Lessons from a Chore Chart

Giving is an important part of our family.  A few months ago, I noticed the girls were entertained by finding loose change around the house and collecting it "for the act of giving it away".   I wanted The Princess to learn that, while giving is a wonderful thing, she can also save some for herself.  And she should not only SAVE some for herself, but give herself some SPENDING money as well.  

Some might think that our kids are too young to have a chore chart and to be getting money.  I think kids are smarter than people give them credit for and learning about money from a young age is essential.  Our kids don't get an allowance, they get commission.  The chore chart,  which is a great way for them to learn to contribute to the family by doing some tasks, is OPTIONAL.  I don't hound them to do their chores.  To be honest, they are way more into it than I would even like them to be!  (Because when Hammie does her chores, I still have to supervise, so it makes more work for me!)

What sort of chores do they have?  Well, our girls are two years and soon to be five years old.  Their chores include:  

We've Got Mail!

If you are looking for an easy project to entertain the kids then this is it!  Seriously, I made this while drinking my morning coffee.  AND it entertained my girls for most of the morning. . . and then again in the afternoon!

There is nothing quite like playing Pretend!  But let's face it, pretend is way more fun when you have props!  And to make mommy even happier, I threw in something educational too.

Here is our mailbox.  I took a box and cut a hole in one end (so that when you pick the box up you can get all the mail).  I wrapped most of the sides in brown packaging paper. . . I would have done all the sides, but I ran out!  The girls never even noticed!  Lastly, I cut a "mail slot" and taped on a priority mail sign that I cut from an old box.

Here comes the educational part.  On our envelopes I put a capital letter, on the "mail" itself I put a lowercase letter.  Now the girls have a matching game!  This game is way too easy for The Princess, but it's perfect for Hammie.  Later maybe I will add some site words for The Princess, but remember, this was during my morning coffee so you can't expect grand things from me at that hour!  Also, mail is not complete without a stamp, so I cut some labels down and wrote "STAMP".  Not very original, but it served it's purpose.

 Time for the matching game!  Even though it was too easy for the Princess she still loved it!  Our dog slept through all the excitement.

Fine motor skills at work!

A favorite task:  MAILING the letters!

The Princess got to play the Mail carrier first

Like any good mail carrier, making sure she has all the letters

Filling up the mail bag!

Everyone in our house received mail that day, including the pets!  And this brings me back to: there is no toy as fun as an empty BOX!

I Spy Bottles

My kids just had Christmas with an influx of new and awesome toys.  Toys that light up, make noise, and completely entertain.  So when I decided to make "I Spy" bottles for my girls I wasn't expecting to get a big reaction.  Boy was I wrong!!!  Our girls were SO EXCITED and it completely entertained our 2 and 4 year olds.  I actually made these for a car trip we will be taking, but they worked really well this weekend while we are cooped up due to dangerously cold weather.

Do you have everything you need?  Here is the list:

A New Year's Celebration for the Little Ones

Happy New Year!  If we are friends on Facebook you may already know that we had a very kid-friendly celebration at home ;)  

Here are some pictures from our evening.

New Year, New Plans

I am a big fan of New Year's celebrations.  Now that we have kids we celebrate in different ways, but no matter how you celebrate it's a fresh start!  January 1st comes and there are endless possibilities for the new year.  Whether you are a person that makes resolutions or not, it's a good feeling.

  I was on Pinterest trying to come up with fun New Year's activities for the girls and I came across this really fun blog with printable parent & child date cards.  Our family is going to be going through some big changes in 2014.  Happy changes, but changes that will affect our kids and our time spent with them.  The Hubby and I decided that getting some one-on-one time with our girls could be a really great transitional tool for them and us.

Mr. Christmas Tree Jingle

I always thought that Elf on the Shelf looked like so much fun, but I never could see us adopting a tricky little Elf that is going to make more messes for me to clean up.  Don't get me wrong, I love seeing all the pictures of these little Elves and the creative mischief they get into!  For our family we really strive to do character building activities and that's when I started to think that the Elf might just be able to help us out with that!

Santa must have read my mind because yesterday, an Elf showed up!!  The Princess was excited but a little leery at first.  (Is four when you start to lose your belief in magic already?  Boy I hope not.)  But when her little friend came over and started talking about her own magic Elf that really got her excited!  She went to bed super quick last night just to look for Mr. Christmas Tree Jingle the next morning. Mr. Christmas Tree Jingle.  Jingle for short. What a great name, right?  Reminds me of a preschooler of mine whose mom was having a baby and she desperately wanted to name her Snowflake Cupcake!  Ah, four year olds.  Love them.

So just where did Mr. Christmas Tree Jingle end up?  Keep checking the blog as I will be adding pictures all through December!

Day 1:

A Greener Yoga Mat

I went through three yoga mats in one week.  I've always just bought a cheap mat at any old store without paying much attention.  THIS week,  my husband picked one up for me, but it was bumpy and I would rather have smooth so I picked up a cheap one from Walmart.  

Took it out to use it and I noticed it smelled pretty bad.  Very much like chemicals.  It was pretty gross to have my face so close to it at times.  I thought I would just let it air out, so on my way to the garage (it smelled that bad) I grabbed the cardboard that came with it and noticed this:

Warning:  This mat contains chemicals (recognized by the state of California) known to cause Cancer and/or birth defects/fertility issues.