The first week of school went swimmingly. We are now in the second week, and things are going GREAT. I have to tell you, as I was walking to the bus stop this afternoon, I was thinking about how much I love where we live. We have friends, and can walk to places, and it's just amazing. The kids absolutely love living near so many people. And what is really cool is that a kid that was in Thaddeus' class last year in King William, moved to our apartment complex. So they ride the bus together, AND they're both in the same advanced math class. It's a pretty sweet deal.
In other news, I have been hard at work making chore charts and such for the new house. Every time you move, you have to figure out how to divvy up the housework to make life fair. Also, we have established some HOUSE RULES because people keep forgetting how to interact with real, live human beings. That is my one and only complaint about the kids and their tablets. They get confused about what is actually important (people) and what is not (breeding your digital farm animals).
Since we have downsized, I was having a hard time figuring out how to fairly distribute the work. Our chart includes four areas: Kitchen, Bathrooms, Living/Dining/Hall Area, and Slave Child. Yes. You heard me. Slave Child.
Slave child is to check with mom or dad as to what their task is that day. If we are unavailable, then they have a list of extra chores that they can pick from. This list includes things like, clean all the remotes/phones/keyboards with a disinfectant wipe, and clean the back seat of Mom's car. You know, things that need to get done, but aren't their own zones.
And they cannot have any screen time until certain things are done, and some of those certain things include READING AN ACTUAL BOOK and PLAYING OUTSIDE WITH ACTUAL TREES AND GRASS. Plus chores and all that stuff.
I also made a checklist for each area so that the kiddo's would know what they need to do every day, and what needs to be done each week. And let me tell you, they're going to have to practice some serious time management, because it's soccer season, and we have games on Saturdays, and if you wait to do your stuff, you're going to have a god-awful time come Saturday evening.... because Sunday is our day of rest, and our time to focus on the Savior, and I just want the house to be clean before Sunday, alright?!
I also informed the children that we will be having a Family Counsel every Monday night, where we will have a spiritual thought, and talk about what's coming up, and all that jazz. These kids are starting to have crazy busy lives, and we need time to reconnect with each other. So, on the calendar it goes.
I'm going to give this a week or so, and then we will be implementing our new morning routine. Mornings are the only guaranteed time that all of us will be at home, so we will have our bible study then. We've tried after school, before bed, and every other time possible... but they don't work. So the kids will just have to get up a few minutes earlier.
All in all, we are well on our way to efficiency, and I like it.
SIDENOTE: My kids weren't understanding why we needed our house to be in a certain order, so I made them all turn to Genesis, Chapter 1, and we read about how God created the earth.... Then I asked the kids, "What would have happened if God had made the fish before he made the sea?" We then had to talk about how God was pretty smart to make the earth and the seas first, because it wouldn't be fun to have a bunch of dead fish just floating around in space. <<< That's right. Dead fish in space. This is my life guys.
