Monday
Jun112007
CAMP MOMMY: Chore Wheel/Daily Chores
Monday, June 11, 2007 at 10:02PM
Mondays can be rough in general, but today -- CAMP MOMMY Week 3 of 11 -- was particularly bad, even though I have one in day-camp this week and I got my good walk in with the dog this morning.
By 4pm, I was huddled in my bed with the classified ads, desperately searching for some form of employment which would take me outside the home and pay enough to cover childcare arrangements, like eight weeks of sleep-away camp for three?!
I guess we all just needed a little down-time, and I don't know if it helped or made it worse to have a big afternoon thunder- and rainstorm come through to keep us trapped inside/give us the excuse to hunker down and enjoy an afternoon of television, computer games, reading (me) and even a rousing game of traditional Yahtzee, when I was able to pick up the pieces a bit and re-join the chaos. I hate it when DH comes home to find me back in the bed and everything in disarray...
So we re-grouped, and the kids and I talked about it when we settled down for D.E.A.R. (Drop Everything And Read) Together: It's damn near impossible to make everyone's summer perfect and fun, without any help, group participation, or (at least!) a little appreciation. The kids came up with the following two suggestions, which will help:
1) 12yo Son suggested, and the other two agreed, we should do our Independent Reading D.E.A.R. at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, after campers get home and before we're ready to go down to the pool for the last two hours or so before Dad gets home. Sounds perfect.
2) 6yo Son suggested, and the other two agreed, that we use a "Chore Wheel" to figure out Daily Chores. We already had a Chore Wheel ("The Better Behavior Wheel" from www.better-behavior.com), so we got it out again.
These are our chores:
We decided we would have each child spin the Chore Wheel every night, during our D.E.A.R. Together, just before bed, and that would be the assigned Daily Chore for the next day. (We wrote them down on a piece of paper to post on their bedroom door so they'll remember in the morning.)
The idea is that when the kids get up in the morning, instead of rushing out and turning on the TV and/or fighting over the computer, they now take the time to:
Once that's done and they are ready for breakfast, ready to go, they can get on the computer and enjoy whatever time they have left. That gets us through until about 9:30am...[Big Sigh]
It's not really Big Fun to organize and structure during the Summer Break, but I find if we don't, things start falling apart and nothing gets done, which leads to stress and unhappiness, so bear with me as we try to get our CAMP MOMMY on track...
By 4pm, I was huddled in my bed with the classified ads, desperately searching for some form of employment which would take me outside the home and pay enough to cover childcare arrangements, like eight weeks of sleep-away camp for three?!
I guess we all just needed a little down-time, and I don't know if it helped or made it worse to have a big afternoon thunder- and rainstorm come through to keep us trapped inside/give us the excuse to hunker down and enjoy an afternoon of television, computer games, reading (me) and even a rousing game of traditional Yahtzee, when I was able to pick up the pieces a bit and re-join the chaos. I hate it when DH comes home to find me back in the bed and everything in disarray...
So we re-grouped, and the kids and I talked about it when we settled down for D.E.A.R. (Drop Everything And Read) Together: It's damn near impossible to make everyone's summer perfect and fun, without any help, group participation, or (at least!) a little appreciation. The kids came up with the following two suggestions, which will help:
1) 12yo Son suggested, and the other two agreed, we should do our Independent Reading D.E.A.R. at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, after campers get home and before we're ready to go down to the pool for the last two hours or so before Dad gets home. Sounds perfect.
2) 6yo Son suggested, and the other two agreed, that we use a "Chore Wheel" to figure out Daily Chores. We already had a Chore Wheel ("The Better Behavior Wheel" from www.better-behavior.com), so we got it out again.
These are our chores:
- Outdoor Patrol (Walk The Dog)
- Clean a Bathroom
- Load/Unload Dishwasher
- Dust Something
- Vacuum a Rug
- Sweep a Floor
- Wash a Window
- Collect Garbage
- and there is one small "FREE" space...
We decided we would have each child spin the Chore Wheel every night, during our D.E.A.R. Together, just before bed, and that would be the assigned Daily Chore for the next day. (We wrote them down on a piece of paper to post on their bedroom door so they'll remember in the morning.)
The idea is that when the kids get up in the morning, instead of rushing out and turning on the TV and/or fighting over the computer, they now take the time to:
- Brush Teeth & Hair
- Get Dressed
- Make Bed & Pick Up Stuff
- Daily Chore
Once that's done and they are ready for breakfast, ready to go, they can get on the computer and enjoy whatever time they have left. That gets us through until about 9:30am...[Big Sigh]
It's not really Big Fun to organize and structure during the Summer Break, but I find if we don't, things start falling apart and nothing gets done, which leads to stress and unhappiness, so bear with me as we try to get our CAMP MOMMY on track...
Reader Comments (3)
I don't think it's all a bad thing -- computers, TV, even video games. In our house, we've just got to limit it to a reasonable amount of time (we're trying 2 hours/day), so that we fit reading, active & family time in as well.
As far as *my* time on the computer...well, that's a whole 'nother post! ;-)