JusJoJuly #8 – Maintaining Sanity

· by · in Just Jot It July, Lou's Life.... ·

Maintaining Sanity

This is my new pocket money method for preventing ‘messy house insanity’ during school holidays.

So far, the dishes have been washed, dried and put away. The washing has been taken off the line and put away. The laundry is beginning to live in the basket and the lounge room has been cleaned.

The dirty washing continues to sit there mocking me, knowing I can hardly move my body after running 6 kilometres over the last 2 days.

Pocket money method 2

#GettingItDone

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22 responses to “JusJoJuly #8 – Maintaining Sanity”

  2. I wish I could do this! I can’t wait until then. The only thing my kids can do is transfer clothes from the washer to the dryer, and that’s only because they are front loading and they seem to think it’s fun. The 18 month old even knows which buttons to press. 🙂 Now only if I can get them to pick up their toys without being told…..never going to happen.

      • I love LEGO’s! My kids aren’t into them too much though. What I hate the most are the blankets and stuffed animals. They think they need tons of blankets out and why they fight over them? I really don’t know.

        Not sure if you know Build a Bear or not but my wife tends to take them their quite often. At least every couple months or so. It’s insane.

    • My kids are 10-this-week (hooray and wahoo!), and 13 in a few weeks. No summer vacations for homeschoolers; just a seasonal shift in life.

      We have standard pay rates for a variety of things; the kids will sometimes collect on these; other times not. I’ve found it helps a lot to not give chores, but to ask for specific help when I need it, and to allow them the freedom to decide how they want to help and the manner in which they do it.

      Something I’ve noticed is that neither of them tend to help out much, and they make more messes,when they are in the midst of a physical or cognitive growth spurt.

      I try to emphasize the idea of “win-win”, and we talk about ways they can help (dishes soaking in the sink rather than left around, laundry put away, that kind of thing…).

      And Legos..I am so glad that we’re past the “Legos all over the floor” stage!

      • I love Lego’s myself. They love to play with them quite alot and so we have a massive rug that they have to put them on.

        When the end of Lego play is finished, they wrap up the blanket and help each other to steadily empty it back in the bin – kind of like a ‘Lego Funnel’

        They have been actively doing things since the implementation of this strategy – without me needing to ask them, which is a delight.

        I’m not sure how long it will last, but while it’s working, I’m definitely enjoying it. lol

        I was considering homeschooling myself and had some great comments on a post from people with a variety of views : – love to hear yours as well if you find the time : https://misslouella.wordpress.com/2014/01/28/just-jot-it-january-6-homeschooling/

        ML
        xx

      • Not so much Lego play here, since they discovered Minecraft…but, when they do, we have the board that once topped their train table, and they build there. The Legos are stored in a pull-out drawer, so they can be cleaned up fairly easily. When they do play, it tends to be a lot over a few days, then nothing for quite a while, then another surge.

        I will pop over and look at that post, although it might be a bit before my word-addled mind, which wrote 51K words in 13 days, allows me to formulate anything approaching a coherent response…. =)

    • ummm… please don’t report me to the Fair work commissioner – I couldn’t find anything in the award for 8 and 10 year olds cleaning up their own mess.. lol

  6. I used to use heroin instead of money to get my kids to do things around the house… Did I mention my kids were taken away from me?

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