Monday, June 20, 2016

Summer Goals

Happy first day of summer! B had his kindergarten graduation today...so cute! Still a few more days of school---we start & end school late here compared to the rest of the country, it seems. We spent an extra-extra-hot and sunny father's day at a baseball game with friends. It may have been ill-advised. Or maybe my mid-day beer was ill-advised. In any case, I had a terrible headache when we got home and poor G had to read the boys stories & clean up the entire kitchen.

I like the idea of making "summer" a little different for all of us, even though only 1/4 of us will actually be spending his days in a different way the next few months. So I decided to come up with a few individual and family goals. I'm keeping it super simple here, it is summer after all! We go on vacation later this week and then we'll head into July 4th, so I consider "summer" the 9 weeks between July 4th and Labor Day.

Self-care: get anxiety treated, one barre class/week, take 1-2 "personal days" off for doctor/dentist appointments/catching up/relaxing

Work: 1 grant, 1 paper, 1 IRB submission

Family: visit every sprayground in town, fruit picking at local farm once (we missed strawberry season unfortunately, but maybe peaches?), at least one weeknight outing/week (nothing fancy---picnic at park, library, ice cream)

Special goals for B's first "real summer":
-Reading challenge: I'm going to give him a small notebook to record every book he reads. For every 25 books he gets a special treat (he reads picture books, so that's not very many). I actually want him to get comfortable reading longer "chapter" books, too, so we'll modify this later in the summer.
-Chores: will work with him to come up with 3 things he can do around the house (ideas on what a very uncoordinated and scatter-brained 6 year old can do?)
-Allowance: going to start an allowance and teaching about money. Starting with the basics of identifying the coins (he's still iffy on nickels vs. quarters) and practicing math, discussing how much common things cost, try saving for a small toy. 

Enjoy this (extra long) day!




22 comments:

  1. Your plan sounds good! For kid chores: folding/putting away laundry if you don't care how neat it is; also putting away clean silverware or other items in his reach. My kids LOVE washing windows/mirrors, which is something I wouldn't be inclined to do. Watering plants if you have them...

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    1. putting away laundry and watering plants are great ones that we already do (but not systematically). I think I'll put those on the list.

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    1. Are we weird? we don't "set the table" EVER. do people really do this?

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  3. I like your summer plans. I put my kids on toilet cleaning very early. The preloaded toilet bowl brushes and disinfectant wipes make it easy for them and entertaining (wands, blue colored water, bubbles best money spent ever). TC_Seattle

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  4. wipe off the kitchen table, help set the dishes on the table for meals, help clear the table after meals

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  5. do you think L will have chores too? (i only ask this because C copies everything A does so he would probably want chores if she had some assigned). L could probably help set table . . . B could clear? also, you may already do this, but cleaning up toy/play areas?

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    1. again with the "setting the table" thing...is this a thing people actually do? Do kids that age actually clear the table? Where do the put the dishes? Mine can't quite reach the sink so they'd be throwing glass dishes into a stainless steel sink---sounds disastrous!
      they do have to clean up their toys periodically.

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    2. Yes, I'll probably come up with something for L, too, but more for show than to be truly helpful at this point. They fight over watering the plants so we can divide them up.

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    3. At that age, mine scraped their plates into the garbage and put the dirty dish next to the sink. If they attend daycare, they are most likely cleaning up after meals.

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    4. yeah, we can do this, good idea. We send all their food for daycare, so they don't have dishes.

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    5. we set the table as in throw silverware and glasses onto it, and napkins. it's definitely not formal but it does get done :)

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  6. I read the Secret of Happy Families and there were some good discussions of managing chores and allowances in there - I really liked the idea of morning boards and dashboards.

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  7. Ana, for us, setting the table is simple as plates/forks/napkins. Tiny Boy loves doing it (LG or I get the plates from the cabinet). LG is responsible for putting her own dishes in dishwasher (and sometimes more) and Tiny Boy needs to bring his into the kitchen and put on the counter, which he can reach (as opposed to chucking in the sink, as you note!)

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    1. we don't even do that---we fill our plates at the counter/stove and then sit down to eat. I've never sat down with plates/silverware already at table, and food at table ahead of time. Maybe a cultural thing? We have loads of different components of our meals so it doesn't make sense to crowd up the table with everything.

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    2. Also Indian here but growing up, we always put food on the table, and everyone had a plate, spoon, and drink. Not fancy in the least but it saved trips back and forth for more. Maybe we ate too much in comparison?

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    3. Lol, oh well, I guess we're just lazy! Also messy---our table currently contains: a vase of flowers, pineapple + another bowl of fruit, random stuff the kids brought home from school (and that's after cleaning off a ton of junk earlier this week!)

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  8. My boys are a few months older than each of yours. They don't really have chores like vacuuming or dusting but they do have sort of basic responsibilities (I don't know that you could actually call these chores). My kids both load their dishes directly into the dishwasher after meals. I don't pre-rinse dishes though. If they have leftover food on their plate they bang it into the garbage then put their plates, cups, silverware directly into the dishwasher. Sometimes they spill stuff onto the floor though. They hang up their jackets and backpacks (on hooks) and put shoes away (on a shelf) upon entering the house. They put their laundry each night into the hamper. They make their beds in the morning. The beds don't necessarily look that good but I like the discipline of having to do something every single day. They choose their clothes for the next day and lay them out. They put away clean clothes (I wash, dry and fold).

    None of these are really traditional chores though. I keep thinking that I should start introducing some dusting, vacuuming, bathroom cleaning or the like but I haven't yet.

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    1. oh man, my husband has a dishwasher "system" that no one can figure out, otherwise loading the plates directly makes so much sense.
      we do make them hang up coats/bags, put clothes in hamper, etc... just as part of life. We don't have them make beds (maybe because I don't do it either?)
      I get the idea of just having daily routines, but REALLY I've got an eye towards making things easier for me down the road, so I want them to start learning chores that I currently do.

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