Don't Lose your Marbles!

This is a strategy that is extremely effective and helpful to me as a mother of 4 cute Kiddies :) and even more so now that School's Out for Summer.... 

talk about losing my Marbles already....haha.  I love my kids dearly :) I do, but they love to drive me bonkers a lot of the time too! :) I'm sure Mom's everywhere might agree with me..LOL.

So, I hope this will help you out like it does me!

The system is super simple:

Everytime my kids do something good- help me out in some way, do chores, read, eat dinner all gone, play nice with their siblings, etc, (you get the picture) they can get 1 marble (or more-depending on how much you think they earn for what they did) put in their jar.  If they do something bad- hit their sibling, talk back, be mean, etc. they can lose a marble. 

You can decide what happens when they get so many marbles.  Here are a couple ideas.

*They can spend marbles every other friday night at the "family store"- where we have goodies, coloring books, stickers, glow necklaces, etc. filled in a bucket available for "purchase" for so many marbles each prize.

*They can trade in their marbles at the end of the week for money/allowance.

*They can try to get their marbles all the way to the top and be able to buy a certain toy they've been begging to have, or go on a super fun date w/ Mom and Dad, or go somewhere really fun!! Maybe even Disneyland!! You decide!

How to make:

I simply had a few mason jars around the house that I used.  I made up some cute design on my computer using digi scrapbooking.  (I like to use Memory Mixer). I printed it out and mod podged it to my jars. Super Easy! You can also print it out on Sticker paper or something like that and Mod Podge over it for a good seal or packaging tape also works great for a clear, waterproof seal.

You can kinda take this idea and run with it, so many creative possibilies and things your kids can learn & earn.

So heres to a happy Summer with your kids, less fighting, more listening and a more sane Mommy! :) I'd love to know if you try it and how it works out for you!

Linkin Up!

My New BEST FRIEND & Our Family System Revisited

I want to tell you about my new Best Friend...the Fly Lady!  Many of you probably already know about her.  I heard about her a couple of years ago, but didn't pay much attention at the time.  Recently I found her again and I Love, Love, Love Her!  FLY stands for Finally Loving Yourself.  She helps you to keep an organized and clean house to finally love yourself and keep the CHAOS (Can't Have Anyone Over Sydrome) away.  I'm sorta a born organized person.  I keep a strict calendar, Many lists, I like things orderly.  But, sometimes getting things that way is hard especially with 4 kids to get things all out of whack.  But, the fly lady is helping.  I feel it's okay if somebody drops by without calling, my house isn't perfect but I'm finally loving the way it is everyday. It's more peaceful and....hmmmm, well clean & orderly I guess you could say.  I'm not overwhelmed by loads of laundry which is a big giant plus.  The Fly Lady is helping me do little by little everyday and create new habits to my morning and night routines so it's now a habit and I'm not spending the day cleaning for hours and hours.  My kids are getting into a great routine too Just in time for school.  Check out the Fly Lady's website here.  Don't get overwhelmed by all the info there.  Start wih the The Getting Started Section & Baby Steps and Flying Lessons.  It really does work.  She has some great tools as well.  Make sure you sign up for her emails.  You will get an email each day of what you need to do that day to stay on track.  I'm loving it.  It's so exactly what I needed.  Let me know if you are already FLYing or if you try it Let me know how it goes! I promise you'll be feeling so much better!  I also like the ideas from JOY over at Just Organize Yourself.  She uses a lot of the Fly Ladies system and might give you some other ideas as well.  This resource might also be worth checking out!  How to do develop that morning routine, how to actually get out of bed in the mornings..haha!
 I also love this for our family Calendar, shopping lists, to do's, etc. on the computer.  I also think it's important to have a calendar for everybody to see other than just on the computer.  If it's not on the Calendar, it doesn't happen!  Fly Lady has a great wall calendar.  We did an FHE lesson on "House of Order" to kind of kick off our routines.  I'm also using the idea of the House Fairy to keep my kids a little excited to stick with their chores everyday.

We are still going strong on our Family Board System.  I made some new magnets w/ pics of what they should do with a morning routine, aftershool routine & before bed routine. So that can start to get in more of a habit of what they should do during those times. I also made me some that I keep on a different magnet board.  I'll take some pics soon and add here.  I switched up how we use our points a little bit.

Basic Points per day

good behavior faces= 3 pts/day if on good face
chores & schedule complete= 3 pts/day
eating all or most of food at dinner= 2 pts
trying a new food= 1 pt
Choose extra chores = 1 extra pt each chore
Help make lunch or Dinner= 1 point
*other things get them points too, only Mom or Dad can decide to give points out, for doing an extra good deed, helping somebody out, etc.

Points Taken Away
hitting
yelling
bad words
being mean
whining/crying for no reason
talking back

Can pay mom or dad points
a sandwich at dinner time instead of what we are eating= 3 pts
30 minutes computer game time after chores & homework are done= 1 pt
30 minutes DS after Chores & Homework are done= 1 pt
30 minutes TV= 1 pt

**extra rewards given by parents= weekday movie night,

wii play, date w/ mom, date w/ dad, etc.

