Stick-y Situation

I do this every summer. I start out all gung-ho; THIS will be the summer that my kids do chores every day, read every day, do math every day, and return to their various school campuses in the fall as all around well-rounded, responsible and educated students that will BLOW THEIR TEACHERS MINDS. Not that I have high aspirations or anything. I know I'm not alone in this. I KNOW it. I know I'm not the only one who has tried just about every pinterest trick, system, torture method and idea to get my house to stay clean, my kids from screaming the ever present, "I'm BORED!" and turning into mindless gaming zombies all summer.

Frankly, since I recently just quit my full time job (um, that is QUITE another blog, for another time), I don't have the budget to run my kids around town exploring $300 camps and all of that other fun stuff everyone else does every week, all summer. They get ONE. One. Camp. Other than that, we will do chores. And Read. LOL.

So, last week, I decided to try out this system. To my knowledge, it is an Amanda original, but in all fairness, who knows if this is something I remember subconsciously from Pinterest. If that is the case, credit where credit is due. But again, I think it's all my genius....

Materials:

Colored popsicle sticks from Hobby Lobby (I chose fat ones)
Adhesive Magnetic strips
One magnetic pen cup
Label Maker
Black sharpie

Action:

First, I made a list of all the things that bug me when my kids DON'T do them. Then I added a couple things I thought might build character, or grow their little minds. Next up is labeling the sticks. I decided to kind of categorize them by color- red for chores that should definitely be done daily and are deal breakers for me if not done. Teal for mind growing activities, green for pet responsibilities, yellow for chores that must be done but are no fun. Really it's up to you what goes on here, and what colors you use. Technically, you could mix them up. I then labeled the sticks. I ended up with 10 per kid. I did the same set of sticks for each kid. You could also change this up if certain kids have certain chores. I then attached the magnetic strips. I bought a packet of 12 strips, but cut them in half to make them go farther. I also made a FUN TIME stick.

Next up, I labeled the pen cup with "Rewards" and "Chores". The idea being, if one kid has a great day, they get to pull a reward stick, and if they need a consequence (or complain of being bored), they pull a chore stick. This is similar to the jars I did last summer. I then started labeling these sticks. I used purple for reward, yellow for chore- but again, up to you. Ideas of rewards I used were- Dollar store pick, Get Ice Cream, Homemade treat (let them help make), Make Dinner (um, this is an actual reward in my house, strange, I know), RedBox choice, special outing, cash bonus. Chores are heinous things I really hate doing but know they can handle. This pretty much includes any household chore. HA!

I lined each kid's sticks up on the fridge in a stack, and put Make Bed and Clean Sink at the top and FUN TIME at the bottom.

At this point, the bright rainbow colors going up on the fridge were starting to attract a crowd of curious onlookers- which is exactly what I'd hoped for. C wanted to know when we get to start. M, on the other hand is wise to this summer game and was eyeing it skeptically. I explained that each day, they would need to complete the chore sticks to earn the free FUN TIME. They can complete the sticks in any order they like- (except Make Bed and Clean Sink), but they all must be complete before they can have tv or game time. They can also take as long as they want in one day to complete them, but there is no fun time stick until they're done. Once a chore is finished, it goes to the bottom of the stack, slowly moving fun time up.

Surprising outcomes of this:

1. C woke up the next morning and immediately made his bed for maybe the 3rd time in his life- (note, system was not yet in place as it was not summer yet).
2. C asked daily when it would start.
3. When reviewing the Thoughtful Deed stick, C could not think of anything, so asked for an extra chore stick. Um, yes, you may.... he cleaned my toilets (and washed his hands). No judging.
4. By 11 am, his chore chart looked like this.

Plus, we had spent some quality time practicing piano together- beyond the original time required. He earned the Redbox stick because he finished all his chores in a timely manner.

So, all in all, I'm pretty excited about this one. M is at camp, so it remains to be seen how a middle schooler will respond. But I will say that pulling from the bored jar last summer worked SO WELL that I never once heard "I'm bored". In retrospect, I'm considering adding a quiet time stick- or read a Bible Verse stick.

So there you go- a productive day by 11am, and C suggested that I make chore sticks for myself. He's probably right. I should.

What inexpensive rewards do you have for your kids? DO you like this system? What would you change?

This lesson has been modified to fit your screen....

Okay, this one is going to be a vent.

