Hard Work Does Pay Off!!

Nathan and I have been talking lately about how Heidi and Jonah are old enough to start helping around the house.  There are things they have to do now, like pick up their toys and books, but we really wanted to start them on chores and help them learn how to make and manage money.  Professional people have all kinds of opinions on how to go about this.  We've taken bits and pieces from here and there and came up with a system I think will work well for us.  At least right now.  I'm sure it'll be ever changing as they grow older. But for now, we came up with four chores for each of them to do last week.  Every time they did a chore they got to put a sticker on their chart.  At the end of the week, they presented their chart to daddy.  For each sticker they had, they earned 1 quarter.  

Heidi's responsibilities:

1. Feed/water the cat

2. Make her bed

3. Match together her, Jonah's and Clara's socks when I'm folding their laundry

4. Put up the adult silverware

Jonah's responsibilities:

1. Feed the dogs

2. Make his bed

3. Put up the socks in their right drawers after Heidi matches them

4. Put up the kids silverware

They both love to help so it was no problem at all to get them to do all this with barely a reminder.  As soon as Nathan would get home, Jonah would run to him saying, "Oof-oof?" because he knew when daddy got home they would go feed the dogs.  He LOVED feeding the dogs.  The only thing Jonah was not at all enthusiastic about was making his bed.  He had no desire whatsoever.  Not even for a sticker.  Great.  Not a good sign, I don't think.  Since his mommy is not a good bed-making example, I didn't push him to do it.  Heidi, however, is very eager to please and loved to make her bed first thing when she woke up and then would come wake me up and would want me to go right then and see her made bed.  Talk about two ends of the spectrum!  They both were happy to do their other chores so it ended up working out.  We're all still new at this, so we'll just have to tweak it as we go.

Showing off their newly made chore charts
(forgive my artistry, or lack thereof)

Ready to cash them in!!

turning in their charts for daddy to inspect

Heidi getting paid for her hard work

Jonah getting paid for his hard work

So proud of themselves!!

They both got $3 for their efforts this week.  I'm very proud of them for having a good attitude and willingness to help around the house.  We'll be teaching them to divide their money between God, savings, and spending money.  Heidi has already decided that she wants to save up for a barbie doll she saw at Target.  She was all ready to take her three dollars and go get it!  Since the doll is $15, we'll be working on the "saving up" part of the idea. =)

I have to say, even though it was a bit more tedious showing them what to do and then waiting for them to do it at their pace instead of doing it faster myself, I really like the concept behind them doing the things that I normally have to do!!  I see a lot of potential for this!! Haha!!

Too Sweet Not To Share

Neither one of my children ever did pacifiers beyond their first week or so, and having them sleep with blankets made me too nervous. But I needed SOMETHING that they would bond with to help them learn to sleep on their own and, especially, sleep in an unfamiliar environment, since we travel a lot.  Heidi found and bonded with her Snuggle Bear and Jonah's lovey became a little brown rabbit named Hopalong that was a gift from his Uncle Delton.  It took a while to get him to bond with Hopalong but today Jonah and I learned just how bonded they now are.

Jonah's diaper overflowed last night as it sometimes does so this morning all the bedding went into the wash, including Hopalong.  We were out and about all morning until lunch time so I didn't have a chance to put it all into the dryer.  We got home for lunch late so nap time was right after they finished eating.  I knew Hopalong was still sitting in the wash but I was REALLY hoping Jonah wouldn't remember/mind/find something else to sleep with for his nap.  Jonah is usually the easiest and first to put down for a nap.  Heidi doesn't always sleep but as long as she stays in bed and doesn't make too much noise or disturb her brother I'm fine with it.

Well.

Let me just tell you that Jonah most definitely felt the absence of one little brown rabbit.  He also sleeps with a pillow, a Buzz Lightyear doll, and a little dog named Copper.

(side note: if you are hoping to slim down the collection of stuffed animals your children accumulate, DON'T give names or allow the kids to give names to any more animals than are absolutely necessary!! Do you know how hard it is to give away stuffed animals that you can call by name???  I mean its hard for ME to do it even if the kids aren't there telling me who they want to keep!! Just FYI...)

Moving on...

After I left the room, I could hear Jonah bellyaching and carrying on and he was not happy about something.  I walked back in there after a while and told him to hush and go to sleep.  While in there, I noticed that the pillow, the dog and Buzz had all been chucked out of bed to the middle of the room.  Jonah was making his displeasure known!  I took pity on him and found a little bear that Nathan had given him that he loves to sleep with (alongside Hopalong) and tried to explain to him that I knew he wanted Hopalong but that Hopalong was taking a "bath" and wasn't dry yet.  But that mommy would make sure he was dry by bedtime.  He accepted my talk and the bear at first but was still carrying on and the next time I peeked into the room, the bear was chucked to the middle of the room, too.  After about an hour of fussing and being upset he finally fell asleep but didn't take a very long nap and was VERY grumpy when he woke up.

Fast forward to after church, Jonah and Heidi were getting ready to head upstairs when I presented him with a now dry Hopalong!  You've never seen a little boy be happier!!!

A BIG and VERY vocal hug! And look at that big smile!!

And some kisses!!

Bedtime was no problem, now that Hopalong is right where he belongs!