Chores & Allowance

So, I wanted to give a little information about how we deal with chores and allowance at our house. We have a chore chart for each kid. Kyrie's chart is all chores, while Degen's chart has a few behavior goals we like for him to meet. Each chore/good behavior earns the child a magnet. Each magnet equals a portion of allowance. Both kids earn one quarter per magnet (when Degen was 4, he earned 10 cents per magnet). 

We decided to start a system for allowance because I was tired of the tug-of-war when the kids wanted something. I was tired of saying 'yes' to so much and tired of saying 'no,' too. An allowance system allows us to let the kids make their own decisions (mostly) about purchases. It is also an incentive to do chores, practice piano and/or generally behave. The kids get a "bonus" for holidays or special events (usually 1/2 their age in dollars or full age for birthday/Christmas).

Chores....well, at some point several months ago, I knew that I wanted to the kids to be involved in helping around the house. I also found that they needed motivation.... or at least more motivation than my nagging and lecturing seemed to be providing. The kids were already responsible for making their beds and putting away their laundry. The chore chart and allowance formalized the chores that they already did (or were supposed to be doing) and allowed us to add to the list. 

I clean the house once a week. I started out by having the kids dust and then added more jobs from there. At first, there was some difficulties as the kids had to learn what I expected... as far as quality of work and also the lack of grumbling I required. We spent a lot of time over several months talking about responsibility towards family, cooperation creating a better experience for everyone, gratefulness for what we have, respect for what parents provide and how parents are emotionally affected when children complain when asked to help (ie. "It hurts my feelings when you don't want to help because it makes me feel like I am your maid more than your mom.").

Now, we clean the house once a week together. The kids generally do not complain about cleaning anymore. Some weeks they do a really good job and other weeks not so much. I try to give the kids space to do their chores without me looking over their shoulders and/or critiquing their work, though I praise a good job when I see it and will point out in passing what might need more effort. I do make sure that we are all working at the same time, though not necessarily the same job in the same place. I know that I will need to dust to reach the spots they cannot reach or might miss. I feel that this reminds them that family means that we are all in it together. 

Here are the jobs that the kids do (some weekly and others on an as-needed basis):

make beds

put away personal laundry

put toys away/clean rooms they use

dusting

wipe down kitchen

clean the bathroom

mini-vacuum

put away dishes

take out recycling

set table

*practice piano

Darren & I rarely have cash, and I do not really like the kids having cash-on-hand at this point either. So, we use play money and keep track of their allowance on worksheets attached to their chore charts. When we sit down, the kids take turns counting up their magnets. This process went a long way in teaching Degen how to count by 10s when he was four, and cemented the worth of quarters for Kyrie. The kids count how much money they earned and add that to what money they saved...and subtract the money they spent. Good math happening all around!

This system has worked really well for us and achieved the goals that we have set forth From time-to-time I will change the chores to better represent our expectations. I have plans to increase the worth of magnets to 50 cents when the kids reach age 10. 

This is an example of the chore chart we use.

Kyrie's GR8 Birthday SK8 Party

Kyrie knew that she wanted a skating party for a whole year! So, we invited our friends and headed to the local skating rink for a great afternoon of skating fun! Both kids got roller skates for Christmas, and since there was a scheduling conflict and we have been unable to attend the homeschool skates the past few months, this would be their first time trying them out!

The kids were all different levels of skaters. Kyrie & Degen both started out with a skate-mate (as seen in the photo below), but about halfway through the party Kyrie was overjoyed to announce that she didn't need it anymore and skated away. Later, Degen made his way onto the floor without the skate-mate and did a pretty good job, too! 

So, there were a few things that were not necessarily my favorite about this party location, but mostly the party went really well. The kids had fun skating, ate pizza & cake, played games in the arcade and just had a good time! Kyrie (& Degen) had a blast, and that is the most important thing! 

We were so grateful that our friends came out to help us celebrate! I loved watching the kids skate and laugh and just be together!

Degen showing off his skate-dance moves! He was hilarious to watch!

I stayed off the skates so that I could play hostess, but Darren hit the floor!

