Kid's Chores -New ZONE Plan- AKA LOVE THIS

We are starting a new program with our kids.  The big pocket chart with bucks in it worked really well for a good long time.  Now that they are older I need more help around the house and their own stuff is pretty simple. I've kind of mixed my old plan with a new one and taken on the ZONE wheel!  I'm very excited about it.  I learned about it where I learn all new amazing things, on Pinterest.  The original link is here and you can click on the part about the wheel from there.

I am a real decor lover and one thing I put too much meaning in is everything being pretty.  So the chore charts are usually far from the center of the house where I can't see them.  This may be a result of years of homeschooling when my living room and dining room had maps and alphabet everywhere and I grew tired of the clutter.  I've given back in for the sake of the kids.  I realized that out of sight is out of mind.  This hall is facing them all when they come out of their rooms and the bathroom door is right there so they have to see it.

The ZONE idea simply is that instead of the dreaded fighting or even draining mystery over who's cup is who's when it's time to pick up (you know, the "I don't know, but it's not MINE!" when you say everyone go in the room and clean up your own stuff) each family member is in charge solely of a ZONE.  Each week the zones change so you don't always have to do the same one.  Each zone must be checked am and pm.  I made it even more clear by posting a list for each zone.  Each zone also gets more attention on Saturday's.

Again, I usually have nice print outs but I did not have time yet so I just wrote them and taped it all up. 

The charts are quite simple.  They have one heading that include many things.  We have been doing morning high fives for a while and evening ones too that I never really wrote down.  Each chart is actually exactly the same.  I find that simplicity creates productivity and less stress.  At the bottom they each have an extra item.  For Caedmon here, he earns a buck toward a Skylander (a toy for the Wii game he likes) each day of school that he does not have to turn a card for.  Turning cards indicated some form of a problem in class. For the girls, they each have a cell phone.  Emma's cost $10 a month and her job to pay for it is to vacuum and clean out the van as well as wash it when I say it needs it.  She has this broken down into $2.50 a week.  She gets to choose what night to do it (unless we direct otherwise).  If she fails to do so, she pays us the $2.50 out of her chore pay.
Victoria has a monstrous $40 a month iphone bill.  That breaks down to $1.35 per day.  Since our dishwasher is broken, she has been hired.  Because she has a lot of homework I decide what level of work she will do each night.  If she does not do it, she has to pay us from her chore pay and if she goes into debt we re-possess the phone.  Trust me, she does not want to loos her phone.  It is her social connection and her Walkman.  This is highly motivating.

High Fives of morning and evening count as one bubble.  They are specified on the wall.  Morning ones are: brush teeth, do animal chore, read family passage (we require ten verses read before school), clean floors and tops (furniture tops), and make bed.  

Evening High Fives are: do homework, lay out clothes, pack backpack, brush teeth, clean floors and tops.

We have a set amount for each chart.  Ours is ten dollars.  That sounds like a lot but there is more.  Inspired by some ideas from that link, we are putting them on the 10-20-70 plan.  Tithe ten at church, save 20, and free choice for 70.  However, they will pay for all fun outings, snacks or movies, fun clothes not needed etc.  They also loose one dollar per bubble not filled in.  So, that ten can go fast if they have not done their work.  In fact, they can end up working and getting nothing.  The incentive is to do your work, or feel the pain.  We insist that circles be filled in by bed.  No catching up the next day or later on and saying "oh, I did this though!"  To prevent this pattern, I initial each at the end of the day. 

You will see also, that I have a clipboard hanging up.  This is for logging the 30 min of reading on the chore list.  There is also a screen log.  They get one hour Mon, Tue, Thur and two hours on Wed since it's min day and daddy and I are still at work.  No screens are allowed however until chores and homework is complete.  That includes reading time. 

I am taking on the deep cleaning on Monday's, my day off.  With their homework load getting bigger, I feel that just keeping up is a big enough help for me. Part of their room is putting away their laundry as well. All of our laundry is together so for now I'm doing that.  It can go onto the extra work board if I want help.  

That is another Pinterest idea I loved.  A "work for hire" board.  You can look at my "Kids" board on Pinterest for the photo. You have a board with notes as to what the job is with the money right there tempting them to earn it.  I plan to have a box on mine where they have me initial it before they get the money.  That way I check their work.  I will be having cleaning the doors with a magic eraser on mine very soon.  It's a nice way to get extra help around the house.  I'm not making them divide this money for now. It's a bonus and highly tempting that way.  

