Domestically Challenged

Tip Tuesday - Back To School Part 1 - 5 Ways to Pre-Prepare

"It's the most wonderful time of the year!!!"

Remember that Staples commercial, where the Dad is gliding through the store on a shopping cart and his despondent kids are shuffling after him? I LOVE that commercial. I LOVE back to school. I think even if I weren't a teacher, I would love this time of year. Getting to buy new supplies, new clothes, the promise of new friends and teachers.

This year it means even more as my kids prepare to start school not only in a new school, but a new state.

Next week's post will deal with more of the nitty gritty of back to school time, including lists galore. This week, I am focusing on getting ready to get ready.

It seems silly to phrase it that way, but now is the time to think about systems that will help the school year go more smoothly.

1. Set up your calendar now.

If you don't already, set up one central calendar for everyone. Every family activity needs to go on this calendar. If you have recurring activities (such as sports practices or family activities) put those on there now.

Many schools have the school calendar online- check your school district's website to see if yours is posted. If so, go ahead and enter in the half days and days off. This can help prevent issues later on.

2. Take Inventory

Take inventory of the supplies and clothes your kids already have on hand and what they will need. Next week, I will post a downloadable list to take to the store. For now, see what fits and what doesn't.

Once you know what your kids need, start paying attention to end of season sales. For example, I shopped at The Children's Place and bought 8 pairs of jeans and a few other items for under $95. That, my friends, is a deal.

3. Check Medical Records

Will your child need any shots or sports physicals? If so, make an appointment now, instead of waiting until school starts and to battle with everyone else. If you have a kid on meds, make sure you have a prescription ready to go to school, if necessary.

4. Confirm or Set Up Childcare Arrangements

If your kids will be attending a before or after school program, enroll them now. Research any fees and possible discounts you may be eligible for. If you are making other arrangements, make sure you confirm the details so that, just in case you need to make a change, you have plenty of time to do so.

5. Start Changing Their Schedules

If your house is anything like mine, your schedule has been a little...off. Start working now to get your kids on a closer to school schedule. I'm not suggesting you get them ready to wake up at 6 (unless that works for you), but maybe start working their bedtimes a little closer to a school appropriate one.

Next week we will tackle shopping for the school year and the following week I will address getting your homework systems into place. Have a suggestion or question? Leave it in the comments!

Mom, I'm Bored! Fix #1 - Geocaching

Last week I discovered Geocaching. I'd heard the term over and over again in various places, but never had a clue as to what it was. I finally got sick of hearing about it and looked it up. It's defined as "

Geocaching (pronounced geo-cashing) is a worldwide game of hiding and seeking treasure. A geocacher can place a geocache in the world, pinpoint its location using GPS technology and then share the geocache's existence and location online. Anyone with a GPS device can then try to locate the geocache." ~according to Geocaching.com

OK, so to sum it up - you use a GPS to go find a little treasure. Sounds like something my kids would like.

After poking around the website for a bit, I realized what this could do. It could help eliminate childhood boredom. It could somehow align the cosmos and prevent sibling fights. It could...nevermind. It really could be a fun for the kids and I and since I'm working on getting more active, it seems like it would be a good fit.

When I looked at the database (again, on Geocaching.com) there were over 13,000 caches (potential treasures) within 100 miles. Yup, that could keep us busy for a while. Caches are hidden all over the place - parks, outside malls, basically anywhere you can hide something in plain site.

After posing it to the kids as a local treasure hunt, I loaded my phone with geocaching software, grabbed our CamelBak's and we rode off in search of our first treasure.

One of the main reasons I like this activity is the skills it reinforces. You have to be able to read a map, radar or GPS unit effectively. Since I can't, it made our outing a bit more...interesting. Many of the cache's have codes to decipher, which kids enjoy.

Once you find the area to explore, you have to look for a cache, which is the treasure. They range in size from the size of a shoebox all the way down to a film canister. The difficulty also ranges - if you are going to be geocaching with kids, don't go over a two and definitely start with a 1 in both terrain and difficulty. We didn't and the weeds in our area were so overgrown that we didn't find the cache.

Despite not finding the treasure, we had fun. We got to ride our bikes, run around outside a school using a compass to find the general location of the treasure and then spend time in nature looking for the cache. We went home empty handed, but had fun in the meantime.

