Category Archives: Smart Living Strategies

Passing Down Chores in 4 Steps

Passing Down Chores

 

There is 1 tradition that happens in families all over the world when seasons change. We hand things down. Yes, the normal family will go through clothes and toys and pass them down to the youngest child in the family they fit. In our family we have the same tradition with chores. Chore training can be time consuming so the summer is a great time to tackle it!

It takes a lot to make a family go around. Mom and dad can not, and should not, do it all on their own. Many hands make light work, it is proven. Giving our children chores is also good for them. It trains them to take care of themselves and develop an attitude of service. But I don’t think I need to convince you of the virtues of chores. But how often to you evaluate chores? Train for new ones? We all get in a rut and sometimes it is just easier to do it ourselves, at least in the short run. But summer is the perfect time to evaluate who does what chores and who can handle more!

Here in the NerdFamily we fol;low the mentality that the youngest child who is able to do something does it. This frees up the older children to take on more mature responsibilities thus freeing mom and dad to take care of those things that never get done!

There are 3 main areas I break these chores into: laundry, cleaning, and cooking. Each have different levels of responsibility.

Let’s look at the laundry process. The general responsibilities (getting more difficult): putting your clothes away, folding your clothes, running the clothes in the dryer, running the clothes in the washer, sorting the hampers, deciding what loads get run. In our house we start having the kids put their folded clothes in the drawer pretty young. Then we slowly progress them. Right now we have 1 who runs the washer, 2 who can do the dryer, 1 who can sort, and I decide what loads are run. But we are ready to progress.

First: Have a conversation. Talk to the younger child about the fact they are ready to learn something new. Remember that more responsibility may mean more privileges (always a selling point).
Second: Then you have the younger child shadow the older child for an agreed upon time period. During this time they get to ask the older child any questions they want! I even encourage them to take notes if they feel they need it (more of a cooking issue).
Third: The older child will shadow the younger child while the younger child tackles the choir. The older child is there to make sure it gets done correctly but with minimal input from them. Usually I say this goes on until the younger child gets it perfect 3 times.
Fourth: Officially hand this responsibility to the younger child and train the older child to do something new!

That is it! Chore training may take a little time but it will pay off big time all year and for years to come.

10 days 2017 button This is part of my 10 Days to a Better School Year. Make sure you check out my other posts and everyone in the 10 Days of Tips for Homeschool Moms. And enter the giveaway!!!

Planning Now for Caring All Year!

Caring all year2

Now a days it seems all birthday wishes, happy holidays, or congratulations all seem to happen. That is fine but I know I am not alone when I say I wish I did more! Real cards that you receive in the mail are so special so why don’t we do it any more? If you are like me there is just one real reason. Life is so busy that you never get around to it. But a little planning twice a year can make all the difference! 

1)Make a list! Sit down and write a simple list of everyone that you, your spouse, or your kids want to wish a Happy Birthday or anniversary card to (or send a Christmas card to). I take it a step further and put everyone into a spreadsheet  database (that sounds so much dorkier but true) but a spreadsheet will do. I will explain why later.

2)Do a little Facebook stalking. A lot of your friends have birthday and anniversary information already sitting on their Facebook profile. This can add a bit of surprise because they won’t be expecting a real card!

3)Do a first sort of your list! I find that postage is where sending cards (especially Christmas cards) gets expensive. So do a preliminary sort or your list to determine if you are planning on mailing the card or handing it to the person. Something I love about my church is that everyone does Christmas cards but they hand them out on Sundays and in small group! But I don’t see everyone that I want to give a card so some will need to be mailed. I denote this on my database with a simple m or h. 

4)Get the addresses. First get the addresses of everyone that you know you are actually going to mail a card to. Then consider getting everyone else’s just in case you don’t see them around their special days. 

5)Sort again! Now we are going to sort in date order. Then you can see at a glance who has a birthday in September, October, etc. 

