The best adjustments we made in our home
I had been racking my brain for trying to decide how to implement the things I've been wanting to for a while. It seems that life always gets in the way and we are running like crazies so being forced to slow down was helpful in this case.
There are a few things that I jumped at the chance to implement and I am so glad I dove in without thinking twice. Getting it done over making it perfect worked in my favor here + I wish I could do this with everything in life.
It's funny how when we are backed into a corner we sometimes have to jump into action without even thinking about it!
HERE'S WHAT HELPED ME GAIN SOME SANITY + GET SOME TIME BACK!
01. Set a schedule.
My kids thrive being on a set schedule and I couldn't just tell them what we were going to do; I had to write it all down for them.
I'm talking shower schedules, daily chores, extracurriculars, and dog poo pick up!
02. Set rules together
I feel like when kids have a say in what happens in the house, they respond a lot better. I'm not always the best at this, but I try my hardest to include them in decisions that affect the entire household. In this case, we wrote out some rules for our house.
They each gave their input + we wrote them and put them on the wall so they could see them as a little reminder when they are chasing their brother down the hall to tackle him. You know what I'm talking about?!
As I sit here and type another idea just popped into my head. I really struggle as a mom to find appropriate consequences to some actions and it leaves me feeling like I make a lot of empty threats and we continue the cycle for-e-ver. Do you do this too?
What if we sat down with our kids and reviewed the rules if you have set some already or write a new set of rules and have them help you select an appropriate consequence for each one if broken?
They may need a little help in the consequence department as we all know they are going to choose something that they probably will enjoy, but if they get to help in this process as well, there is no question + they can't push back right?! I'm no child Psychologist, but I do feel like this could be beneficial!
03. Earn Social Time + movie night
My kids have loved being able to earn some social time with their friends + movie night! I have one teen and one tween in the house now so friends are the cool thing these days ya know, but I can't always be chasing them around town so, they enjoy earning it by following the rules they created and completing chores!
Every Friday night we do movie night as a family. We pop popcorn + rent something on Amazon Prime! It has become the kids' favorite thing to look forward to each week, but I do know when boys come into the picture, this may also shift again!
04. Operation "Reset House."
Ya know when you ask your kids to clean their room and you get the eye roll with a little groan? Well, the moment I started saying, "Let's reset the house for tomorrow" they jumped to action. I don't know if it was putting it in different word form, but it worked and I'm gonna roll with it! Try rephrasing the tasks your kids hate doing and see what happens ;) Don't forget to come back and let me know what those were!
05. Quiet Time in bed.
My kids LOVE to read and they also love any opportunity to stay up a little later! We used to read books every night and when life got in the way, things started to get put on the back burner.
Now with this home school thing, I am realizing how much having that 30 minutes in the evenings has helped me and the hubs chill and have the opportunity to talk. Anyone else's brain start working the moment their heads hit the pillow? Every now and then Dustin would fall asleep in the middle of our chats so being able to sit down at 7:30 in the evening and have that time to ourselves before bed has been fantastic!
One other thing that this opportunity has opened us up for is the chance to do things together that we wouldn't otherwise. For one of Kenna's classes she had to make cookies and it was fun to be able to do it altogether.
BE PATIENT Mama! We went from getting a break while our kids are at school to thrown into the home school fire. Not everyday is going to go smooth as silk... let's be real, no day will be smooth as silk, but if we all do the best we can then that is good enough.
Try your best, hide in the bathtub when you need to and you are gonna rock it! We've got this!!