Wish I could have gotten a pic with all the kiddos together, but grateful I caught these girls on their way to the rink!

Kyrie's Lego Birthday Cake

The theme for Kyrie's birthday party this year was Lego Friends. We had the party at the skating rink, so there was some debate about what kind of cake I should make. I considered roller skates and a t-shirt before deciding on something Lego. So, once that was decided I had to figure out just what kind of Lego cake to do. I did a search on Pinterest and found a ton of ideas, which were helpful, though not exactly what I had in mind. Eventually, I decided that I would do individual Lego blocks in a shape, deciding on the number 8. 

I bought a square (brownie) bake pan and a pack of gel colors that looked a lot like the Lego Friends color scheme. I used one chocolate and one yellow cake mix, which made 24 square cupcakes, plus some extra. Each cupcake was split and filled with strawberry filling. I prepared a double-batch of icing, and it was very close to gone after I did the 20 cupcakes. 

(Note: We have a little friend who has a dairy allergy. Most Duncan Hines cake mixes are dairy-free. Then I make a traditional Wilton icing using shortening & water.) 

This cake was time consuming because I basically made 20 miniature cakes that all were filled and iced separately, then placed on the cake board. One sorta-smart thing that I did was color-code the cakes: pink & yellow frosted cakes were vanilla and blue & purple frosted cakes were chocolate. This made serving cake at the party a little easier. Overall, the cake turned out very well and mostly matched the vision I had in my head. 

Prepping the cupcakes for decorating (as with most cakes) involved de-capping them to create a flat surface. The leftover "caps" were perfect for miniature whoopie pies. I added a small dam of icing and a spoonful of strawberry filling to each: a nice pre- or post-party treat. 

Homeschool: Celebrate Me!

This is a great unit that focuses on self-awareness & celebration, including birthdays. The kids have a lot of fun with this unit because it includes a lot of activities that allow them to express themselves and what they like best. We read a lot of great self-esteem boosting books and enjoy talking about what makes each kid special!

Kyrie completed this book as part of her unit work. I wrote in a hand-me-down copy of this book when I was a kid and loved it! She had a lot of fun completing the book.

Kyrie has made it almost to the middle of her study of the states. Each unit, we focus on a different state and learn all about it. Each state has a fact sheet that Kyrie works on and puts the completed page into a notebook. As we study each state, she puts a state sticker on a map. She really enjoys learning about each state!

Some of the books we read for this unit. I love a lot of these books because they just make you feel good about being you!

Kyrie's Surgery

While on our trip to Disney World, I started to put some pieces together about my darling daughter. First, sharing a hotel room, I noticed that she snored pretty much all night long. Then, I thought about how her lips were always dry & chapped even when I was shoving lip balm at her every 30 minutes. She was always breathing through her mouth, even to the point that she periodically had to suck the drool out of her mouth. I talked about it with Darren, and he agreed that something didn't seem quite right... her voice sounded unusually nasally. We talked about it with Kyrie who often told us that she simply couldn't breathe through her nose. When we got back, we talked with our pediatrician.

Our pediatrician suspected enlarged adenoids and gave us a steroid nose spray to use daily and sent us in for an x-ray. The x-ray revealed large tonsils and "really large" adenoids, so we made an appointment with a pediatric ENT. The ENT reviewed the x-rays and examined Kyrie. Then he recommended a tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy. He said that much of the space she should have open to breathe behind her nose & mouth was blocked by tonsil & adenoid tissue. We set a surgery date for the end of April, but then the doctor moved the date up because he didn't want to wait so long. So, then we were heading to surgery in just a few weeks. 

Kyrie had some anxiety that came & went in the weeks before the surgery. She was mostly worried about pain. The night before the surgery, I let her choose dinner (homemade pizza) and stay up late. The next morning, she wouldn't be able to eat or drink. I joined her in the fast in a show of solidarity. Darren & Degen accompanied us to the surgery center before saying good-byes when we headed back to pre-op (they would have lunch before Darren dropped Degen off at a friend's to play). 