6)Print! Now we are going to print off 2 sets of address labels (if you put your list in a computer). 1 set is the labels for birthdays and anniversaries, the second for Christmas. Also print off a list in date order of who has what on what day. If you are just writing your list on paper just know you will still have to hand address envelopes. 

You can stop here or keep going! 

7)Get or make cards! Nothing is worse than wanting to send a birthday card for a guy and only having floral ones! You can order card packs from a variety of places like Amazon or even go to the Dollar Tree. If you get real creative you can make your own. I actually love to do this when I have time. I am actually planning out the Christmas Cards I am planning on making. 

8)Put it all together! You can actually put the cards completely together and sign them. Then tuck them in the envelope, label them, and put postage. They you can put a sticky note on them, put a note in your planner, or write the date in the corner in pencil to help you get them in the mail on time. 

Yes, this all will take you more than a few minutes. The first time you do it will be the most time consuming with building your list. But next time you will just have to update your list with new people in your life and new addresses for those who have moved. 

I know I feel so loved when someone takes the time to give me a card. I want to make the people in my life feel that way too! But if I do it now during the summer it will make it easier to love on everyone all year long! 

10 days 2017 button This is part of my 10 Days to a Better School Year series! Pop over to see what other great posts I have in this series. It is also part of the 10 Days of Tips for Homeschool Moms. Many great bloggers are participating. Pop over to my 10 Days hub to see them all.

10 Days to a Better School Year & a Giveaway

I am so excited that it is time again for a fabulous 10 Day Series!!! You may remember that last year I did the 10 Days of Nerdy Fun in conjunction with a great group of homeschool bloggers. This year there is also an Amazon gift card!

10-days-of-tips-for-hs-moms

Starting July 10th I will be posting a simple thing to do now that will make your school year a little better and a little saner. Most of these posts are not homeschool specific at all but add a little peace to our crazy homeschool lives. I will come add the new links every day (they publish at midnight;).

10 days 2017 button

 1. Planning Now for Caring All Year!

2. Passing Down Chores in 4 Steps

3. Christmas Gift Planning

4. Adding Sanity 3 Systems at a Time

5. 5 Questions to Help Your Students Succeed

6. Collage Memo Center

7. Tackling the “Once in a Whiles” Before School Starts

8. Tech Organization Helps

9. Summer Bucket List

10. Meal Plan for Your Sanity

Before you start taking in all fabulous posts, make sure you enter the giveaway for the $110 Amazon gift card!!! The giveaway starts July 10th, 7am EST – July 21st 11:59pm EST and is open to US and Canadian residents.

 

Make sure that you check out all the other bloggers who are participating in the 10 Days Series!! Each blogger has their own theme and subject. They are all going to be fabulous!

<
<
<
<

Saving Money with Groupon Coupons

groupon-coupons

(This is a sponsored post. All opinions are mine.)

I love Groupon. You know Groupon, right? It is the place to go for discounts on great experiences, meals, and beauty treatments. You get gift certificates for all those things at a discount because they are selling so many. But did you know that Groupon has coupons too? I didn’t until recently.  

I didn’t realize that Groupon has a ton of coupons for all kinds of retailers and shops. It is a super easy section of the site to use. You can browse through coupons of course. But I don’t usually have a lot of time for that so I use the alphabet index! It is basic, choose the letter of the store and then find it in the list. With the coupons you will see if it was used today and if anyone had a problem with it. 

One of the first shops that I had to find coupons for was the Naturalizer site.  Of course, shoes are where I look first;). Before sitting down to do this piece I went over to research what they had available for the Naturalizer site right now (I have used some of them in the past too). They had 23 different coupons and discount offers. Including a 25% off  site wide coupon, I really do need to go do some shopping after I finish this piece. 

They don’t just have online coupons either. They have printable in-store coupons for me. One of Nerdpie’s favorite stores is Charming Charlie. They have plenty of on-line coupons for Charming Charlie, don’t get me wrong. But Nerdpie and I love to hit the clearance rack at our local Charming Charlie. So we always check to see if there is a printable coupon to take in and there usually is! 

