Want Help Around the House? 9 Strategies for Developing a Household Chore System

Author: Janet Nusbaum

You know how it is ... You come home to find the house a mess, backpacks in front of the door, the kids are screaming at each other, clothes strewn everywhere, dirty dishes in the family room, more dirty dishes on the kitchen table. And the moment you ask for help, a bigger screaming match breaks out.  You know your children need to be responsible and self-sufficient, but life happens. You vow to implement a system, saying to yourself "I'll get around to it later". But in the real world, later often never comes.  Studies show that children who perform household chores during their school years attain more success in adulthood than those who do not. Follow these simple strategies and you could soon be hearing ... "Mom, Can I Help Around the House?"  1. Assume the role of teacher Children learn to read, write, add and subtract from their school teachers. A parent's role as teacher and mentor of essential life skills and home management is equal in importance.  2. Commit yourself for the long-haul Consistently send the message to your kids that you're in this for the long haul. You will be rewarded by their commitment as well.  3. Provide age-appropriate tools and instruction Give your child every opportunity to succeed by providing the right tools for the job, ample instruction, modeling how you want the job done, a timeline for completion, and provide plenty of opportunities for practice.  4. Model the Behavior You are Teaching As the cliché goes "actions speak louder than words". If your children consistently see the adults procrastinate in their responsibilities, then the children learn to do the same.  5. Get Buy-in by Involving Your Kids in Designing a Chore System The more involved your children feel in the process, and they feel that their input is valued, the more ownership they will feel for the assigned tasks and the overall success of the system.  6. Create Non-negotiable House Rules Without ground rules, how can you expect your children to know what constitutes acceptable or unacceptable behavior? Rules provide the boundaries children need to help them learn and practice acceptable behaviors.  7. Normalize Home Maintenance Routines Every family member should have responsibilities to help family life run smoothly. Set the precedent that performing family chores is as normal as brushing their teeth.  8. Acknowledge How Their Contribution Helps You When your child learns how much their contribution helps you, you are actively reinforcing a child's desire to contribute more. It not only boosts their self-esteem, but it also develops their sense of service to others.  9. Be Consistent in Your Discipline Child experts agree that sending mixed messages to children with inconsistent discipline creates the most resistant, maladapted behavior of all.  These nine strategies will help give you guidelines and strategies for implementing your own household chore system where every family has an age-appropriate role in home maintenance.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/home-and-family-articles/want-help-around-the-house-9-strategies-for-developing-a-household-chore-system-847608.html

About the Author:
Janet Nusbaum (AKA the Organizing Genie), WAHM of two, is an Organizing Consultant, & Author of 'Mom, Can I Help Around the House? A Simple Step-by-step System for Teaching your Children Life-long Skills for Pitching in & Picking up'. Grab a FREE CHAPTER of her book & household chore system at   http://www.KidsandChores.net   . Get even more organizing & family management help by visting her blog:   http://www.TheOrganizingGenie.com

 

House and Home:

 

Our House and Home page is the perfect spot for moms to get advice on do-it-yourself home projects to decorating tips! From decluttering the hall closet to making dining room curtains, find ways to turn that house of yours into a home!

 

 

5 Ways to Save Money on Groceries

By Stephanie Nelson

Stephanie Nelson, founder of CouponMom.com, says it's possible to fight the rising cost of groceries without sacrificing your favorite foods. Try her simple coupon saving strategies the next time you go to the grocery store:
Plan your meals and shopping lists around featured sale items.

• Use your store's weekly sales ad flier to plan your menus for the week. Then, write your shopping list around the items and brands that are on sale.
• Taking a few minutes to make a detailed plan will save you the time of making unplanned trips to the store during the week?which can ruin your budget.
• Planning ahead also helps you avoid impulse shopping during your trip.

Know how your stores' savings programs work.

• Do they have "buy one, get one free" deals?
• Do they double coupons?
• Do they offer a store discount cards that gives you automatic discounts?
• Do they have special store coupons?
• Once you know your stores' rules, you can combine them to pay the lowest possible prices for your items, such as using two coupons with a "buy one, get one free" deal. Combining strategies can result in free items.

Use grocery coupons, ideally when the item is on sale.

• Buy the Sunday newspaper?75 percent of grocery coupons come from the newspaper. Buy two to three copies per week to save dramatically.
• Go online?grocery stores often have their best deals and printable coupons on their websites.
• Many stores offer electronic coupons that go directly on your store discount card. 

Stock up on common items when they hit their lowest price.

• Don't buy a year's supply, just enough to last until the next sale (two to three weeks).
• Boneless chicken is on sale every other week at Stephanie's grocery store, so she buys two weeks of boneless chicken every other week to store in her freezer. This habit saves her family of four $325 a year on this one item.

Be flexible about brands and stores.

• Buy the brand that's on sale with a coupon, or get the store brand if it's less expensive.
• Shop at the store with the best prices for your items that week.

Organizing Toy Chaos

By: Carrie Anne Badov

When I decided to work from home in order to spend more time with my three young kids, I didn't think this time would be spent tidying up toys. My first solution was to create a playroom on the third floor. At first this was great. Out of sight, out of mind.

However, I soon realized the flaw in my plan. My kids always wanted to play upstairs. I missed having them in the kitchen when I cooked or in the dining room when I worked. There had to be a better way.

I found by making a few changes I was able to create a kid environment without converting the entire downstairs into a second playroom.

Toys on display. My husband's childhood Tonka trucks are my kid's favourite toys. When the trucks aren't being used, they look great on display in a cabinet in the dining room.

Books for everyone. We've left the bottom of the bookshelf free for kid's books. This makes it easy for the kids to get at and put their own books away. And having them on the lower shelf makes them less obvious to others coming in the room.

A work of art. Like most kids, mine love to colour and draw. To keep the paper, paint, and markers under control, we keep the lower drawer of our sideboard free for supplies. It's easy to access and easy to toss things in and hide if company's coming. Then display the finished masterpiece in a picture frame on the wall.

Out of sight, out of mind. An old seaman's trunk downstairs is perfect as a bench for putting on shoes or hosting impromptu tea parties, but most importantly it stores the kid's toys when they're not being used.

All wet. The holes in the Boon Frog Pod hanging storage unit allows for easy drying of wet toys without having them take up lots of space in one of our smallest rooms. And hanging it behind the shower curtain keeps it out of sight.

Cutting down on clutter. At the bottom of the stairs we have placed a small basket. Whatever doesn't fit in the toy storage areas downstairs gets placed in this basket and to be brought back upstairs and put away.

I love having the kids around and the new storage solutions make it easy for them to tidy up on their own. The best part, I spend more time playing with my kids instead of picking up after them.

Article courtesy of Yummy Mummy Club

With a background in advertising, Carrie Anne left the agency life to spend more time with her three energetic and active kids (age 6, 4, & 21 months). At home in Toronto she works for advertising agencies testing their Client's online communications; a cool job, according to her kids, especially when games are involved.

Carrie Anne volunteers at her children's school and when time allows she works on her children's story ideas in the hopes of some day seeing one of them published. She is very fortunate to have a deliciously, wonderful hubby that supports and understands her and gives amazing back rubs.