The Library Poster Contest Award Ceremony

Esther's award ceremony for designing a poster that won first prize was on May 7 at the downtown Lancaster Library. That's her enlarged drawing behind them.

 Wow. Balloons! This is the big time.

One of Esther's Sunday School teachers came for the ceremony - pictured above. And one of my good friends (Sherry - hey I mentioned you on the blog!) came too - and fought off lots of scary abductors in a locked parking garage - but I didn't take her picture (so sad).

They look sweet here, but really they were hyper and couldn't stand or sit still. This is Alex and Es with one of Esther's best friends. It is so sweet that she and her mom came to celebrate with us.

And first place in Division 2 for grades three to five is - - - - - - -  Esther!!!

Cylo from the local baseball team was there to congratulate all the winners and to make us all laugh.

At dinner time, the very giggly girls enjoyed their sodas while we ate a meal consisting of Egyptian, Iraqi, and Syrian food. Quite a meal.

Who Needs Toys

Mommy Tip Number 343: When you buy a huge supply of toilet paper, let the kids play with the rolls for awhile and then later put them away. These were out for two days before I finally couldn't take the mess any longer.

Chores

Funny but I don't have too many pictures of the kids working. This is Emma last year working hard.

My husband grew up on a farm. When you live on a farm, you learn how to work. He milked cows and did other farm labor. We live in a housing development in a cookie-cutter house with a small yard (don’t get me wrong here – we love our house and yard and neighbors!!). It takes me (or usually my hubby) an hour or so to mow the yard and tend to our flower beds and such each week. We did recently build a little pond in our backyard so that takes some work as well. The inside of the house takes about an hour or two for me to clean from top to bottom each week. Of course there is also laundry and cooking on a daily basis and the deep cleaning that needs done occasionally (organize closets, weed through old toys and books, clean the gunk out of the fridge, etc.). But my point is – I can easily accomplish all the household tasks on my own and still have time to do my grad school work and relax occasionally.


I believe my kids could go their whole childhood without learning how to work. Some do.


But my theory is that if my darlings don’t do chores they will turn out to be lazy and spoiled and self-indulgent. They will expect things to get done without lifting a finger.


I have used various charts and systems over the years to get my kids to help with the daily household tasks. Here is the best system I have come up with. It works great for my kids at this stage of life (ages 4, 7, and 9).


I print out a blank chart with a row for each day of the week from this Web site http://dltk-cards.com/chart/. Actually, it’s usually Esther’s job to make everyone’s chart each week.


The nine-year-old has three columns; the seven-year-old has two columns; the four-year-old has one column (but I vary these from time to time). I found that assigning specific chores ahead of time (like: take out trash every Monday, clean room every Tuesday, etc.) gets stressful for the family. If someone has extra homework (like science fair) or is sick or has a friend over to play, then sometimes the chores don’t get done.


So what I do is write their daily chores each day in their blank charts, and they do the chores after our family devotions after dinner. Usually it’s Alex’s job to sweep the kitchen after we eat. But if it’s nice and we eat outside, he gets another job like windexing the back windows or putting away his laundry. Whenever I see that their rooms need cleaned, then that is one of their chores for that day. This flexibility makes things a lot easier than having room cleaning day every Thursday or whatever.


Their reward for each chore is one penny. Every child has a cup of pennies. Whenever they accumulate twenty pennies, they can cash them in for a prize out of the prize bucket (coloring books, pencils, candy, stickers, etc.). Also in the prize bucket are some dollars, so they could get a dollar each time they earn twenty pennies (this is usually Alex’s choice). I also have gift certificates in the prize bucket. Some examples of the certificates are: “eat dessert for dinner,” “sleep in Mommy and Daddy’s room,” and “stay up late.” (By the way, they also earn pennies for random acts of kindness and they lose pennies for bad behavior.)


We’ve been using this system for over a year now, which is longer than any other method I have used in the past. One of my friends already copied this system and loves it, which is why I am being so bold as to share it here. Maybe someone else will find something in this long post (thanks for reading it to the end, by the way!) they can implement in their own family.


So, we may not be learning as much as our farmer neighbors, but we're doing out best to instill a strong work ethic in these little people!


Some chores they do: dust the stairs, sweep up crumbs, clean the bathroom, swiffer (mop) the floor, clean windows (Emma likes this one), put away laundry, fold the towels, water plants, write a nice note to someone, dust, vacuum their bedroom, clean their bedroom.


Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not turn from it. Proverbs 22:6