So, I'll let you know how it goes.  We are taking the idea on the link to have a family "payday".  Read for more.  It's an interesting post.  

On Sensa, Dinners, School and The Dog

I'm really just lacking time to specifically blog so I'm doing a very random post!  Yeah!

Sensa Update:

Okay, so I'm going to be on this three weeks come this Thursday.  I still am at a 4 (sometimes 5) lb. loss.  I made some bad food and beverage decisions this last week though and have seen it slow down.  The product still works but sometimes better than others.  In a week and a half, I will be changing over to the month two tastants and that is supposed to kick my brain back into gear.  The tastants change each month so that your brain does not get too use to them and they stop working.  I really need to stop having wine at all.  We have an event in August at our winery that I want to go to but besides that, I'm going to abstain the rest of August just to give this a better chance to work.  The fair did not help either.  I also have not been exercising much but will be kicking that into gear here in the next week as well so I'm hoping the Sensa will have more of a chance to push my goal reaching.  Over all, for two and a half weeks, it's still a good number for loss.  Two lbs a week is a healthy number and this is close.

School Starting Soon!!!
Two weeks from today my youngest two start school.  Everyone is finally ready for this (Emma was reading day two of summer break).  I just don't like that they have to ride the bus on the windy road out to their little school in the heat.  It's great to have them out there at this small wonderful school, but the road is long and curvy.  We are really excited about Emma's teacher this year.  We were hoping Caedmon would get the great fourth grade teacher that Emma had but it looks as though he is not.  However, that class would be a 4/5 combo and he was in a combo last year.  I'm glad on that account that he is not again this year.  Also, it would be pushing him a bit.  He really needs to take academics slow till his brain develops a bit more.  He is really needing lots of boyish wiggle time right now.  He is always the largest kid in the class but he is actually one of the youngest.  This teacher he did get is a pretty tough, and it's a guy.  I think that could be good for him but a little shocking as well.  He will be a little more militant and perhaps that is what God knows Caedmon needs.  I decided I would not fret at all about this years teacher placement but would trust God to put him where he needed to be.  It's not what I would have chosen but how often does God follow my plan anyway...:)

Victoria starts High School in three weeks.  This is going to be a really big change for us.  Right now it looks like I will be able to take her in which she is relieved about since the bus leaves our town at 7am and she would be having to get up so crazy early.  This way also, I can take her in, go workout, and go from there to work.  It will motivate me to make sure I do that. So, it's a good deal for both of us. I'm hoping she does not have to ride it home but we don't know yet.

Foodie Update

I was really excited about this post Money Saving Mom put up about a lady who had structured five frozen assembled dinners for the crockpot.  The crockpot is a working mothers friend.  I get so tired when I get home and it's so hard to push myself to get right into the kitchen.  Then, add the triple digit days and I'm really dragging.  So, I told my friend Michelle about it and she had a great idea!  We should get the stuff and get together to assemble packets together.  It worked out really well.  I highly suggest doing this.  We are cooking the Hawaiian Chicken one today in the crockpot.  I'll let you know how it comes out.  This lady did test these though and the comments on the post seem to indicated great applaud.  She is working on coming up with another batch of these.  I personally don't need them to use five nights in a row but to use on days I need the help.  All I have to do today when I get home is put rice in my awesome Pampered Chef rice cooker in the microwave and in 20 min dinner is ready.  Perhaps a salad tossed up as well would go well with it.

I am also in research to discover some different "egg on top" recipes.  More on that once I find some....

The Dog

So, the dog made it through his trail.  He is ours now.  He is really doing well.  However, he is trying to pee in the house every now and then.  We are working with him on it, and I'm so glad I don't have carpet in the main part of the house so we can clean it up well but I'm not happy about it.  He seems to really know now when he has done wrong.  I try to remember he may have been out on his own for a while.  He is great with the whole family but get's a little too excited when kids come over who have dogs at home.  He get's confused and want's to marry them if you get my drift.  We are working on that too.  Oh, and the kids named him Angus.  He really took to the name so I'm fine with it.  I think he is a perfect fit for our family though.