So if you haven’t found all the coupons at Groupon, what are you still doing here? If you know all about them, what is your best coupon you have found?

 

Give a Good Morning Gift

good-morning-gift

(This is a sponsored post! But all thoughts and opinions are mine. Also, there are affiliate links in this post. These things help support the blog but do not sway me!)

When the weather starts to turn cold I start thinking gifts. Christmas gifts, hostess gifts, Hanukkah gifts, baby showers, and (all of a sudden) weddings gifts! Yes, I said weddings. I don’t know when November meant weddings but we have 2 to go to in 8 days. But back to my point;).

I want all my gifts to have a special touch. They don’t all have to be super unique or themed but something cute that has a sweet message is great. As someone who has been married forever (literally 20 years) I think about marriage advice. Advice I have gotten, given, and even the advice I thought was dumb comes to mind. A classic piece of life was “Good mornings make for good days”. So here is an idea that can be for any holiday or occasion!!!

Good Morning Gift

The basics of this gift centers around the need to caffeinate! This is an essential for my good morning. So here are some of the things I would put in this gift.

french-press-travel-mugBodum 15 oz Travel Press Coffee Maker: Eliminate an entire piece of machinery with this on the go coffee press you can drink from. If coffee isn’t your poison it isn’t a big deal because this is great for loose leaf tea also. Hopefully you have time in the morning for a luxurious cup (if so, I am jealous). But it not, have no fear just fill it and go.

 

 

electric-teapotElectric Kettle: If you use a coffee press or drink tea in the morning you are going to need near boiling water. You can set an electric kettle up on your bathroom counter or in your kitchen. But either way it takes minutes and tends to be much faster than using your stove to boil water. (I don’t just use this for my tea but also to boil water for pasta. I said it was faster than the stove)

Tea: Loose leaf tea is always the best choice in my opinion. While I like herbal and green during they day, I need a good black to get my day going.

godiva-coffeeCoffee: And I mean good coffee like Godiva. This is a gift, get the quality you would love to receive! Make sure to get it ground unless you are getting them a grinder too.

Scones or Scone Mix: You need a little something to nosh on too, right? Scones are great to get your day going. But don’t get them fresh scones unless you know they can consume the next day. If they are heading out to a honeymoon or this is sitting under a Christmas tree go with an easy and quality mix.

Then you just assemble your gift! A basket is always nice but tower can be kind of cool. Those big towers of goodies we see from Harry & David  or Costco are always interesting and special. So wrap your gifts separately and they stack with layers of tape in between the boxes. Then tie the whole tower together with a long ribbon. 

There you have a thoughtful gift that will make a splash!

 

(Disclosure: This is a sponsored post that contains affiliate links. All thoughts and opinions are mine and mine alone!)

 

 

 

3 Steps to Puzzle Storage Zen

WP_20150408_11_29_49_Pro

Puzzles sound so old school, I know. But puzzles are great for so many reasons. They develop logic and problem-solving skills. It helps kids (and adults) to sit and focus therefore develop that stick to it attitude that helps people succeed in life. And it de-stresses so many. But I hear complaints all the time about puzzles. But most of those complaints are about storage and trying to figure out where found pieces go. It doesn’t have to be that way!!!

We love a puzzle here in the NerdFamily. But not in the rainy day, sit for 3 hours, and just do puzzles kind of way. Instead, we grab those hidden moments that would other be lost. We put up a folding table and throw a puzzle on it. This is when we use those big puzzles that you just don’t have a lot of time for. We only do this when we can leave it up for a few days. Then we take those minutes that pop up through the day and head to the table. Maybe we are watching tv and working on it. That time when dinner is almost ready and you don’t have time to do anything, puzzle time;). Those minutes when half the family is ready to go somewhere and they are waiting on the other half? Puzzle time.  

I hear it now, “How do you not lose all those little pieces? How to you keep them all together?” That is easier than you think! And when you find that random puzzle piece you will know right where it goes! 

