 |
baby,
toddler, preschooler, elementary, tweener and teen, positive discipline,
siblings rivalry, breastfeeding, sleep problems, homeschooling, temper
tantrums, twins, eating, work & stay at home moms, relationships with
spouses, personal struggles, weight loss & much more!
|
||||||
|
Contact
us at |
|||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
Mysticool
Moms ~ parenting stories by real moms you can relate to. Parenting support,
encouragement and humor for the most important job you have!
|
|||||
|
JANUARY 2003 - CHORES, PATIENCE AND A SICK MOMMY This has been a very humbling month for my family! Mommy has been sick. Mommy (me) has 4 children to homeschool and take care of and now that mommy is sick, "who" will take care of the family. It is funny to me sometimes how thoughts that I am thinking one day will turn into very specific hands-on lessons not soon after. I guess it is to bring home the point! I started December and the Christmas season feeling like I had things pretty much under control and knew that in January as soon as our vacation time was over that we would pick up and start right back where we left off with schooling and our "lives". We had a great Christmas with all my extended family over and it was a calm and extremely enjoyable day. The next day, I went in for planned knee surgery and I even figured that after so many days of recuperating, all would be well and we would be back on schedule. Surgery went great but I did need to "teach" my family how to take care of mom/wife and the house as they somehow seemed to have little clue what to do on their own. They needed the mechanics and specifics. While leaning on crutches, I taught the whole family (yes, I even had my husband watch!) how to do the laundry, including sorting colors and using the right temperature. I even decided that now was the time for my 14 yr. old and 11 yr. old to start being in charge of their own laundry from now on. (So far, that is working GREAT for all of us!!) My thoughts turned to "what would my family do if something happened to me or I died and they had to take care of themselves?" I have always been the control type and have taken care of all the finances, appointments and other family and house related things. I don't always enjoy doing these things (seldom to be honest!) but it has seemed more fitted to my personality and since I am home, it seemed to make sense. Now, I wondered, would my husband ever know how to pay the bills, how to make doctor appointments and get insurance questions answered?? Could the family make schedules or get chores done or even shop and feed or clothe themselves if they needed to?? I started reading two books I have had on my bookshelves for years called "Women Who Do Too Much" and "Children Who Do Too Little", both by Patricia H. Sprinkle. GREAT books! I have learned a lot over the years about saying no to many things outside of the home that take up too much of my time, but I realized I really needed to stop "doing it all" inside of my house. These books have wonderful ideas and the one for children who do too little has great ideas of what ages kids should be doing certain chores. (Wow, did mine need to do some catching up!) A great motivator to teach your children to take over more chores and responsibilities (besides the obvious of it helping mom out tremendously, not short-term, but long-term!) is how much benefit there is to the child and what we are cheating them out of when we do it all for them. Our children need to develop basic life skills. They need to learn responsibility and the value of hard work. They need to learn how to become dependable, capable adults. The author starts with chores and responsibilities beginning when a child is 2 years old so it is almost never too young to start and the sooner the child starts, the easier it will be to just keep adding as the age becomes appropriate for the skill required. The author also has a great sense of humor, personal stories and tips to make life easier. I immediately set out to make my kids chore charts after getting my husband to teach me how to use Excel (on the computer) more efficiently. I asked the kids what font and color they wanted their chart to be, thought of all the things I wanted each child to remember (especially those they always tended to struggle with or forget) and printed out an individual chore chart for each of them. We figured out where each child needed to have theirs to stay accountable to it and then I said a prayer that this would help! :-) I will
go into my sickness that followed the printing out of the chore charts
in my "weighting" article, but let me just say that I got
VERY sick about a week and a half ago and eventually was diagnosed with
bronchial asthma, which I am still dealing with. I was not able to check
to see if the kids were getting chores done or marking their charts.
I didn't know (or care) about anything in the house, barely even the
kids and husband. I have felt really, really crummy and stayed in bed
as much as possible. Much to my surprise, I have found out that not
only were the kids doing a great job staying "pretty much"
on task, but all but my 5 year old has been able to mark the boxes without
reminders when they did the chores! After a week of following their
chore list, we went over each chore and added things like "do it
without being asked so much", "clean the counters and the
table, along with dishes", "make your bed neater", now
that it was at least being made regularly. Instead of telling the kids
to go do a certain chore, I just say "Go look at your chore list
and see if you have done everything on it you are supposed to do."
It saves SO much hassle and reminding and nagging. As my
husband and I looked back over the last few weeks, we have realized
that we had a blessing in disguise. My being sick "forced"
him and the kids to take on responsibilities they normally would not
have taken on their own. My being sick taught me the value of my family
and that I needed to give them the opportunities (and the skills) to
be able to serve me and each other. I only wish I had learned and incorporated
this years ago…. :-) |
|
 Teach your children essential tools for life. Heidi's husband Nick is the author of this educational workbook for children. |
Heidi
| Ginny |
Marcia | Andrea
| Stella
Resources
| Charity |
Archive |
Pictures |
Weighting Game
Link with Mysticool Moms
Contact us at
|
Heidi's
husband Nick wrote this workbook about Character Development.
If you want to help instill values, virtues and character in your child then check out this out! |
 |
|
-
- |
|
Visit
Heidi's Handmade Jewelry Website
|
 |
Heidi Hoke
- H2 Designs © 2002 © 2003 © 2004
Mysticool.com / H2 Designs P.O. Box 1852 Kingston, WA 98346