I have been feeling like the grumpy gus around here for the past few months, with constant reminders to the kids that went from gentle to angry. They have been getting more and more slack with their contributions and it was making me crazy. At family meeting this weekend, the first in a month, I brought it up as a problem and they came up with really great solutions! I’m so pleased… so far. The first step was they each wrote up a list of all the things they are supposed to do in a day, both regular daily stuff like brushing their teeth, and specific contributions like folding laundry. The plan is that if they do all of the things on their list, without any reminders, then they can earn extra screen time at the end of the day. Screen time is the only thing that motivates Lex these days. Eve decided that she wanted money instead of screen time, so we came up with a rule allowing them to turn in unused screen time at the end of each week for cash. We’ll see if either of them ever use that rule! I was really pleased with how quickly they came up with solutions and how well the process went. I hope the plan works because I could do with a lot more stuff-getting-done and a lot less me-nagging-constantly!

Lex’s list. We are working on draft lifts so far. Lex’s checkboxes didn’t print for some reason. Once they are finalized we’ll reprint and laminate them.

Eve’s list. I like how they each thought up, typed, and formatted their own lists.

This silly one wanted to be in a picture with her schedule. At the last minute she made this face. Aren’t you glad I’m sharing it with you? :)

You may notice that I’m working with my old sweet little pink Canon point-n-click. My phone, revived from it’s dip in the snowbank, decided to quit again a day later. I think some wayward water molecule was bopping around in there and finally found it’s target! The good thing (and super annoying thing) is that the phone seems to work ok, but the screen won’t turn on. I can turn the phone on, hear the startup sound, hear email and text alerts, but can’t see or do anything because the screen won’t turn on. :( Alan brought it to a guy today who may be able to fix it. Fingers crossed.

PS. Mom, thanks for your inspiration with this new routines idea. The kids came up with great ideas, but with my input to focus on positive rewards, not negative consequences, they brought their ideas around to your original suggestion to me. I love that they got their on there own instead of me telling them how to do it. :) Thanks for the original idea!