Benefits include:

- getting outside and getting active

- develop map reading skills

- ways to be together as a family

Our fist geocache didn't go as well as I would have liked, but we plan on doing more over the rest of summer. 

Have you been geocaching? Would you try it? Let me know if the comments! :)

Non-Resoution #1: Cleaning

In part of my continuing non-resolutions, today I am tackling cleaning. This is my #1 issue in home management. I hate cleaning. I would rather stick sharp objects under my fingernails, but since that would be sado-masochistic, I guess I have to do it.

That being said, I need to get back to the one thing that has helped me - setting a schedule. I used to do really well with it, but as the kids get older and the adhd gets worse and more difficult time consuming, I follow the plan less and less.

Two things I need to do: stick to my schedule and get the kids more involved, on a REGULAR schedule. I posted before about chores for kids, but I need to take my own advice.

I was reminded of this while reading an article from the About.com Housekeeping area - It offers some great ideas about how to break up your chores into daily (blech), weekly, monthly and so on. 

Cleaning is NOT something I plan on spending a lot of time on, but I do need to be better about being less cluttered and more on top on regular cleaning. This may mean a little less Twitter time (boo!), but I can always listen to an audio book.

Daily Cleaning:

• Dishes and kitchen
• General straightening up - this is an issue. With two ADHD'ers, keeping clutter at bay is a battle in and of itself. I have learned to lower my standards of clean, but I still need to keep up on this It will include making sure the kids rooms are straightened up each day and making sure the kid room isn't a wreck.
• Daily laundry - this is so NOT going to happen. I hate doing laundry. HATE. I will still do my laundry on the weekends, though I may try and do one load every other day. See, I'm still in control here.

Weekly - my goal is to do these chores on Friday nights, which will leave the entire weekend for...other chores:

• Bathrooms - I am going to have the kids (mainly the older one) do their bathroom under my supervision. For some reason, the Princess loves wiping down counters.
• Floors - will have to bribe husband, since I hate washing floors.
• Laundry
•  Vacuuming and dusting
• Other cleaning tasks I loathe, such as cleaning out the fridge.

I know I hate a lot of these chores (I really wasn't kidding when I said I hate cleaning), but if I can divide and conquer I think it will work well. I plan to put this in my planner to nag remind me and then I can track my progress.

TOMORROW

I will be tackling organization, including posting an interview with an organizational expert!

Just the Tip Tuesday: Make Your Life Easier

Before we get to the holidays, I have been trying to find ways to make my life easier. The big buzzword is "simplify" but there is merit to it. With all the demands on our time and the stress of our current economic situation, we need to make things easier on ourselves.

Here's a few tips to help you:

1. Oragnize your time. Whether or not you are a chronic timewaster or have every minute scheduled out already, look at where your time goes. Then ask yourself "How can I make it better?" There are several reasons to this, but the main one is that if you use your time more wisely, you may be able to find more time for yourself. Imagine that! Where can you make things easier? Can you buy something instead of making it from scratch? Little things like this add up quickly.

2. Only what's important. Are there things you do/worry about/think about that aren't really that important? I am the queen of this. There will be times where my daughter wants to do something that I may not want her to do (and I'm talking about the things she ACTUALLY asks about), but then I try to stop and ask myself - What would it hurt? If the answer is no one, then I let her do it. This may include things like digging in the dirt before dinner. Sure, she's a bit messier but she's also a lot happier and I didn't even have to get upset over anything. Where can you apply this in your life?

3. Get help. I don't mean paid help (unless you can swing it, then by all means, do it!) - I mean from your family. Teach your kids age appropriate tasks, such as making snacks or lunch, pouring milk and getting their laundry sorted. This reduces the amount of tasks you are responsible for which is a GOOD THING!

How have you simplified your life lately?

*And yes, I know that I used the word "thing" entirely too much, but I am tired and at work and can't think straight at the moment. LOL

 

Just the Tip Tuesday - Kid Chores

In the Mom Universe, the value of chores has been debated quite a bit. Here's the way I see it - if moms and dads have to do chores, why not the kids? Isn't that part of their job title?

You see, I grew up in a family where the kids did chores, no question asked. Ever. Nowadays, there are a ton of kids who don't do chores. As a teacher, I can honestly say that it makes a difference.

So, where do you begin?

