothes, Popsicle-stained shirts, you name it, it was piling up… but something still wasn’t making sense.
When mom and I started to sort through the mountain of clothes, we discovered that quite a bit of the mess was pajamas! Can you believe it? Pajamas! Something we wear only when we’re clean was the problem! I realized that every single one of us would put ours in the laundry basket in the mornings, and grab a new set of pajamas every night! This was adding up. For a family of four (minus the baby) this equated to 28 sets of pajamas in a week… 56 individual items in a week! Y’all. I was floored.
Anyway, just like everything great in the world, the pajama basket was established to solve a problem. Our problem!
It’s really quite simple. On Sunday night, everyone in the family, including Daisy now, chooses 2 sets of pajamas for the week. We have a pajama basket that everyone puts their pajamas in every night during the week. They get dumped in the laundry basket the following Sunday, and everyone chooses two more pair for the next week. Simple!
I added a cute tag to our basket and you can download it HERE. Since we’ve implemented the pajama basket, I have definitely noticed a difference in our dirty clothes and Mom has too!
Freezer List
The last list I want to mention is our freezer list. It is something we didn’t know we needed, but man, it makes life so much easier!
Like every southern family we have a freezer in the shop outside. We use it mostly for deer meat, Popsicles, shrimp, pizzas, frozen leftovers and that type of thing. However, we were finding that because we didn’t go into it very often, things were getting old and going bad.
I wanted a way I could keep track of what we had without having to go out to the shop every time I planned supper for the week, or ran out of nuggets for the kids. I started a freezer list!
Its a small dry-erase marker board that hangs in our pantry. It’s easy and convenient. It does, however, have to be maintained to be effective. Every time you cook or use something out of it, kill a deer, catch fish, or stock the freezer after a trip to Sam’s Club, it has to be noted on the freezer list. If you keep up with it, it works like a charm! You’re welcome!
I hope you found something your family can use or got some inspiration.
Thanks for stopping by, Jamie xo