The grocery fast is going strong! Weeks 5 and 6 found me spending more money than I wanted to–but my food stores are going down! I even had room in my deep freeze for two gallons of my daughter’s breast milk in dozens of 4 ounce bags! I was so excited to say that I had extra room!

Financially, it definitely got harder in weeks 5 and 6 than the first four weeks! I finally decided that the grandbabies’ food, diapers, and wipes that I get here for when I keep them each Wednesday would not be included in my grocery fast budget. When I needed to purchase these, they came up to an entire week’s budget, so I didn’t include them in my totals. (I am including all of our food, toiletries, and cleaning supplies, but not eating out, which we aren’t doing as much as I would like to for empty nesters because we have so much food to use here!)

My boys are crazy about their air-fried appetizers!

We went to Costco and got $70 worth of fresh foods, so I was happy about that purchase. That takes our total up to about $35 a week average (since Ray made a small Wal-mart run in there too)–a little more than I want to spend for the $25 a week–but did I mention, we are using things up!! Yay!

Tender, amazing roasted pecans in a few minutes!

So here are some details about these two weeks of the “grocery fast”…..

1) I still have appetizers from our Christmas Decorating Night and our family Christmas Eve! I definitely over-purchased those! However, I have been learning more and more how to use my air fryer (see my first air fryer post here–and my amazing healthy croutons!). Thus, when my sons and sons-in-law stop in, I let them choose from my appetizer selection and stick them in the fryer for 10-15 minutes….wahla! Appetizer platter! This is especially fun because we often have mostly healthy leftovers that they sometimes don’t like as well. Now I always have something to throw in the fryer for them! (Not sure what I’ll do when I run out of them!)

Lightly-breaded chicken legs and stir fried veggies!

2) Another great way to use up bits and pieces of food is the amazing omelet!  Eggs are inexpensive to add even into the grocery fast budget, and bits of sausage, bacon, ham, and veggies abound in my freezers, so I have made these a couple of times. I also use leftover cheese and ham for air fried hot hamaramas–think grilled cheese with ham. They were delicious and a wonderful accompaniment to all of my fresh veggies!

Working on making my Sprouted Low Carb Flour Mix work for low carb Real bread!

3) Besides using my fresh veggies for roasted veggies and stir fries, as my Jungle Jim produce got depleted, we’ve been diligent about getting bags of frozen veggies out of the freezer. They’re a little water-logged with ice crystals and definitely not the freshest, but we are determined to use them! (Frozen green beans, especially the long ones from Sam’s, are actually pretty good in this Homestyle Skillet Green Beans recipe!)

The dough….

4) I have been doing Daily Intermittent Fasting for two months now, and I am finding more success when I open my window with a low carb, nutrient-dense snack. Enter roasted pecans. I had already picked them all out of the mixed nuts that we had from Christmas, and I was really craving them (and NEEDED them! ha ha). However, roasted, salted pecans were more than twice the price of lovely, tender pecan halves from Costco, so I bought a big bag of them and learned how to make salted, roasted ones within a few minutes in the air fryer! Check out my recipe. Super easy!

The artisan bread!

5) We’ve been using up meat out of the freezer! Even drumsticks and other “less desirable” ones! Actually, these were some of the best chicken legs I have ever made. The breading (and method for breading) makes them so light–nothing like the heavy breading when i used to do oven fried thighs. I seriously loved them! AND….it forced me to finish perfecting my healthy breading mix, which has been on “the back burner” for some time now! Win-win! Watch the Donna Reish blog for this recipe in the upcoming weeks!

Steak and Potato Foil Packs. Super yummy!

6) Speaking of perfecting something, I had a lot of my Sprouted Flour Mix in the pantry, so I started experimenting (again) with making low carb artisan bread. It’s not quite ready to share, but we enjoyed the loaves that I made, and I am still working on perfecting it as I want to get it under ten net carbs per serving. So watch Donna Reish.com for that!

7) And lastly, I am still working on my steak supply! (Terrible problem, huh?) I made those amazing Steak and Potato Foil Packets that you might have seen the video of floating around FB. And they did not disappoint. Still trying to figure out how to make steak every week! 😉 Again, watch the Donna Reish blog for this yummy recipe!

Only two weeks left of the grocery fast, but one of my three refrigerators is almost empty and my deep freeze is definitely a third of the way down! Yay!

P.S. What would you do with 20 more 5 ounce sirloin steaks? I’d love some more ideas?

The post Eight Week Grocery Fast – Weeks 5 and 6 appeared first on Character Ink.