WP_20150408_11_28_11_Pro1)Get a marker or a stamp. Stamp or write a letter (or code of some sort) on the back of every piece. Yes, I know it sounds tedious. It really isn’t that time consuming. With smaller children use a color as part of your code. Then they don’t have to read!

2)Cut out the front picture from the box. Be honest, those boxes never last very long anyways. On the back of the picture write the code for that puzzle and how many pieces there are. WP_20150408_11_29_25_Pro

3)Put the whole mess into a ziplock bag! Throw the bags into a bin and put the bin on the shelf. If you have a lot of puzzles, like some of us, you might want to have different bins for different sized puzzles. That way if your 4-year-old goes to grab a puzzle they can just access their smaller ones;). 

That is it! 3 steps to storing your puzzles! Now go have some fun!!!

 

10daysbutton

   This is part of the 10 Days of Nerdy Fun!!! Make sure you hop over to see what other great posts of nerdy fun that will be shared! 

 

Getting Kids Ready for Summer with Logic! (with Video)


Remember all the big plans you used to have for summer? Remember is being the end of summer and you got none of those things done? We have all been there (many, many times) but there is a logical way to avoid the regrets and heartbreak of lost summer goals. Well, it HELPS to not lose the summer goals. I am not magic! 

Goals are not magically met and plans don’t magically happen. We need to help our kids learn to develop these skills. It might save them years of frustration and they might actually get all those things done that we never did! 

Just take your kids through setting a goal and discovering the steps needed. I like it all outline style! Let’s go through my daughter’s goal of learning to swim.

Goal: Learn to Swim

I. Talk to Swim Teacher for Lessons
    A. Have some times available from Mom
II. Supplies to have
     A. Swimsuit
     B. Sunscreen
     C. Goggles
     D. Towels
III. Practice
     A. Talk to Dad
     B. Set time on the calendar

Here is another example!

Goal: Babysitting

I. Get Diaper Experience
    A.Talk to Parents to ask to let to help
    B.Research diaper changing and issues
II.Logistics
    A.Figure out rates
    B.Transportation availability schedule (hey, I have a life too;)
    C.Education/Certification
III.Get Customers
    A.Make a flyer
    B.Distribute it to parents of kids

3

 

 

 

3 Ways to Help Your Kids to Move on From Their Toys!

unnamed (6)

Toys, toys, toys. They just keep coming! But the kids do eventually outgrow some of them. But if your kids are like mine, when parents suggest getting rid of the more childish ones kids say no! If you aren’t careful you will have a house full of teenagers and a full toy kitchen set too;). So I was asked by a friend, “How can we help our kids to move on from the toys they are really to old for?” I have 3 ways! 

(This is a piece sponsored by Pley but all from me;)

1) Leverage your space to make your argument. Don’t allow them to add their newer toys to reachable shelves that are already full of toys! Place the new toys in an inconvenient location (top shelf, another room, even somewhere they need your help to get). When the kids need your help or complain about the location, remind them if they get rid of their excess, old toys there will be plenty of room!

2) Tug on their hearts. The situation where you have some toys that your kids have outgrown but just don’t want to let go yet. But then you have a friend or family member with a younger child who would just adore that toy. You mention that so and so would love that toy. It is amazing to watch your kids just automatically volunteer it! Or at least grudgingly give their permission for the transfer;). This is a great way to not only get rid of old toys but to also grow your children’s hearts. 

My children have been on both sides of this situation. We have received great sets of toys that we would have never been able to afford! Like entire Little Tikes outdoor play structures. But when it was time for my kids to give them up… well they didn’t want to. But a friend of mine hosts a bible study for parents of preschoolers and didn’t have any outdoor toys. As soon as I asked if they would give them to this friend so this group of little kids could use them, all my children’s doubt and desire to hold on to them went away. My kids even volunteered to help take the structures apart so they could get loaded into a truck. 