Back in pre-op, Kyrie started to get scared quickly. Changing from her clothes into the hospital gown was more than she could bear. I asked the nurse for some sedative, which soon had Kyrie smiling & rolling around on the bed in a giggling stupor. Soon enough, they were wheeling her to the operating room. Darren came back to the surgery center to wait with me and attend to Kyrie post-op. After the surgery, the doctor told us that he found more tonsil tissue than he expected and suggested providing extra OTC meds in addition to the prescribed narcotic.

In post-op, Kyrie was in quite a bit of pain. Both Darren & I held up ice water and a popsicle to try to soothe her sore throat. The nurse gave her a dose of the narcotic before we got her dressed and headed home. It seems quite surreal to be standing at your child's bedside watching them cry & moan as they wake up for surgery and then less than an hour later be carrying them out to the car to go home. (I am not saying that there's anything wrong with out-patient surgery, just that it is a strange situation because your child still seems so fragile at that point...it's a feeling akin to taking your newborn home from the hospital when you question if you are ready for the experience ahead.)

Thankfully, Kyrie slept for most of the car ride home. And once home, we settled her into the room next to ours (which is the kids' TV room). She would spend the next week in that room recovering. She was surprisingly "active" the first night, but the overnight (as all the overnights in the week to follow) was difficult and lead to a terrible morning (as all the mornings in the next week). She spent most days just lying on the couch sleeping or watching TV as we kept a steady supply of pain medications in her system and tried to keep her drinking and maybe eating. (She did well with her fluids, but ate hardly anything for almost the whole week. She was already a small girl, and she lost quite a bit of weight during recovery.)

On Thursday (6 days post-surgery), we ventured out for the first time. She felt weak with a sore throat and upset stomach. On Friday, we went out again for a short time and the trip ended painfully as she started to lose her scabs. Friday night was difficult and she spent most of Saturday in bed. She was saving all her strength up for the Girl Scout camp-in that we had scheduled weeks before we knew that she would be having surgery. I checked on her frequently throughout the day. She was intent on making it to the camp-in, so we left the house armed with lots of soft foods, lozenges and a full supply of pain medication... and it went well... really well! I kept her well-medicated and though she had a few earaches, bellyaches and a sore throat, she made it through the whole overnight. Whew! The next night, she slept the whole night without waking in pain for more medication- a first since the surgery. Hooray!

She seems to be doing really well now, though we are still taking it day-by-day. Passing through her bedroom, I noticed that she wasn't snoring. Then she told me that she could kinda breathe through her nose. I wanted to pump my arms in the air and do a happy jig! I hope that the rest of the healing comes easily and that she can breathe better from here on out. This has been a tough week, and, as always, it feels good to be on the other side of a difficult experience!

She got lots of cuddles from the cats!

Though she spent a lot of her time sleeping, when she was awake she was grateful for activities she could do lying down like art- thanks, Aunt Jess & Uncle Jack!

We surprised her with the Rapunzel LEGO tower that she had been wanting. It was a great distraction during her recovery! Little surprises like this and movies helped brighten her days!

Lilah was just the right purr-scription for our sick girl!

Homeschool: Pets, continued

Here is the cat toy that Kyrie made as part of both our pet unit and for her pet badge for Brownies. Samson LOVES these catnip mice!

Samson is feeling all better after his big surgery!

If I fits...I sits! Here is a big boy Bentley who loves to curl up tight. He decided he wanted to nap in one of our small, plastic toy bins! 

Homeschool: St. Patrick's Day & Weather

Degen's folder! Both kids spent a lot of time working on their folders for this unit.

The kids LOVE this unit! We celebrate the whimsy of St. Patrick's Day and learn a lot about weather. Usually, this unit we would also sit down for a traditional (American-traditional) Irish dinner of corned beef, cabbage, potatoes & soda bread, but we had to postpone dinner this year because Kyrie had just had surgery (read about that in another post) and Darren was traveling for business. Still, the kids had a lot of fun!

Cutting practice

I make a vocabulary "book" like this for Degen for each unit. I do not expect him to read the words yet, but he says the names of the letters and practices writing them. I am also establishing the concept that letters make words and words have meanings. This has become one of his favorite activities during lesson time.

