Reading to your Children

Pest Jessica here with a parenting tip for today.  The tip that I have is a subject that is very near and dear to my heart.  The tip that I have is to take time to read with your child everyday.  I usually try to read for at least 20 minutes with my son each day.  We don't sit down and read for 20 minutes straight, but we read at least 20 minutes total at different times throughout the day.  I look forward to this time with my very active 12 month old, this is the only time that he is willing to happily sit in my lap or snuggle up with me.  It doesn't matter how young your child is, it is never too early to start exposing them to books.

 One of my favorite quotes, by Gordon B. Hinckley, says “Children who are exposed to books at early ages have scholastic advantages throughout their lives. Parents who fail to read to their small children do a disservice to them as well as to themselves. It takes time, yes, much of it. It takes self- discipline and planning. It takes organizing the minutes and hours of the day. But it is never boring to watch young minds come to know characters, expressions, and ideas. Good reading can become a love affair, far more fruitful in long-term effects than many other activities to which children give their time.”  I would challenge you to find a time to sit and read each day with your children.

Favorite Fall Traditions

I don't know about all of you,but Fall is my most favorite time of year!  I love the crisper air and the changing leaves!  I love the anticipation of the holidays coming and the shorter days.  What are some traditions you do with your family at this time of year? I thought I would share a few of mine:

1.  Decorate for Fall.  My kids look forward to this every year, and I try to make an event of it!  I usually cook something yummy in the crockpot (like chili) and burn my favorite spicy candle (you have to create an atmosphere, after all) and then we pull out all the decorations from the garage!  The kids love to pick where they get to go and their favorite decoration is Francis, our scarecrow!

2. We love to take a trip to Wheeler Farms and enjoy a picnic, go on a hayride, pick out a pumpkin and of course, take LOTS of pictures!

3.  We love to listen to Halloween music, the fun and cutsie stuff! I'm not in to scary, so Halloween is much more about cute for me than scary!

4.  We LOVE to attend football games or even listen to them on t.v.  Football is just as much a part of Fall at our house as is carameled apples!  We make our famous chili cheese dip and frito's and enjoy the sounds of cheers, whistles  and "hike" in the background!

Think about your favorite Fall traditions and find ways to enjoy them even more this year or come up with some new ones!  These little traditions are such a part of what our children remember, even after they are grown!  And of course, don't forget to scrap a layout or two about it!

Family Dinners

Life is busy and it just seems to get busier and busier the bigger your family gets.  Pesty Melanie here, and sometimes it's really hard to find time to all sit down together as a family for dinner, but it's so great to make that time to spend together.  We try to have a family dinner together every night -- sometimes it's sandwiches and chips on the sidelines of a soccer game, but at least we're spending time together.  When we're sitting around the table at home, I want the conversation to be a bit more than the usual...
"How was your day?"
"Good."
"Did anything exciting happen?"
"Nope."
"Did you learn anything?"
"Yeah."
"What did you learn?"
"I don't know."

You would think with a house full of girls, conversation wouldn't be a challenge for us, but I've still had to figure out ways to get my kids talking at dinner.  My kids' favorite dinnertime conversation is 'Family Quiz.'  We ask a question like "What is Lauren's favorite school subject?"  Everyone guesses what they think Lauren's favorite subject might be and then Lauren tells us the answer.  They love having everyone guess things about them and guessing things about each other.  Sometimes everyone knows the answer and they love that, too!

Another one we love is to choose a question or a topic and go around the table giving everyone a turn to tell us something.  These are some of the topics we use:
-Tell us something funny that happened today.
-What were you afraid of today and what did you do about it?
-What did you do today that was nice?
-How did you help someone today?
-What was the best part of your day?
-What was the worst part of your day?
-Tell us how you tried to be a good friend today.

These kind of questions get my kids to open up a little more and I get to find out a little more about what's going on in their lives while they're away from home. This makes family dinner time a part of the day that we all look forward to, a time when we can reconnect and share what happened in the time when we were apart.  What do you do to get family members talking?  How do you make dinnertime special?  With your busy life and hectic family schedule, how do you make time to spend together as a family?

Family Chores

Pesty Melanie here, and I think it's important to teach my kids to work.  Just so you don't think I'm claiming to be an expert at this or an amazing housekeeper, let me show you what we did awhile ago for our family night activity.  Some families like to hike mountains, some like to camp in the  mountains.  Well, we decided to tackle a mountain, too... this one:

I know, I know, what am I doing blogging when I have mountains like that in my living room?  I really should have had one of the kids stand next to it so you could really get an idea of the size.  I'm surprised anyone in the house had clothes left in their drawers to wear when this many were piled on the couch waiting to be folded.  It would have taken me all day long to fold all of this by myself, but instead, we gathered our gaggle of girls (I have 5 daughters) and got it all folded and put away in less than an hour.  Even all the socks from this mountain and the mismatched sock basket got mated and deposited into the correct drawers in that time.  I wish I would have remembered to take an after shot when half of the living room floor was full of piles.  I did make some chocolate cupcakes to sweeten the night and so I could feel better about myself as a mother.  It was my husband's idea, by the way... He was probably tired of searching through the pile for matching socks every morning.

How do you handle chores in your house?  I don't necessarily need to live in a museum, but we probably shouldn't have mountains of unfolded laundry taking up all of our seating space.  I am always trying new gimmicks and chore charts to inspire my kids to do their work without nagging, but none has ever worked as well as the one I want to share with you.  One thing we do really well is morning jobs.  During the school year when time is short, the kids each have one little job that they do in the morning before they leave for school.  (During the summer I fill their extra time with extra jobs.)  We keep track of whose turn it is with this adorable chart. 

I just love how happy they look to do their jobs!  The circle of heads is attached with a brad and rotates.  When we first started it they were so excited to see where their head was pointing that morning.  I always love the start of a new gimmick.  Now it has lost some of its novelty, but it's still working!  I have tried many, many chore charts in the 10+ years I've been a mom, and sometimes they're so complicated they take more time than they're worth.  This one is simple and effective.  What I love most about it is that it keeps on working without me having to do much of anything.  The kids can rotate the chart without any help, and the expectations are simple.  I think that's the key - simple, clear and realistic expectations.  I'm still not good at getting my laundry folded and put away before it starts piling up, but I am teaching my kids to be responsible for their morning chores, and that makes me feel good.