Well, I am at the three week mark in my grocery fast, and at the beginning of this week, I had only spent $35 (of the $50 I had budgeted for two weeks). (See Weeks 1 and 2 here.) I was encouraged about the dollar amount, but I was somewhat discouraged that it didn’t feel like any of our food stores were going down that quickly. That part didn’t really get any better during Weeks 3 and 4 as I went on a five day writing retreat and ate out each evening with my daughter (who was there for her master’s seminar) for my one meal a day. (Interested in OMAD–One Meal a Day??? Check out my Daily Intermittent Fasting videos, audios, slideshows, and posts here!). While I was gone writing, my husband did manage to use up veggies, broth, and tomato juice since he made himself vegetable soups every night! He didn’t use up any of the meat we had shredded and frozen the previous week, so our stores didn’t really get depleted. But…here is what we did use and do:

Holiday cookies in January? When you’re trying to empty the freezer, you bake them and take them!

1) Still trying to avoid the whole “I really want to make these bars with these ingredients” mindset,

so I took Christmas cookies to a dance, using up the dough balls I still had in the freezer. I was also careful to not throw away foods just because we were done having them for leftovers! I froze leftover mashed potatoes that I will use for Shepherd’s Pie and leftover egg casserole. Now the trick is to get into the freezer and use them!

6-acre grocery store during a grocery fast???!! What was I thinking!?

Huge reduced produce section gave me fresh produce to go with all the meats in my freezer!

I had $65 left and spent $66! Yay me!

2) At the end of my writing retreat, my daughter and I traveled home via Cincinnati, Ohio to the largest grocery store in the area

The 6-acre Jungle Jim’s. I tried to talk myself out of my grocery fast, noting that going there is a once-a-year-or-less event, but I really wanted to keep using my food stores. So….I decided to keep my list to a minimum, do some comparison shopping, look some of the foods I was after up on Amazon for future reference, and not buy anything extra pricey. As it turns out, I had $65 left for the month–and without even counting as I went, my total was $66!!! I was soooo excited! You can see my cart and grocery belt in the pics–I really cashed in on their huge reduced produce section! Ray Baby was snapping reduced green beans for hours during Sunday football the next day!

Nothing was wasted! If it didn’t get eaten, it was frozen for a later date!

3) As I mentioned, I have been trying to be super diligent about not just tossing a little of this or a little of that.

When we had seven kids at home, it felt like things just eventually got used up. Not the case with just two of us! So I cleaned out the fridge and made a great 7 Layer Salad for our grandson’s birthday party that everybody really loved–and true to not throwing out soft apples, I made Ray some apple salad.

Apple salad is a great way to use up soft apples!

Mayo-PB Apple Salad!

4) I used the veggies over the next two weeks and am happy to say that I didn’t throw any of them out–not even a soft green pepper!

Yay me! I made stir fried zucchini, peppers, onions, sprouts, and mushrooms (see steak picture). I made roasted green beans. I made salads. I made dip for fresh veggies. I just babied those produce items every day, using them to their fullest!

Parmesan green beans—my favorite snack to open my eating window each day!

7-Layer Salad is a great way to empty the fridge!

5) We had a unique problem that I knew we would have to face–we HAD to eat steak!

For five years, we had accumulated Omaha Steaks that our business received as gifts a couple of times a year. We didn’t really know how to make steaks! With seven kids on one income for over two dozen years, we never bought steaks. We used meat as more of a “condiment” in combination dishes–lasagna, chicken spaghetti, tuna casserole, enchiladas, etc. We didn’t serve that many meats as “per person” entrees (except chicken breasts…oh the chicken breasts! ha ha). So we dug in the freezer and committed ourselves to using them. We started with the most amazing Pan Fried Sirloin, which I was sooo happy with. I learned how to make steak–and make it really yummy tasting! Read all about that experience and the recipe here!

My first pan-fried steak was a huge success! Now I have to make steak every week for the rest of the grocery fast!

I ended the month on budget–with $25 a week average spent! And we ate like a queen and king! 🙂

Jason and I did a great job depleting the ice cream supplies!

P.S. What do you like to make to “use up” produce? What is your family’s favorite stir fried veggie combination?

The post Eight Week Grocery Fast – Weeks 3 and 4 appeared first on Character Ink.

We are two weeks into my grocery fast (see the intro post here), and I already have unique situations and “special” circumstances to navigate. But like I always told my kids as I was raising them to do what they had to do every single day: “Every day is special, but every day can’t be a special day!” In other words, when we look at everything that comes up as an occasion to skip our school plan, not do our cleaning, or eat sweet treats, we will not be successful.

