* I've been using our dishwasher for the last two months. I don't mind washing dishes by hand and I like the end result better, but having dishes on the counter all the time started to bug me. They were always rinsed and stacked, and sometimes we'd do a mid-day washing, but having 5-6 people home all day generates a lot of dishes. I reached a point where I'd rather run the dishwasher than have stacks of dishes on the counter. So, we're running a load a day and it's working well. It's the first time in my adult life that I've had and regularly used a dishwasher. I'm thankful for the luxury of having that option!
* Naomi spent the weekend with my dad, his wife, and their other five year old granddaughter earlier in the month. She had so much fun!!! My dad did a few blogs posts over that weekend, so you can check out the following links for some pictures of a cute little W or to see an example of how to be awesome grandparents.
The trip down
Friday night
All day Saturday
Sunday morning & the trip home
* Here's a quick update on the school changes I mentioned last month. We have applied to a local charter school for Devon to attend next year. If he can't get in, then we'll either continue homeschooling as usual, switch to an online school, or do a combo of Sonlight and online school. We plan on sending Silas to the local middle school. We always start our new school year in July, but the rest of the state doesn't start until September, which means there are several months in which our plans could change. For now, though, that's the plan.
* Ashley spent last weekend with us. We ate white chocolate, cherry, almond cookies, chatted about various things, heard "Aunt Ashley" about a million times, and introduced her to IKEA. And we posed for smiling and silly pictures, of course. Good times!
* I spent a day locked in my bedroom in December and spent the time coming up with a new plan of attack for school and household stuff, but we hadn't actually put any of it into practice until the last couple weeks. I have five different sheets of paper posted on a bulletin board in our kitchen, all with schedules and lists we need to keep our days productive. There are a few things we still need to implement, but it's been great. I love efficiency and we all do better with structure than without it.
* The male Ws had a "dude night", thanks to Sonja, and spent time eating Subway sandwiches and watching Redbox movies together. The littlest male W posed for the picture, but was then whisked away so that the other male Ws could watch a movie free of distractions.
I think that's it.
5 comments:
I want to see your bulletin board. I could always use 'structure tips'. Also, very exciting about next school year!
I'm guessing that Silas and Devon are both excited about their new adventures in education next year.
Dad - Yes, they're looking forward to it. :)
Beep - I don't have a camera, but I can tell you what the sheets are.
** Daily chores - These are things we've always done, but I just wanted to have the rotation in writing. Everything except laundry gets done before breakfast. Here's an example:
JANUARY
Silas - kitchen garbage & recycling
Devon - compost
Naomi - bathroom garbage & wash laundry
Tyler - put away rags
Each month the bigs rotate and Tyler has rags all year.
** Weekly (and as needed) Chores - This is another schedule for the year. Thursday nights are when our family cleans the house and this sheet lets everyone know what to do. Here's an example:
JANUARY
Tim - vacuum
Bethany - master bathroom
Silas - front bathroom
Devon - dust
Naomi - mop
We all rotate one spot each month.
** Random Chores - This is a list of things that don't need to be done regularly, so they often get neglected completely. I use it for ideas when a kid needs manual labor or acts of service with their hands as discipline, for ten minute power cleanups with the fam, or to cure boredom. There are a gazillion things on the list, but here are some examples:
- wipe shelves above the washer & dryer, wipe dining table legs, sweep back patio, wipe baseboards, vacuum coat closet, clean window tracks, clean burners
** Weekday Schedule - This has our day broken down into time frames and, when appropriate, separated by individual. Here's an example:
7:30 - 8:30
breakfast & free time
8:30 - 9:00
S - history & geography
D - readers
N - history & geography/readers
** Meal Schedule - This one has each day of the week broken down into individual meals and each meal broken down into individual tasks. I also included a description of everything each task includes. Here's an example of one day:
MONDAY
BREAKFAST
Cook - Naomi
Clean table - Devon
Sweep - Silas
Dishes - Naomi
I do lunch on all the weekdays and each kid keeps their meal task all day. The meal tasks rotate from day to day, though.
We change things up on weekends a little. Saturday lunch cooking is the kids working together. Sunday breakfast is doughnuts at church, lunch is all Tim & I, dinner cooking is all of us (we do leftovers on Sunday), and we do rock, paper, scissors to figure out who does the other dinner tasks.
Hope that makes sense! I can e-mail the actual documents to you, if that would be easier, but I don't know how to load them into a post in a way that would be big enough to actually read.
Wow. Your organization is blowing my mind!! Good job!
Kami - I thought of you when I was posting them on my wall. :)
Post a Comment