Kyrie hard at work. Kyrie spent a lot more time focusing on weather during this unit. We watched weather documentaries on Netflix and made several interactive books about weather concepts. 

Degen working on poster work during independent work time.

Some of the books we read for this unit.

Kyrie's folder! She spent a lot of time making her leprechaun village! She did a great job adding lots of details!

Kyrie spent a lot of her independent work time designing leprechaun traps. She used blocks and boxes and yarn and gold coins. One leprechaun took the coins she left, but didn't climb the ladder to the trap- sneaky leprechaun!

Degen: Then & Now

Degen needed a little extra cuddling, so he pulled out his monkey blanket (a baby gift from his godmother). I showed him a photograph that we keep in our bedroom of him at 6 months with the same blanket. He loved it! He wanted to take another picture with his blanket like he took when he was a baby. So, here is my darling boy at age 5 and 6 months...it's hard for me to pick when he was cuter!

Sam's Saga

Sam's first night back at home.

Well, our handsome boy Samson just went through quite the ordeal. It all started one Sunday mid-February when he didn't come down for breakfast. Now, Sam LOVES breakfast...loves food... his food, the other cats' food, your food. Right away, I knew something was wrong. Even more, he was hiding in the kids' closet, and the other thing Sam loves is us. He is a cuddler and a lover and will start to purr if you just look at him. But that morning there were no purrs. He cried when I picked him up and threw up white foam. 

The next morning I took him to the vet where they took an x-ray and kept him overnight for fluids, supportive care and observation. He would not eat and overnight started to run a temperature, so the next morning he went in for exploratory surgery. The vet found a craft pom lodged in the "exit" of his stomach and pushed another small object through his intestines and into his colon. This was not surprising to me as Sam has been seen eating non-food objects in the past. In fact, when the vet told me what he found, I knew exactly what Sam had torn up and eaten. 

After surgery, we needed Sam to eat, use the litter box and not vomit. A day after his surgery, the kids & I went to the vet with a can of food for a visit. We could not cajole him to eat, but spent about 30 minutes petting him and loving him- he purred the entire time as he went back & forth between us. Occasionally, he would lay down to rest for a moment. We were happy to see him, but left him there for more supportive care. Everyone we talked to at the vet's office (even over the phone) had something nice to say about our kitty-boy! 

The next evening, we brought Sam home. He had a long line of staples on his belly, and we were told to keep him in a cone and administer medications for pain, appetite and antacid. The other cats were terrified of our conehead boy. That night, Sam slept between Darren & me all night long. The next morning, we were back at the vet's office after Sam vomited.

At the vet's office, Sam received more supportive care, specifically fluids. The vet said that he wasn't running a fever and was improving. I had removed the collar after he vomited (what a mess!) and put him in a t-shirt, though he showed no interest in messing with his belly. He was much happier with the collar removed. That night, Sam slept between Darren & me again...all night long. However, he was eating again and didn't throw up and in a few more days, he was more active and super-friendly and back to his old Sammy-boy ways! 

After two weeks, he got the staples removed, and it is as if he never had major surgery! We are grateful for our purr-baby and a lot more careful about what gets left out on the floor. 

Homeschool: Pets

This is what a pet unit looks like at our home! All paws on deck!

And, of course, the unit following our Family unit is a unit about pets! Our pet unit is a kid-favorite, especially for Kyrie! She spent time this unit working on her Brownie Badge for pets. We took a trip to the veterinarian and a trip to Petsmart where Kyrie calculated the basic costs of  owning three different pets. We plan to sign up for a Girl Scout tour of our local humane society at the end of March, too. As part of Kyrie's Brownie Badge work, she made 2 pet beds (one to keep and one to donate). She will also make some cat toys that are still in process (check back later for pics). This is a super-fun unit and marks one of the last of our "Socially Me" part of the year. As we move into spring & summer, we will focus more on the natural world. 

Degen's pet collage folder

Kyrie's pet collage folder

Kyrie with one of the pet beds she made.

Brutus enjoying his new bed!