The same is true with my grocery fast. I could easily say a week or so in that I can’t keep it because we’re having movie night with the kids; I need to spend more because some of the kids are coming for Sunday dinner; I need to take some food to my step-mom; I need to make something for our ballroom dance; and on and on….

Or I could come up with some creative options that work for my grocery fast and for the “special” circumstances.

Below are a couple of links to products I use and love. I am an affiliate for Amazon.com. If you click on the links below I will earn a small commission. Thank you for your support of this blog!

So here were my special circumstances and solutions for the first two weeks:

1) Family Movie Night: Stone Soup!

I sent the kids a text through the family thread telling them about the grocery fast (they had been telling me for years to empty my freezers!) and that we would be having “stone soup” for the movie night. They asked what they could bring and I told them we pretty much had it covered except for regular bread (they don’t like sprouted), peanut butter, and dessert.

The older kids knew what “stone soup” meant as when they were little, in honor of the story by the same name in which villagers brought foods one at a time to add to a pot of water with a stone in it—and it “magically” became a soup, we had a tub in the freezer marked Stone Soup in which leftover meats, sauces, and veggies went into after a meal (if there wasn’t enough of these things to have as leftovers or I didn’t have another plan for them). When this tub was full, we defrosted it and made “stone soup.” They knew we were having soup made out of whatever I had in the house!

The party was a great success. Actually, for some reason, everyone said it was the best chili I had ever made. I know that this is unrelated to the grocery fast, but I was happy about that! Oh, and my daughter left her half-filled peanut butter jar, so that is one less thing to add to the list this month!

2) Food to Give Away/Take to Dance

Once a week we go eat lunch or dinner on the weekends with my step-mom. My dad died in the spring, and she has no family but us. It has been hard to continue the weekly visits after my dad’s death (many, many Saturday tears upon leaving her apartment), but I am happy to invest in her as she invested in my dad for nearly forty years. We either eat in her Independent Living cafeteria, take her out, or take food in. She has extra food credit right now in the cafe, so that part was easy. When we go, we take her things she needs, take her out to shop, stay and play games, and sometimes take her food or goodies that she doesn’t make for herself or get in the cafeteria. This was easy enough as we had lots of leftover soup, cornbread, fruit salad, and dessert from our movie party! (And she said it was the best chili she had, had in a while too!)

The next day was a ballroom dance, and I am known for bringing homemade treats or appetizers, so I didn’t want to disappoint! I had a zip-lock bag of frozen peanut butter cookie dough, the aforementioned leftover peanut butter my daughter left here, some chocolate chips from when I made Christmas fudge, and leftover holiday M and M’s. Enter “Cookie Candy Bars”! These are seriously the easiest thing to make and everybody LOVES them. You just press the dough into a 9×13 baking pan and bake it. Then melt chocolate chips with peanut butter and spread over cooled bars. Then crush and sprinkle M and M’s (or other candy). (See my low carb/healthy recipe for this here or the quick, sugary version here!)

3) Leftovers, Leftovers, Leftovers!

After our Christmas on December 30th, we had sooo many leftovers. I sent a bunch home with the kids, but I still had too much food left. I knew I was doing the Grocery Fast, so I was even more conscientious than I normally am with leftovers.

To start with, we didn’t make anything new for the first week. This was tough—we were getting tired of Christmas food! But we held strong (except for making new green beans every couple days!).

I added a couple of pieces of fresh fruit to the sad-looking fruit salad and brought it back to life. Ray enjoyed this as did my step-mom. (I sometimes do this when I’m near the end of a fruit salad but the dressing is still good—though I never do this with a fruit salad containing bananas. It’s just not kind to the eaters!)

By the end of the first week, we cut into shreds (with scissors) the leftover ham, turkey, and roast beef. We bagged these and labeled them “Shredded Beef With Gravy—1 Pound Fully Cooked,” “Shredded Turkey With Broth–1/2 Pound Fully Cooked,” etc. (It’s important to note the state your freezer foods are in if you freeze them in different states all the time like I do.) Looks like we’ll have more Stone Soup soon! 🙂

I usually throw out whatever sugary foods we have after a get together (that the kids don’t take home). Thinking of my grocery fast, I actually threw out all the pies except for a piece or two for me that I had saved for my eating window and several pieces I took to my step-mom for her freezer. However, I didn’t throw the cookies and candy out, I tubbed them up, labeled them, and froze them for the future. I feel like I have enough self-control with Plexus and Daily Intermittent Fasting (IF) that they will be safe there until we have an occasion to use them. (Hopefully!)