I am not technology challenged, but neither am I am technology genius. But I am seriously scratching my head over the last 4 weeks of middle school.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends a limited amount of screen time for our kids- including computer screens, ipods, phones, and tv time. At least, that's the way I understand it. This is already a struggle in my home as I have two gamer sons. So, why, oh, why, must there be so much REQUIRED screen time in our middle school agendas and learning? I'm ok with some of it- I know you need to relate to what the kids are doing now, but let me enlighten you about what it does to me as a parent- because I can't even imagine how overwhelmed Mason feels right now...

Mason has 7-8 periods a day. With at least 7 teachers. Each teacher has an email address and corresponds with me by emails. So I have spent the last 4-5 weeks frantically searching my email box for their correspondence, only to find some of it 2 days late, in my junk folder. Oh, wait- we added a new permanent social studies sub, so even though I added the original teacher to my in box, the new teacher is now going to my junk mail. This sender, (and the other 7) are now safe. Phew, that should do it, right? I should be getting everything I need to know, right?

Oh, wait, no, they don't all email- some prefer to use the school "education app" Edmodo- it's really cool- like a facebook for teachers, parents and students. Oh, but wait- we don't ALWAYS put the assignments or correspond by Edmodo- sometimes we prefer to have the students write them in their agendas instead, so please check that too. Please see Mason's specific username and passcode 3795867b voho to access Edmodo. You will only have the parent view of the folder unless you log in as Mason using his specific username and passcode woiuer oiuo.

By the way, you can conveniently check all of his grades, attendance and tardies on our "Home Access Center". This is convenient way to stay on top of his work and grades. You will need his other username _________ and password lwiu iuoe. Oh wait, he's late on his assignment? Please check his agenda...

It depends on the teacher as to whether they want to have assignments in the agenda or on Edmodo...

Oh wait, he didn't write it in his agenda? Then maybe you better count on him to bring the notebook home with the notes and assignment in it to complete at home. I'm sorry if you didn't know about said notebook and said assignment needing to come home, and it wasn't on the Edmodo tab- but he didn't complete his assignments on time, so now he will have to stay after school for 3 HOURS to complete it.

Oh, wait, you didn't know we use three additional sites for Math? Oh, I'm so sorry, they're in my signature line on the email that went to your junk folder. There are also individual usernames and passwords for each of the other two math sites we use to keep the kids sharp.

Please keep these usernames and passwords in a safe place where you and your child have access to them and please stay on top of your kids to make sure they are completing all assignments on time.

Please bring your own device to school, because we will be "flipping" the lesson- we'll give them notes, but they'll need to go online to learn the lesson...

What, the what????? Someone, please help me- am I alone here? I have no idea how to know what's going on at any given time, and I really feel like to get to the bottom of it, I have to spend a good 30 minutes of MY day making sense of something like homework assignments that really shouldn't be that complicated. Help. I'd love any of your tips and tricks to make this middle school thing flow easier.

Pinterest Punked

Hey girls, I'm sure we all have that one story (or several) that we can tell- all about that time that Pinterest totally punked us. NAILED it.

Pinterest has come through for me time, and time again, and I even have a board that I call, "I tried it and it's true". Well, now, apparently, I'm going to need to create a board that states the opposite... and I think I'll call it "Pinterest Punks".

Have you seen the cool pin that shows a girl's hand, with a beautiful French manicure created by those little round hole punch reinforcement tabs? Well, that's not my hand, but here's my review of that process.

So far, so good...

Okay, so it's not a perfectly straight line, and there's adhesive all over my nails, but nothing a little finger nail polish remover won't take care of....

Okay, so I know my cuticles are shot, and I don't profess to be a nail tech or anything, but most of what you see in this picture is either glue/adhesive or nail polish that has now clumped up and stuck to my nail. I was starting to consider some goo-gone and mentioned to Hubby that this pin was NOT working as planned, to which he responded- "Hey, is now a good time to download those built-in bookcase plans from Pinterest?" Ha. Hah. Aren't you just the comedian?

Here's the finished product. At this point, I was emotionally invested in the project and thought you guys deserved to see a finished product- complete with top coat (painted over the adhesive that wouldn't come off).

In a nutshell, either I'm an idiot (which could COMPLETELY be the case, since I am nail polish challenged), OR this pin sucks. I'll let you decide.

I'm happy to report that since Hubby also coined this Pin "Ghetto", I have completely removed all of said "French manicure" and sticky adhesive. All I have to say is that maybe next time I'll try Dollar Store reinforcement tabs, because Avery makes a damn good product.