Chores

Today I started my day off giving a briefing for PEP which is a week long event for new comers. Pretty everyone comes and talks to them, they go out on the town, walking around a bit, having lunch in a German resturant a couple times, going to a grocery store and going to the bakery ordering bread (mmmm), cheese (double mmmm), and meats (lunch meats), they do this in the best German they can! :) So anyways I brief them on PWOC (Protestant Women of the Chapel aka women's bible study) and also do a briefing for the Chapel over all. I am allotted 15 minutes to give my briefing and to take any questions they have! So after that I took the boys out for lunch and we all had a slice of pizza, nothing special trust me, then I ran home brushed my teeth, then took the boys to my friends place, dropped them off and then off to the dentist to get a cavity filled (aren't I a lucky girl??!!). After that fun was done I went to my friends for the boys, we visited for a good hour or more, they were all outside at the park so I let the boys play for probably 30 minutes then we went upstairs to get their toys that they brought and we were talking. She has a son who's 12 (maybe 13) and she was talking about how when he got back from his day camp that he was at, that he had chores to do from the day before and today's. She shared with me where she got the chart and some of the chore idea's for him to do, in a definately unexpected place, so for those who have kids pretty well 4 and up I definately suggest: www.christianadhd.com then click on "FREE RESOURSES" and you'll see the chore chart link and there's also one that we're doing as well 7 Rules of Behaviors. I've been working on Jacob's chore chart for a little while. We don't give an allowance for doing chores, that's part of being a family  IMO. Jacob does get 10.00 a month just in general, which 50% goes directly into his savings then he has to put $2.00 of that into his piggy bank. The piggy bank money can be saved up to use for gifts for others at Christmas or birthday's. The other $3.00 he puts into his wallet and he can either spend it as he wishes or saves it to buy himself something. Jack's currently is just going into his savings account, but in the next year or two he'll start being able to handle part of his allowance as Jacob does. I want them to definately have saving their money well established so that as they get older and go out on their own has young men,they'll have a sense of what it takes to save, and actually I plan on them having a nice size savings account for them to use as they choose. We actually currently have 2 savings accounts for them, one at our main bank which Chad and I strictly put money into for college for them, then there's their savings that they are depositing money into from money earned, this rule also goes towards when they recieve money from others for gifts (Christmas, birthday's, etc). I had one friend tell me she thought I was making them save too much, but honestly how is making my children establish a decent savings for themselves and teaching them that responsiblity unfair? I think it's unfair to NOT teach our children the value of money and for them to understand that it does take work to save and that there are times we're tempted to pull that money out, but it's resisting that temptation and allowing it to grow so that when we want to buy a home and save for retirement we have a nice nest egg in there. I want my boys to have this established. Do I think this will prevent them from making financial mistakes, no, but hopefully they won't have a lot of hard lessons to learn.

Ok so anyways, done with the money lecture! LOL I'm working on Jacob's chore chart. It has the Scheduled Activities which has make bed, brush teeth and hair. I also added for him to get dressed. (Jacob's been doing this already every morning without being told which is really nice). For his AM chores on Mon. Wed. and Fridays he has to clean out the litter box. I know he's 5, but it's actually a chore he ASKED to do! LOL He's also going to be responsible for feeding and watering Pouce (cat). He'll every morning clean up his bedroom. In the evenings he'll check Pounce's food and water and make sure the toys are all picked up in the playroom. He'll also have to wipe off all the light switches and door handles and finger prints from the doors and wipe off the fridge handles and anything off the front of the fridge. Not all of these will be everyday. Here's a Break down of Jacob's days:

M- Litter Box

T-Wipe off Fridge, doors, light switches

W-litter box

Th-Wipe everything off

F-litter box

He will have things he does everyday which will be:

Make bed, brush teeth, getting dressed, cleaning up room, feeding and watering Pounce, and picking up the playroom.

 

Jack will also have things he can help with: He can make his bed, brush his teeth (with my help), get dressed (w/help), and dust things that are his level. Both boys are responsible for taking their dishes to the table and also putting them into the sink after any needed scraping of food into the trash. Jack also will be helping pick up the bedroom as well as the playroom. These are things both boys have been doing anyways.

My plan is to try these official chores out for a month and then if I feel Jacob can handle it, add an additional one or two more.

He will also have his Consequence Job List for breaking the 7 Rules of Behavior. Right now from the list they give he can be cleaning out closets, cleaning out the silverware drawer, wipe down cabinets, wipe down kitchen appliances, clean windows on the inside of the apartment, clean the bathroom, clean the toilet, wash the baseboards in one room, wipe down window sills, dust, scrub bathroom or kitchen floor (this would be a hands and knee's scrubbing), sweep kitchen, clean 2 shelves or drawers in fridge. That's if he breaks our 7 Rules of Behaviors.

I know it sounds like a lot of things but when Jacob and I went over all of these he understands what's expected of him. I know I'm partial, but the rest of the world's not and Jacob is a smart boy and anyone who's met Jacob has commented on how smart he is. These are things he can understand to follow and there has to be consequences when he breaks family rules. He's over all a good boy and looking at these Rules of Behaviors are already rules we have in our home and there's been different consequences for breaking them, but I really, really like their jobs they give! As Jackson gets older he will see what is and will be expected of him.

I am a strict mom and I do truly believe a good majority of parents are far too laid back with their kids. I see so many disrespectful children, those who come from a what appears to be a Christian home and those who don't. IMO it's unacceptable. I want my boys to have fun as children, at the same time they will learn responsibility.

 

Well that's been our day! I've actually got dinner cooking and Jacob and Jack are both cleaning up things. After dinner if we all have things done we'll go to the park for a while, get a bath, then off to bed! Tomorrow we're going to the pool aka swimbad! There's one about 1/2 mile from where we live. I haven't told the boys yet, I'll tell them in the morning. Jacob will have to get some school work done first thing in the morning since we'll probably spend a good portion of our afternoon at the pool. We may go swimming on Saturday too, it's supposed to be good and hot and miserable, if we don't go swimming we'll play with the water volcano that hooks up to the hose. Sunday we have church, and then in the afternoon I plan on letting the boys play in the water (with the valcano).

 

Ok, I've wrtten I'm sure a long boring book, so I'll sign off now!

 

God Bless