4) We Used Some Foods Up!

We used up 3 pounds of ground beef and 3 pounds of chicken breast when we cooked them for the soup on family movie night. I was more careful than usual with the meats—only used ¾ of them in the soups and tried not to make more soup than we could use that night, give to my step-mom, send some with our soup fiend son, and eat a meal or two of it the next week. (As a matter of fact, when Ray came home from work and saw the beef chili, he said, “Is that going to be enough?” He has NEVER said that before!! And we did use it all after we sent some home with the aforementioned son and step-mom.)

But I rationed the meat and kept out ¼ of the ground beef and ¼ of the chicken for us to make another meal out of it for ourselves. I normally would have used it all and just made the soups meatier. That was a win on rationing AND using foods up!

I had eight boxes of various types of crackers! I had bought them when our son came home from his internship, a little at a time, and Ray and I don’t really eat crackers much at all and our son moved in with his brother—so there they were. I’m happy to report that we used two of them on soup night with the fam! (I put out leftover cheese spread from Christmas as well.)

For Sunday afternoon football, I was still in my fasted state, so Ray gathered up all the leftover frozen appetizers from our family Christmas Eve party and baked them all in the oven. This was a win because we often have little zipper bags of different frozen appetizers after family parties—so purposely using these rather than making nacho bar, etc., like we often would, was great! (I don’t watch football anyway, so I went to my room and read while they ate!)

And….we used some frozen veggies! Since starting Daily IF, I have become a bit of a food snob. I really like to make Ray fresh stir fried veggies or roasted veggies, and I really love my fresh green beans. I want to get to the bottom of all of these bags of frozen vegetables, so this was a start!

5) I Only Spent $35 the First Two Weeks!

I made it two weeks without much expense! Yay me! I went to Sam’s and bought apples, oranges, fresh green beans, and Romaine lettuce. I was super excited about that!

However, I had another problem to face in cutting my groceries down to an average of $25 a week—I was addicted to an expensive brand of dry shampoo! I had tried the $4 bottles (several); I had tried some of the $8 bottles, but the only brand that worked with my hair color (and that I could stand the smell of!) was Matrix Biolage Waterless Clean and Recharge Dry Shampoo ($18 a bottle!). And I used at least two bottles a month. I couldn’t use 1/3 of my grocery budget during the grocery fast on dry shampoo! (I have seriously tried so many cheaper ones—and I don’t HAVE to have a certain regular shampoo, honest!) But then I saw a thread on a FB friend’s timeline about dry shampoo and someone said she had tried many of the same ones I had tried and finally found one that didn’t leave white residue and didn’t choke you with the smell—and it was half the price of my normal one. I ordered it on Amazon and loved it! I was able to cut my dry shampoo expense in half the first month of the grocery fast! (The new, less expensive, but still wonderful one is Eva NYC Freshen Up Dry Shampoo.)

So that was my $35 for two weeks of groceries—apples, oranges, green beans, lettuce, and dry shampoo! Oh, and ice…have to have my ice every day for my water since I pretty much only drink water and Plexus Slim—and I drink a lot of water!

It’s been a great two weeks! I can’t say that I feel like my freezers, fridges, and cabinets are going down quickly—but I know they will as I stick to the plan!

P.S. How do you stop buying so many groceries and use up what you have? Any good leftover tricks?

The post My Eight Week Grocery “Fast” – Weeks 1 and 2 appeared first on Character Ink.

I am not big on “New Year’s Resolutions since 93% of resolutions are thrown out by the end of January each year. I have kept resolutions before—doing something every day, like reading aloud to my kids or doing a daily cleaning routine, etc. (I prefer to make life changes a little at a time, like monthly, as described in my Productivity Series.)

However, I decided over Christmas that my freezers and cupboards HAD to be reduced. My husband and I raised seven kids for thirty-four years, twenty-five of those years on one income. I prepped, cooked, organized, couponed, sale-shopped, and cleaned like a madwoman during those years in order to stay on budget and “get it all done.” I had one deep freeze that was collecting ingredients for my next freezer cooking day and another was filled with already-made mega cooking meals. My cupboards were the same.