*can trade in pts for money at the end of each week, money goes in our family bank binder, pay tithing on fast Sundays and they can save up money to buy things at school, a small toy at the store or save up for something bigger*
5 cents per point (cheap I know..haha, but the points add up)

**The kids got a Special Letter from the "House Fairy."  She's the one that comes to Inspect their rooms and to see how good of job they are doing.  This created some excitement for them and anytime they see a little sparkly fairy dust around it reminds them of her and that she is stopping by each week to make sure they are still doing thier jobs well.  They'll get other letters and little trinkets from her in the weeks to come.

It's important that kids know what you expect from them, for our Family Night we also established some basic family rules so they know for sure what is expected in our House.  These are rules for everybody, mom and dad too!! =)

Talk Nicely to Each Other
No mean or bad words
If you Get it out You Put it away
If you make a mess you clean it up
Do your Chores
Trash goes in the Garbage Can
No Food or Dishes in bedrooms
Do your best in School
Do your best in Church Callings

Whew!  I guess that's it for today!  Let me know if you have any questions of specifics of our system.  Are you as crazy and me and have to have a totally organized system in your house.  What's your ideas, what do you do?

*Our Family Board & Our Family System*

Okay....I am IN LOVE with OUR FAMILY BOARD project I just finished! WOOHOO!

I had so many ideas of what I wanted on this board, cause you know I LOVE organization and chore charts and behavior charts, etc, etc. So, I took my ideas to my sister and she helped me build it & bring my idea to life.

I just Love, love, love how it turned out!! These pics DO NOT do it justice... =)I have a section for each child, I made little chore magnet gems with pictures and words that they can move from "To Do" to "Done." Those are their everyday things that they need to do. I also have other gems that I can put on there for extra jobs for that day or saturday jobs, etc. The paper covered part is also a magnet board for extra jobs, school papers, b-day invites, etc. That is also where I put whose turn it is to have a Date with Mom or a Date with Dad. We switch between my hubby and I and between the kids each month. I made a special magnet for those.
Also, my smiley faces and sad faces you see there....here is how it works:
I made the little Arrow magnets and it has each kids name on their own.
If they do something bad, not listening, hitting, etc. (whatever it may be) they get moved to the middle face (that is their warning). If they do something bad again they get moved to the Sad face and they go to TimeOut. They can also move back to the Middle (okay) face, then the Smiley Face by doing something good, in example: listening, picking up their toys, saying sorry etc.

At the End of the day if they did their Daily Chores They get 2 Point Cards (the ones with the Yellow Smiley Faces, they are worth 1 point each which it says on the back). They may get an extra point for extra jobs that they are given. If they end up on The Smiley face at the end of the day they also get 2 point cards. If they end up on the middle (okay face) they get 1 point card. If they did something extra special Mom or Dad may give them a Reward Card. (This has things like Stay up an extra 10 minutes at bed time, play the computer or video game for 30 minutes, it also says the point value of each reward, they can also buy a reward card if they have enough points, or they can save up their points to buy stuff in the family store that we have every other weekend. I got the original Reward Points Idea and Family Store idea Here
The top part of each childs section has plexiglass that you can use a dry erase marker to write messages and I put a cute picture of each kid from the month underneath. It just screws on and off so I can change out the picture whenever I want

We also give the kids an option between 3 point cards or 25 cents for doing chores each day {(they're young kids, they think 25 cents is awesome ;)} They put their money in their own individual piggy banks and once a month or every couple weeks we count up what they have and put 10% for tithing and they can put some in our big family jug for our family vacation if they would like, and they put the rest in their section of the Family Bank. Whatever money they earn from b-days, Grandpas and Grandmas or chores will eventually end up in the Family Bank and that is their money to save up or buy a little toy or treat, a jump rope from school, etc. When they want something we look to the family bank to see how much they have to spend. There is a section for each kid with their name and in the very front we keep tithing slips and envelopes.

I have thought about every detail of our family system and This board has every detail in it and keeps it all organized. It is quite big, It measures 28 inches (2 feet & 4 inches) from top to bottom and 53 inches (4 feet and 5 inches) across.

My sister made one with just 3 sections so it's a little shorter.

So, that is Our Family System and Our Family Board! Let me know what you think or if you have any questions!!

I may revise it every now and again, but

I'm loving our board and our system & I know we will use it for years!!

~Angela

Reward Systems

I lOVE Organization and rewarding good behavior in my home and I tried THIS great idea with a point system for chores and good behavior with my kids. They actually love it! You can change it to personalize it for your own family. It's also great with setting a time limit for playing there DS' and things like that. (example- it costs 15 tickets to play your DS for 30 minutes). They earn the tickets by having good behavior and doing their chores, etc.
Try it out and let me know how it works for you or any other ideas you come up with. I also Love, Love, Love THIS blog & I can't wait to try this Rewards Points System Idea out. I'd love to hear what you've tried and what works for you and your kids!!