We've been studying The Family: A Proclamation to the World for our FHE, which we're now holding on Thursdays because Andrew's not usually home on Monday evenings (this really bothers Rachel because Monday is Family Night; she can be quite letter-of-the-law at times). I meant to go through it paragraph by paragraph but skipped a couple so that we could talk about the principles our family is founded upon. And kind of so that I could foist chore charts upon our children because I'm going straight crazy trying to keep our house in order by myself.
So today we focused on this one sentence:
Fortunately we'd just done a family project this weekend—we primed the shed—and Rachel was super pumped about that and provided textbook answers for the questions I asked her (but only after I set up the context because before I did she had no answers for me at all).
We decided that painting the shed was hard work but it was fun to be working alongside each other and we feel a sense of ownership of our work. When we look out the window and see it we remember how much fun we had spending time together and how much effort we put in to make it look nice. We think, "Wow, we painted that! And it was hard! But it sure looks amazing!"
(Not that we're vain or anything.)
I said that the same thing applies to housework. And my kids definitely looked at me like I was crazy.
(And perhaps I am.)
But I presented my idea for a chore chart, anyway, and I think I even managed to get the girls excited about it. They each get a small job to do every day, in addition to doing their morning and evening routines (which already include a bit of tidying up). We'll start officially on Sunday (their "chore" for Sunday is to be good at church so it might be a bit of a challenge).
I'm almost excited about it, myself, but I still have a few kinks to work out. I'm definitely looking excited to having a system other than absolute chaos to run my home.
The girls decided they want to earn points (yup, it's a point system) to have another popcorn party (aka movie night) or a special family outing. Andrew and I really like doing family outings though so we might have them earn a popcorn party just so that we are free to do unearned outings without throwing off our rewards system.
We'll see how it goes.
In the meantime, here are some pictures of our girls working:
And here's Benjamin doing a great job of entertaining himself (that's his work):
He's figured out how to bat his toys and it's bringing us all such great joy (and I'm not being the slightest bit sarcastic). Benjamin spent the first half of this week screaming. Today he was an angel so I'm not sure what the problem was, entirely. It might have to do a bit with reflux. Or it could be that he was feeling under the weather (both Rachel and Miriam have been sick this week and now I'm feeling a little miserable myself). Whatever the reason, he spent a couple of days being the fussiest child on the planet. He also wore the same clothes/pyjamas for like three days straight because I was so exhausted that I didn't even notice until this morning when Andrew said, "Wow—he smells really bad!"
We've since given him a bath and a new outfit and he was a cheerful little guy today so we're all feeling a little less frazzled. I'm sure we'll all feel that much better once we've all kicked this cold we have. And get a few more boxes unpacked...
So today we focused on this one sentence:
Successful marriages and families are established and maintained of principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities.After saying that a few times we focused specifically on this one word—work—and how that one word can help us become closer as a family unit.
Fortunately we'd just done a family project this weekend—we primed the shed—and Rachel was super pumped about that and provided textbook answers for the questions I asked her (but only after I set up the context because before I did she had no answers for me at all).
We decided that painting the shed was hard work but it was fun to be working alongside each other and we feel a sense of ownership of our work. When we look out the window and see it we remember how much fun we had spending time together and how much effort we put in to make it look nice. We think, "Wow, we painted that! And it was hard! But it sure looks amazing!"
(Not that we're vain or anything.)
I said that the same thing applies to housework. And my kids definitely looked at me like I was crazy.
(And perhaps I am.)
But I presented my idea for a chore chart, anyway, and I think I even managed to get the girls excited about it. They each get a small job to do every day, in addition to doing their morning and evening routines (which already include a bit of tidying up). We'll start officially on Sunday (their "chore" for Sunday is to be good at church so it might be a bit of a challenge).
I'm almost excited about it, myself, but I still have a few kinks to work out. I'm definitely looking excited to having a system other than absolute chaos to run my home.
The girls decided they want to earn points (yup, it's a point system) to have another popcorn party (aka movie night) or a special family outing. Andrew and I really like doing family outings though so we might have them earn a popcorn party just so that we are free to do unearned outings without throwing off our rewards system.
We'll see how it goes.
In the meantime, here are some pictures of our girls working:
 |
| September 17 |
And here's Benjamin doing a great job of entertaining himself (that's his work):
 |
| September 20 |
 |
| Sad Benjamin—September 18 |
 |
| Happy Benjamin—September 19 |
We've since given him a bath and a new outfit and he was a cheerful little guy today so we're all feeling a little less frazzled. I'm sure we'll all feel that much better once we've all kicked this cold we have. And get a few more boxes unpacked...
No comments:
Post a Comment