We became empty-nesters eighteen months ago, and while my shopping and cooking have radically changed over the past several years as kids have “left the nest,” I still haven’t learned how to shop or prepare food for two (much less for two people who eat one meal and a snack a day through Daily Intermittent Fasting (IF)—that is just not much food compared to feeding nine people three times a day!). We are getting increasingly frustrated by our inability to grab what we want or need out the pantry, and my beautiful freezers are hopelessly stuffed. So…..grocery fast it is.

I had to narrow the parameters for what this would look like, not just because I like rules and creating systems, but also because I wanted the grocery fast to be effective. If I fasted from buying canned goods only, I could just buy more fresh veggies and still not empty my pantry any. If I fasted from buying perishables only, I could still not guarantee that I would use all of the frozen meat in my deep freeze. It needed to be significant and clear in order to be effective.

So…..here were my “rules”:

1) Cut Weekly Groceries to $25 a Week

For two months, I would cut my grocery spending down from whatever it currently was (which used to be $150 a week before IF simply because we have the kids over a lot AND I made everything low carb and from scratch with expensive ingredients, etc.). I haven’t really established my new grocery budget with IF, but I’m thinking that with 7 meals a week plus 7-14 snacks/desserts per week (per person) and having “parties” with the kids often, I should be able to settle in at $100 a week for all groceries and cleaning (I buy bare minimum cleaning supplies), and toiletries.

2) Buy Only What We Absolutely Need

I knew this would be tough because I NEED fresh green beans and bananas every week. I NEED to make fresh stir fry two nights a week. I NEED to have Romaine lettuce and Romano cheese for salads most days. Or do I?

I decided that I would focus on what we really needed in order to survive…not what I saw as “needs.” Toilet paper, deodorant, toothpaste lettuce, eggs, and apples to start with. Then if I had leftover money, I would buy fresh veggies for stir frying and my favorite salad cheese. (I have tons of frozen veggies I can stir fry and bags of shredded cheese in the freezer!)

3) Make What We Have!

Not making what we already have in the freezers and pantries is what got us into this position to begin with. Keeping the grocery dollars low each week will force me to use what we have for sure. But I also needed to make what we have as much as possible without adding too much to it. In other words, I need to make what we have without adding this veggie or that spice or this sauce to the shopping list. I actually think this will be fun! 🙂

4) Figure Out Ways to Party With the Kids for Little Money!

The kids are all really great about contributing to family parties. However, Ray and I usually make the main entrée, provide the drinks, etc. I will keep you posted on how this goes for us (our first “party” for all will be next week’s Family Movie Night!). One way I know I can make this work is to have the kids bring very specific side dishes (i.e. cornbread for the soup beans as opposed to anything savory or anything sweet, etc.).

5) Make Combination Dishes

For many years we lived on casseroles and combination dishes, using meat as more of a condiment than the main dish. This approach reduces per person meat consumption from 4 to 6 ounces each to 2 or 3 ounces each. But now we are spoiled! We love our meat and potatoes or meat and stir fries or meat and salads. However, I told Ray that I am excited to make tuna casserole and chicken spaghetti again! The point is that we have to cook and eat out of every shelf, refrigerator, and freezer in order to make a dent in our stash!

I will think of more money-saving/stock-depleting approaches as I continue over the next couple of months—and I will share them with you in posts that will be called Grocery Fast Week One and Two, etc. I hope you will join me! And if you have any suggestions for me, please write to me! I’d love more ideas!

P.S. Have you ever gone on a grocery “fast”? If so, what tips helped you get through on budget?

The post How I Planned a Grocery “Fast” for Two Months! appeared first on Character Ink.

Christmas is over. Time to turn our attention to New Year’s resolutions, back to school plans, and reorganizing from holiday messes.

For some of us blessed with parents who give us money for Christmas, it is also time to turn our attention to using that Christmas money on something we have longed for, wanted, needed, or drooled over. Here are a few things that I have found to be well worth spending that generous Christmas gift on.

image via Plexus

1. Health, wellness, energy, balanced blood sugars, gut health, regularity, restful sleep, and more from PLEXUS products! In the past couple of months, I have found all of those things in Plexus products. Here are some that I recommend to get you started!

a. Plexus Slim—pink, berry flavored drink mix that you drink once a day for balanced blood sugars, reduced cravings, energy, and more. Love this stuff!

b. BioCleanse—ongoing cleansing for gut health, oxidation, and energy. The most amazing magnesium source available for calmness, ease of sleep, restfulness, and more. (No more prescription restless leg meds or Tylenol pm for me at night since I started taking four BioCleanse capsules a day! And I wake up early, quickly, and refreshed. This was HUGE for me after ten years of RLS and insomnia.)