3) If worse comes to worse, appeal to their greed. What can I say, economy and money are motivators. If they sell their toys, they will have money to spend! You can have a yard sale, use Craig’s List, or post them on one of the many Facebook groups that there are for community sales! Just remember that they toys don’t just belong to the first kid or the last kid who has played with them. You need to decide who gets a share of the money before things are sold. Otherwise you could have a lot of bickering and tension once everything is sold. 

pley-card-logo-v3Now, one way you avoid this whole constant struggle of course is to do a service like Pley. When your kids see something better on the list, they just have to send back the last set they got. Easy peasy! You know I had to at least mention them;). 

(Disclosure: Pley did sponsor this post but all thoughts and opinions are mine alone;)

Dealing with the Playtime “I Don’t Know What to Do”s

girl-with-lego

(This is a sponsored post by Pley, the awesome toy set subscription service. Netflix for blocks (and maybe Polly Pockets soon too).)

“I don’t know what to play with.” Admit it, you have heard that from your kids. I think it drives every parent crazy, but especially here in the United States where we know that our kids have and do so much! An “I’m bored” in my house is often met with a response about how I always have baseboards that need cleaning. But being over whelmed with toys is not necessarily a problem that just comes from ungrateful children. They really can have so much available to them that they don’t know how to focus or how to clean up. How many times have you found your kid in a trashed room of toys with them walking around aimlessly? Come on, I can’t be the only one;).  But it doesn’t have to be that way.  How I have always gone about my kids and toys is like toy rotation. But less of hiding things away and more about being intentional. 

So lets take an infant. You put them in a play pen full of toys and walk away. They sit in the middle and fuss or cry, right? You wonder why they don’t just pick up a toy and start playing, right? Well, if you sit them in an empty play pen and hand them 1 or maybe 2 toys they are less likely to fuss. Seriously. I heard about this in a Babywise or Growing Kids God’s Way tape before I had any kids. I remember having this frustration with my siblings when they were little. So I had kids… I experimented on them. Yes really, I am that person. But I wanted to know if it was a fluke or actually a thing. And it seemed to be a thing. 

This method is also considered really good for development. I mean if you think about it, you are giving them 1 thing to focus on. That means they really figure out everything they can do with it. If they can do something else with it. And it teaches them how to focus and work something out to its end. I know, it sounds way to deep for an infant. So lets jump ahead to that 3-10 age. 

As part of our day, since the kids were mobile, we have always had some “go away from me and play” time every day that we are home. So you send a kid off to play, or a group of kids as it is in my house, and they can’t settle on what to do. They flit from thing to thing or can’t agree on anything! So I would always say, “Go play in the kids’ room. You can play with this or this. Which one do you guys want to do?” They tell me their choice and go play. No fighting and no whining. And of course at these ages I am not going to hand them one single rattle but a theme. They pick a set like the kitchen set, Lincoln Logs, Legos, or dolls. Often we would also get 2 who play with one thing and 2 who would play with the other. 

Sometimes they will stick with these things for an hour or a week so they really get a chance to delve in to a project. Here is the other secret power of this. You can always make 1 of the suggestions something they don’t play with often. It can help them rediscover a hidden gem. It also can be a way to discover when something can move on to a home that wants it more. 

Now that my kids range from 8-14, they do this to themselves. If they are heading off to play they will say, “I am going in the game room to play…” Not so much to ask permission but to let me know that they are getting into an activity and to let their siblings know in case they want to join. 

That is it, really. That is my secret to kids playing and learning to focus. When you hear it, it sounds so simple. Yet, if you have never seen it modeled you may never have tried it. Try it out with your kids! Let me know how it works for you. 

Oh, 1 extra benefit to mental development, not being bored, and not fighting? They at most have 1 set of things out (per kid) to clean up. So it makes the end of the day so much easier!!!

And if you are a Pley subscriber, you have 1 special set of toys that they can play with at a time! Once they fully explore that set, you just send it in and get another one!!!

pley-card-logo-v3(Disclosure: This piece was sponsored by Pley but all thoughts and opinions are mine alone!)