Why We Don't Homeschool

We've had this topic come up with some new people we have been meeting lately and I realized it would be good to post about.  Those who have known me for a while all ready know a lot of these details but I think it may be new to others.  There is a very long story of how God called us to put our kids in public school, I won't be telling that story again (I hear some of you saying "whew!").  It was a great story in our journey but it is long.   The purpose here is to tell some very practical reasons that honestly I could not even see at the time of His guiding us.  He could though!

I do want to preface this by saying two main things:  One, is that I highly support homeschooling.  It has it's positives and it's negatives, as does public school, but on the whole it is a wonderful option for many.  I want to be supportive of my homeschooling friends by acknowledging all they do and doing what I can to encourage them if I'm given the opportunity.  Secondly, I do believe that homeschooling is pushed as the "godly" way to proceed with Christian families and public school is characterized as selfish for the parents and damaging for the children.  This is somewhat of an unspoken conversation because I think if many came out and said, "It's more godly to homeschool", they would be shocked at themselves.  God is not in a box, he is using all of his people everywhere in many ways.   He will over expose and underexpose children for the armor they will need in the path He has for them.  I don't think some women, or even some Christian couples give themselves the freedom to realize this is an option for them anymore.  I know I didn't.  Public school was a bad word and an evil monster to me before. 

Here are the main reasons we don't homeschool, and I've put them in order of importance: 

• God called us - Even though I won't get into the details, it is very true.  He called us into it vividly when our eldest was in kindergarten, and he called us out of it vividly at the end of her 4th grade year.  Does God do that?  Well, all I can say is what I know and that is that He did for us. To keep homeschooling would have been us not following His lead.
• I secretly thought it made me more righteous-  That makes me cringe to even write, but I did.  I may be one of the few women in the Christian community who struggled with that, or dare admit it, but it did.  I thought I looked better in eyes of God by homeschooling.  Furthermore, I thought He was obligated to give me a good return on my sacrifices and the end result had to be good Christian kids. 
• My marriage was being put second-  This is not biblical.  I was so exhausted from all the work of the house, the schooling, the socializing efforts etc, I had very little energy or time for my husband.  Not every one has this issue, but I sure did and I was putting the kids over my husband.  I would spend time after they all got to bed, getting ready for the next day's schooling and had no time for him.  I found it interesting at our recent marriage retreat, the speaker said that his biggest group of threatened marriages came from families who homeschooled and now had an empty nest.  That was where I was headed.  Thank you LORD for seeing that!  This does not mean that it will be that way for all couples, but it is a red flag I was ignoring.
• Our children needed outside prodding-  God knew this and we did not at the time.  We had no idea how much our kids would blossom once we put them in school.  I'd like to break down now into each child and tell how it was His best for them: 

1. Our Eldest- She was an easy child to school, the academic.  However, she had developed this sense that the world revolved around her and had no social or authoritative pressures to show her some reality on how this was so not true.  For her, the atmosphere at home fed this problem.  She was not getting challenged by the opinions of others, so hers was supreme.  She was not getting challenged by having to change and adapt to a team, and her agenda reigned.  It's not that I was giving into her at every turn, it was that she was at home so of course the schedule catered to her.  Her brother and sister did whatever she said so of course she had the last word....are you getting the idea?  She was the perfectionist who had to also learn that in reality, you won't be able to complete everything perfectly.  You do the best with the time you have.  Socially, she had to learn that not everyone was going to do or play what she wanted.  
2. Our Middle- Oh, God had big things in mind for her.  She hated school at home with me.  She was in the shadow of a sister who was reading "The Chronicles of Narnia" in kindergarten and had convinced her self she was therefore stupid.  She was bored with worksheets and I had little time for travel or the kind of hands on, mess making learning she loved.  I had her older sister's lessons to do, and her little preschool brother to keep up with.  She was just a home school to do list and she knew it.  Once she entered school, she was amazed at how smart she was because she was in a room with kids her own age!  She loved having a teacher and meeting the challenges of leading in the classroom. She loved that the schedule was all for her the whole school day.  She did not have to go be busy till I could tend to her schooling.  She thrives on group feed back and had no opportunity for this at home.  It was amazing how she blossomed.   
3. Our Third-  The only boy, he has never officially been home-schooled.  He struggles so  much with  structure of any kind and since the only one he knows is school, he dreams of homeschooling.  He has some fantasy idea that it means you get to play Lego's all day.  He needed to be out of the house of girls, and motivated more to get moving.  He is very much the timid boy in some respects.  He is not a wimp, but fits the baby of the family role well.  We are always having to challenge him to stop wining and get going.  School does that for him.  It also gives him time with other boys to be out from the "skirts" at home.  It holds him accountable to a standard of behavior where you cannot wiggle all day if you want to.  He is however, perhaps the one child who I've struggled with the most having in school.  Boys don't do well with that structure.  There have been times when we have prayed about him coming home but God has always encouraged us that this is good for him to learn.  He may get by on the skin of his teeth, and not bringing home all the perfect student awards his sisters are, but he is learning some great skills of hanging in there and being attentive. 