It depends on how old your kids are. Let's say they are elementary school age and above. This is a great age to brainwash ingrain the idea of participating in keeping the family areas looking decent. 

Here's a sample age chart from WorkingMom.com -

3-4 YEAR OLDS CAN:	10-12 YEAR OLDS CAN ALSO:
Pick up Toys	Clean mirrors
Fold Dishtowels and Washcloths	Clean kitchen counters & sink
Match Socks	Fold and put away laundry
Put small items in the garbage	Put away groceries
Give food to pets	Pack their own lunch
Water indoor plants	Light yard work
	Load the dishwasher
- - - - - - - - - -
5-6 YEAR OLDS CAN ALSO:	13-14 YEAR OLDS CAN ALSO:
Answer the telephone	Clean the bathroom
Sweep a deck/patio/porch	Change bed sheets
Wipe the bathroom sink	Mow the lawn
Put forks and spoons away	Wash dishes by hand
Put their own clothes in the drawer	Wash the car
Sort laundry into color piles	Do laundry
Use a hand-held vacuum	Shovel snow
- - - - - - - - - -
7-9 YEAR OLDS CAN ALSO:	15 YEARS AND UP CAN ALSO:
Take out Garbage	Use a leaf blower
Set the table	Use a snow blower
Clear the table	Clean the refrigerator
Vacuum an area rug	Reorganize storage areas
Clean the inside of the car	Make Dinner
Empty the dishwasher
Put away clean dry dishes
Water the garden

I think this is a pretty good list. My 9 yo is more than capable of loading and unloading a dishwasher (Thank goodness, my work is now complete!).

Once you decide who's going to do what, the next thing you need to decide is when. <Insert old person voice here> "Back in my day, we did chores on Saturday, no matter what."

I try to do this with my kids, but with weekend sports I am finding that doing chores on Friday nights works out better. Exciting life I live, right? Actually, I really like this idea because then, when you wake up on Saturday, instead of dreading it, you can actually look forward to it.

What about tracking? Do you even need to track chores?

As a techno nerdy mom, I used to say yes. There are a plethera of online chore monitoring sites, such as HandiPoints (my fave), Chore Wars - which pits kids against each other in a video game setting, and Chore Buster (which also works well for adults, esp if you have roommates). 

You can also choose to use just plain old pencil and paper. Printable chore charts abound online - my faves are from ChartJungle, DLTK Kids and Alenka's Printables.

Again, if you or your child needs a good visual or you want a way to track chores, then print away. But I ask you this - is it really necessary?

I will print chore charts if my kids are getting off task with them (I've even made a chore collage for my daughter), but I never stay consistent with them. I think it's because it turns into just another sheet of paper to handle.

The other point to consider is payment. Will your kids get money to do chores? I didn't growing up. I was deprived of the allowance talks, I admit it. But you know what? It didn't really matter.

Do I pay my kids? It depends. My son does get paid for picking up dog poop, but that's because we have big dogs and there's a lot of it. His other chores are expected to be done regardless.

I know this is a lot to think about, so I'm curious - do your kids do chores and if so, do you track it?

Just the Tip Tuesday...Getting Ready for School

I'm not sure about where you live, but here in AZ within the next two weeks most of our schools will be back in session. As a teacher, I am a little bummed since I am not a morning person, but as a parent I am thrilled. My kids need routine and it's just too difficult to give them the amount of structure they need during the summer.

Now that school is almost here, I am trying to work on our new routine. Today's tip is to put some thought into your new school year routine. One of the things I will have to consider for the first time is how to do homework with TWO ADD kids at the same time. While this thought frightens the crap out of me, I know it's something I need to think about before we get into the school year.

I also need to think about our sports schedules, my writing schedules, our daily commute and silly little things like cooking and cleaning. As much as I hate to admit it, we do eat out a lot during the week. We have two places by us in particular that we can get dinner for a family of 4 for under $20 with leftovers for my lunch. For the convenience factor, it's worth it to us.

Another consideration is how to manage our mornings better so I don't have to get up as early. For some idiotic reason, getting up at 5:45 sounds WAY better than getting up at 5:30, so this is a goal for me. This will entail getting my daughter's meds in her in time to help with the morning chaos.

I will post an update to my schedule next week and would love to hear how you schedule your time during the school year. Leave it in the comments! :)

Follow me on Twitter - www.Twitter.com/alanamorales