Bedtime Charts

Speaking of things that I say over and over and over again, bedtime has its own set of phrases:

"Have you brushed your teeth yet?"
"What are you supposed to be doing?"
"Why are you dancing around the living room right now?"
"Did you put your dirty clothes in the laundry?"
"No, you can't have a snack now, you just brushed your teeth."
"What could you do next?"

repeated over and over multiple times to multiple children.  Sometimes it can be pure chaos figuring out who has done what, what they are supposed to be doing, and how on earth to get them all to bed in a timely manner.  My husband has been calling it "herding cats" because its that easy.  ;)

For some reason, even though we have a fairly set routine, my children often forget what they need to do.  They seemed to be under the impression that I should personally come to each of them and tell them what to do, every step along the way.  If they had pajamas on, it certainly wouldn't cross their mind to go potty, because I hadn't told them to do that yet.

Enter, the bedtime chart:

I listed out the steps that we go through to get ready for bed: pick up toys, put on pajamas, snack, go potty, brush teeth, story time, goodnight.  Each of the three girls has a laminated chart with a clip.  The clip has their initial on it, and is moved down the list as they complete each task.

When I first created the charts they were very excited to use them.  I saw a huge improvement in their staying on task.  We do not currently remember to use them every night, but the effects have lasted.  They have a better idea of what needs to be done before bed and still enjoy running to find their charts when I suggest it.  Two thumbs up for a good idea!

August Stork Stack

Stork Stack delivered their August box to me promptly on the first day of August.  :)  With the first week of school here and the ending of summer, I've not had time to post about it.

This month brought even more than the typical five items.  The theme was "Splish Splash and Sleep Tight".  For details on each of the products, see the Stork Stack website and click on "Want Details?" under the August stack.

To be quite honest, this wasn't my favorite Stack, for various reasons.  I do not plan on using the stretch mark cream; the ingredients just are not something I would choose.  Burt's Bees is a little iffy on their ingredients as well, in my opinion anyway.  (They include fragrance and some preservatives that I do not like.)  The Under the Nile products were fun, Isaac already has this baby doll though.  Tooth Tissues look interesting.  I will probably wait until Isaac is older and eating plenty of solid foods before I use them though, just because of the ingredients in them.

I'm still looking forward to next month's Stork Stack!  They announced on Facebook that the theme will be Lil' Learners.  There is also a discount code on their Facebook page good through Thursday... :)  Sign up now to receive the September Stack.

First Day of School - Fall 2012

I have a third grader and a kindergartener this year!

Lucy 

 Julia

Monday of last week was our first official day of school for the year.  The girls were getting antsy and asking when we could start.  They do better with some structure and busyness to their day, so I decided to go ahead.  Public schools here begin after labor day, putting us a bit ahead of everyone else's schedule.  However, starting now gives me room to take breaks as needed.  Shorter breaks, spaced throughout the year seem to work well for us.  My mom is coming for a visit in October and we'll take a week off then.  That being said, we've hardly done any schooling over the summer!  We had swimming lessons, a week at a cottage, and a "stay-cation" with Daddy home from work.

Lucy and Julia were excited to dive into their new books, asking to do more pages.  It felt good to be productive and learning again.  I'm still figuring out all of the new books and certainly don't have things running smoothly yet, but its fun.  Today we made an art project helping the girls learn the difference between continent, country, state, city, and so on.

I'll post a more specific list of our curriculum soon.  We got our Compassion Children information in the mail and the girls can't stop talking about their new friends.  I'm also working on putting together our continent boxes.  I'm excited about all that we are going to learn together this year!  Now I have to go check on these guys and make sure they aren't crawling all over the table... (because at one point they were and it involved me screaming, the girls running away, and then me trying to convince them to come back and watch and that I had it all under control, which I didn't...)

Call of a Coward by Marcia Moston

Call of a Coward by Marcia Moston is an interesting true story of the author's time as a missionary in Guatemala.  I read through the book in a day, as it was an easy read and kept my attention.  The book is  written in a story format from the author's point of view.  I appreciated that it was not preachy.

I enjoyed the book.  At some points I felt like there was depth or emotion missing, but I can imagine it was hard for the author to summarize an entire year in the book.  More about what the authors were actually doing in Guatemala would have added clarity as well.  I feel like I kept waiting for some details that just never came.  Overall though I appreciate the author's candid account and willingness to share her experience.  This was an enjoyable book.

I received a complimentary copy of this book through BookSneeze.