Maybe our kids are trying to teach us?

my three! my teachers!

Please make sure to follow my post to keep up to date on all the fun! Hit the follow button and post to your Facebook page. 


Kimberly 

Dear Moms

I had to share this video. Mom's you are awesome! Take advice from this kid!

Being a Sick MUM!

Cough….. Cough……  It is that time again when flu and colds start to roam around . No…. I can't be sick!!! Being sick and being a mom is not a good thing. Those two together equal disaster. Now I am not to brag but I am rarely never sick. Maybe that is why it hit me so hard this time around. 3 days and still going strong, my nose, head, coughing and achey body has taken over. I do get that hour when I do have a little energy so that is when I am a mad woman and throw laundry in, dishes, cleaned the bathrooms then by them I am ready to retire till I get that again. I am very lucky though my awesome kids have helped, my oldest was amazing this weekend taking care of me.


So how do I get my kids to help me you ask? As a family we work hard on helping each other out. Just this morning my two younger ones noticed that I did their laundry and put it away. (Normal they are the ones to do it) They quickly ran up to me this morning and said mom here is $.50 for doing that. Yea! I got paid!!!!… oh wait can't do that. I looked at them and said God gives a servant heart, I do these things because I love you and we help each other out, just as you help me out when I am sick getting me water or helping make a sandwich to make sure I am eating. My 7 year old just looked at me and smiled. What is a family to you? Are you teaching your children to help and you help them without expectations? Todays home work: do a little something for your children that matches their love language. 

Taming the two's

Don't we wish that was true! Taming the twos. It's late in the home and that seems to be the best time to get things done is while the kids, including the husband sleep. So here I am with you all! Break out the hot tea my friends and lets do some talking. 
One of my friends was asking me how do I figure out my toddler? Starting around the two age and up they are discovering who they are. Yes it will be time to pick and chose battles, deal with tattle tales, hitting, bitting. They are learning who they are, the buttons they can push, and learning how to communicate. Which this will be till we are old and grey. I think even as adults we are still learning how to communicate. Don't you agree? 

So how do we figure out those toddler years? Remember they are learning who they are just as we as parents are trying to do the same. My rule of thumb is to stay FIRM. If you say ok Jack one more time, then he doesn't listen and you say, one more time….. I gave my toddler the scope. If you disobey me Jack, when I asked you not to jump on the couch you will have to sit on the floor. I usually ask them to repeat what I said that way I know they are listening to me. Be FIRM! It will pay off when they are older.  Have you heard of the 5 Love Languages? They have a test on line that you can do. 5 Love Languages has taught me so much about myself, husband, children and friends. Having a toddler and trying to find their love language is going to be a little harder because you are going to really have to watch them. I figured out that my little Ellie loves the gift of touch. She wants to be held, and have her back rubbed or feet. My oldest was always about words. I would write notes or when she was little I would draw her pictures and put them in her room. My son is  service because I can remember one day when he asked me to put up some things in his room and I did and he was so happy. He is the first to thank me for anything I do for him or the girls. I put a chart on here. Once you know how to communicate the "Love Language" it will make your relationship so much better! What do you think your toddlers love language is? Let me know. 

Ohh the two's are here! Part one

The TWO"S are here! I remember thinking when my children were one how I loved that age, then I started thinking the two's are coming. I never had an older mom to go to for advice. I was the oldest of my friends having babies. So now here it is baby number 3 she is now 7 and I have learned a lot during this last one. The past few months most of the moms coming to me for advice was how to understand the "two's" age.  Every child is different, so this may not pertain to every child. Here is how my "two's" started. 

My two year old loved to get into my purse to see if there was gum. She loved gum, and lip gloss. She is my girly girly out of all of them. She knows that getting into mommies purse was a NO. I caught her in it one morning and I told her she was disobeying the rules and not respecting my things, because she didn't ask. Well she didn't like that very much. I picked up my purse and put it in my room, what I walked out to is every mothers nightmare! There she was sitting on the arm of the red micro fiber new couch with a Sharpie in hand. I looked at the arm of my couch and well lets just say it had marks all over it. She looked at me and smiled, not the smile like "I want you to be proud of me," but the smile that was hahah mom I got you back. All I could do was try to breathe at this point. Norwex, the Enviro Cloth which would have taken it off was not around then in the US so that wasn't an option. Most of us want to just yell and scream at them, that is our first reaction to do this. This is what we need to change as parents. I picked her up and put her in her room and looked at her eye to eye and told her how VERY disappointed I was with her for again not respecting things in the house. What I am getting at is we are so quick to yell and not really take time out talking to our children. At this age you have a very short window to have them understand and not have their attention go else where. Sit down and explain why you are sad for what they have done, what does the word respect mean. We so many times talk to our children at this age like babies. Talk to them using adult words. I then told her she needed to sit in her room, and when she was ready to say sorry she could come out. I have always done that with all three of my children. I tried the time out for their age, the corner, it never worked. This has been the one thing that has worked. 