• I needed to grow in my faith-   Faith in God, not myself.   I was holding on too tightly to my own formulas working for me and trying to work out something that the Lord did not have for me.  I was more determined to make good children if it killed me, than I was to trust the God who gave them to me.  Somewhere along the line from being called to homeschool, and struggling with it, I developed wrong motives to keep going.  I honestly did not give myself the option of not doing it anymore, I felt it was just sinful.  I'm very thankful God showed me I was wrong.  He had to show me my heart before I realized this though.  He had to show me my heart motives for having them home and they were not good.  I wanted trained monkeys who would make me proud, he wanted kingdom workers prepared for what He wanted of them.  When it came down to it, all my reasons to keep them home were fear driven. 
• We were not a team-  Helping me in any way, either with planning or follow through, has never been my husbands gift.  I really think that the best homeschool families are the ones who's couples are on the same page and work together in some fashion.  Quite honestly, I think my husband would have been better at homeschooling the children than me.  He is the academic, but he has to have a job so that was not an option. Doing anything regarding homeschooling on top of work was never something that happened for us.  
• We didn't have the ideal setting-  Now, I realize you can homeschool, anywhere and succeed if you are called to but for us, our situation was not ideal.  We live in a small modular park with a small yard not allowing much room for play.  We are not somewhere where we can let our children roam safely either.  We also live 15-30 minutes from most of the homeschool activities or social gatherings.  It became way to hard to get them out enough, even outside.  I did not want to have kids who were locked in with tv screens and dying of boredom just to have them homeschooled.  
• I was becoming a bad mom-  At the end of the school day I did not want to talk to my kids.  I felt like I was showing them the hand the rest of the day.  I was spent!  I could not just be mom and chat, or be all cute and bake cookies.  Getting through the work was all I could do.  I spent many afternoons hiding in my room telling them to stay busy.  I realized that this one big hat was making me hate being a mom.  It broke my heart when I realized that I was robing them of a mom being so determined to be their teacher.  

So, I share all this to say that we all have to be open to what God has for us, as well as what he has for each child.  I have not closed the door, I have learned not to close doors anymore.  Right now these are the reasons we DON'T homeschool.  God could give us other ones any moment for going back into it for one of our kids.  He could do anything.  He should be heard, and I should not be afraid.  I have no idea what God is preparing my kids for through school.  I do know for me it's quite simple now (though it use to not be) that this is not for us right now.  

Whatever we do, I remember what a wise woman told me, we are still and always will be our children s teachers.  We are their disciple-rs.  Whether they sit in a desk at a school, or the table in our dining room, we are teaching them.  The bible says women are to be in the home teaching their children.  "Teacher's at home" it says in Titus.  This is a priority, but no where does it say what exactly we are to teach them as far as academics go.  It does say for us to teach them God's ways, his workings in history and our own lives.  What he has each of us teach beyond that may vary.  I just want to encourage others to listen to Him and follow His leading.  

More than anything, if you are struggling, or hurting, or feeling like you are a looser in this area.  Tell God that, and don't try to be what men tell you you should be, even Christian men.  Talk to your husband, get council and above all BE HONEST with yourself and God.  Being open to His will may not look like you thought it would look.  It may mean that you carry on in a different way, or with different motives.  It may mean that you choose other options. 

I read something back then that amazed me.  It amazed me how narrow my thinking and view of God had become it was this: 

 We want God to stay in schools, but we want all Christian kids out.

I wonder what He wants.....  

It's just something to think about......