Sunday, November 27, 2016

'Twas a Lovely Thanksgiving...

We had another wonderful Thanksgiving this year! We stayed local and spent it with my husband's cousin's family. I split the cooking with
Marija and we had a great time! There's nothing like cooking with another Mama in a beautiful, big kitchen,  with ZERO kiddos underfoot, thanks to the big cousins who kept the little ones busy. What an enjoyable experience!

Check out Marija's beautiful Thanksgiving table!

Monday, November 21, 2016

Teaching Children a New Chore

I loved this when I read it earlier today! I already made my post-it!

"There are five classic steps for teaching a new chore to children:
1. Tell them
2. Show them
3. Do it with them
4. Supervised practice
5. Independent practice

I would encourage you to put these things on a sticky note and place it above your kitchen sink for a season until you have the steps down.
Do not expect children to do a chore well when you have only done the first two steps with them. It can take a short or long time to get from Step One to Step Five, depending on the child and the specific chore.
Make it a fun time by gathering all the kids for the telling and showing steps, then use the timer to see how fast each person can do the new task. Celebrate with a treat!"

Taken from Large Family Logistics: The Art and Science of Managing the Large Family

Saturday, November 19, 2016

Fall Comforts...

Today was a rare Saturday that my husband had no commitments until the evening service. For lunch, I made a huge pot of chicken soup with lots and lots of the thinnest egg noodles that exist at the store, and some hot, homemade southern biscuits to go with it. It was a lunch that no one complained about, so a really rare treat for Mama!

Saturday, November 5, 2016

Bed Making

I have found that in order to teach kids how to do chores and also how to maintain tidiness on their own, Mama really needs to stay on top of them until the task is ingrained in them forever. Well, while I'd love to say I have had success with teaching my kids how to do various different chores, this is definitely a work in progress and something I'm working on daily. I forget some days, too. One thing I have worked on through the last few months though, is not letting the kids come downstairs in the morning until their bed has been made. I recently noticed that hard work is slowly paying off, because our 4 year old has gotten really good at making her bed ALL on her own in a beautiful manner!