For homework day one with the twos, instead of yelling at your child, talk with them letting them know how sad you are and disappointed you are. Letting them come out of their rooms when they are ready. If you feel they are not ready to come out let them know that. Let me know how it goes. 

Helping Hands Jobs For Kids To do Around The House!

     I love those days when my kids love to help around the house with out asking. Now this can be a good thing or a bad thing. I remember as a child growing up one of my jobs was to clean the bathroom. Every Wednesday ( yes I still remember the day) it was my day to make the bathroom shine! I would wipe down the white wicker shelves where my mom kept flowers and a little angel. The toilet was the hardest part to clean since I had a younger brother that used that bathroom too. Having my mom be proud of me was the best feeling in the world! Sometimes our children want to help but not in the way we think is helping, their actually making more work. One thing I think is important is starting children young learning responsibilities. Even at the age of one they can understand so many things. Language is huge! I never talked "baby talk" to my children, but talked to them as I would with an adult, only on a lower level. Have a basket or bins and take a picture of the toy that goes in it and tape it on the bin or container. I would tell them in 5 minutes ( I would then set the timer) when the timer goes off it's time to clean up your toys. I would pick up the toy and show them the picture and say it goes here. They can see that the picture and the toy is the same. Praise him or her up a lot! Tell them thank you! Many of my friends that had kids after me would ask me about what chores are okay for what ages. 

• Ages one can pick up toys learning to put things away. Praising them up now is really important.
• 2-3 they can start learning to make their bed, helping mommy or daddy match socks. Again they are relating what is the same just as you did with the pictures on the bins. 
• 4-5 at this age they are better at doing things,  but not skilled at it so be patient. At this age my children were making their beds, cleaning their rooms, collecting the trash from around the house and put in in the kitchen trash. Helping with setting the table and putting the clean silverware away from the dishwasher. 
• 6-8 They each have their day to clean the bathroom. They have to empty the dishwasher. Help dust the house. My children now take their clothes out of the dryer hanging and folding their clothes putting them away. ( This works good because you and I know that we as kids put our clothes in the hamper just to make our room look clean even if our clothes were clean or not) By doing this it has help with the amount of clothes I now see in their hamper. By this time they also help clear or set the table. 
• 9-10 They do most all the chores above but I also have a day when they have to help me cook. This gets them involved to help prepare the dish they are going to make and it's good bonding time. Also vacuuming, and sweeping the kitchen floors. 
• 10-13 They are doing their own laundry. All the chores above and cooks one meal a week. ( I normally will clean the kitchen if they cook that day) 

     I have a chore list that I use every month for them. We have what is called the "required chores" which they do not get an allowance. This is what is expected of them. Then I have the "above and beyond" chores that they can chose from if they want to earn money. Just as adults we go to work to earn money, when we come home we have chores and responsibilities to do and we don't get paid for those. Iv'e explained this to the kids and it has worked great! If you noticed by the end of the day the required chores are not done and they are asking to go play or watch a movie, you simply ask, did you finish your chores? They will move quick! 

     I made a fun way to pick jobs if they get bored is get a bunch of popsicle sticks and write creative jobs on them and then the amount you will pay them. Here are a few I wrote: 
Pick 20 weeds for .25 cents
Wipe down door knobs .15 cents
Wipe down light switches and television and game remotes .15 cents 
Clean window sills .25 cents
Wipe down baseboards .50 cents
Pick up 50 beans ( we used to live in Tucson, AZ so we had mesquite beans that fall from the tree)
Water plants .11 cents

Once they draw their sticks and do their jobs they can add up how much they are going to get. That is why I make the pay different. 

     
 My kids saw me pull out the job sticks and they were ready to do chores! They used my Norwex mop, which my son had fun doing. Normally I have to fight with him to help mop with the floors using our mop and bucket with floor cleaner. But this time he enjoyed just using water and moped the floors with a smile! My daughter used the Norwex Window Cloth, just using a spray bottle with water. The back glass door looks great! No streaks! 
If you would like to know more about Norwex and order please click here. Remember to praise them up for a job well done!