c. ProBio 5—The BEST probiotic out there with five strands of probiotic for gut health and candida fighting! Yeast overgrowth doesn’t stand a chance with ProBio 5!

image via t-tapp.com

2. At home, effective exercise videos—T-Tapp. I can’t say enough about T-Tapp. I will admit that I haven’t been as consistent as I have wanted in the past couple of years, but with the motivation and energy from my Plexus products, I have re-incorporated T-Tapp into my daily life over the past couple of months, and I have already gone down a size. These are my favorite videos—and why, but if you want to get started right with T-Tapp exercises, I recommend skype training from my friend Trisch Richardson. She will get you on the path to inch loss in fifteen minutes a day—at home with no equipment!

a. Total Workout Super Slow—if you are not going to work with a trainer (Skype or in person), I recommend this dvd. If you are doing the moves correctly, your body will heat up within a few minutes of these super slow movements. Every detail of every move is explained and demonstrated thoroughly. You WILL learn how to get the activation required for T-Tapp exercises with this video!

b. Basic Workout—Once you know how to do the moves, this is the go-to video. This is the “fitness in fifteen minutes a day” that Teresa talks about. What other workout can you do for fifteen minutes a day at your own timetable in your home with no equipment and lose inches, get stronger, and feel great?

c. Ladybug Standing—My personal favorite workout is the standing portion of this Ladybug video. I like the pace. I like the focus on the abs and core. I just love it. It is longer than the Basic, so I usually break it up. (I get bored if I exercise much more than fifteen minutes unless it is dancing or zumba!)

d. Hit the Floor—While Ladybug has a floor portion, my favorite floor routine hands down is Hit the Floor. It is longer than the Basic (which is standing) workout, so I also break this one up. But I love this workout for abs, stomach, and more.

3. Face, hair, and beauty—I am not a “buyer.” I can go two or three months without going into a store other than a grocery. I don’t really like shopping, and as a mother of seven, I don’t like buying a lot of extra things. (Plus, I’ve been on a minimalistic kick for a couple of years, so I like to move things OUT of my house, not IN.) That is why it is significant that I use Plexus (I don’t buy supplements, oils, lots of vitamins, etc. Never been to a chiropractor, never had a massage…I’m pretty practical in my spending.) However, these few things listed below are things I have bought and absolutely love!

a. Plexus Body Cream—a unique skin renewing cream with spirulina

Image via T-Tapp.com

algae and activated charcoal. I replaced my morning and evening “anti-aging products” with this amazing cream, and I’m loving it!

b. T-Tapp Body Brush—I’m not patient enough to do the whole body brushing thing (though people who do it say that it is worth the time), but I love the T-Tapp body brush for the backs of my hands and my neck. It really does help us fifty-something-gals!

c. T-Tapp Face Brush—two or three minutes a day is all it takes to do the face brushing, and I think it really helps. Face brushing along with the Plexus Body Cream is working for me!

Image via Amazon

4. Other—there are a few things that I have bought over the past few years that I just absolutely love and recommend. Your Christmas money would be well spend on these things!

a. Door Jewelry Armoire—I used my Christmas money for this last year, and I am in shock how happy I have been with it. (I debated for a long time over this—it was just under a hundred dollars last year, and that is a big purchase for me…I didn’t want to use my money on something that wouldn’t last!) The jewelry stays put well; the door shuts and stays shut; it doesn’t move too much when we open or close the door; it is roomy; there is a mirror on the inside so that when you put something on, you don’t have to shut the door to look in the mirror at it. I just can’t say enough about this item!

b. Thirty-One Totes—I had never even heard of these until three years ago, but I made up for lost time quickly when my daughter began selling them for a while! I have several in different sizes and styles, and I can’t say enough good about them. They are durable, hold tons, and are easy to get things in and out of. I really love the file tote with a file insert for my teaching.

c. Wet Brush—Prior to using this hair brush, I was pulling out so much hair when I picked my hair after washing it. This brush is amazing. I wish I had, had it for my three daughters’ tangles many years ago. Mine has lasted for two years, so it is a durable brush too!

d. Office Supply Organizer—While this is listed as a scrapbook organizer, I use mine for pens, pencils, scissors, highlighters, post-it notes, paper clips, and more. I love the small size of it, and I get asked about it all the time! I have had a lot of systems for my personal school supplies, but this one has been my favorite and one that I have stuck with the longest!

e. My favorite crock pot—While the price on this has doubled since I got mine a few years ago (ouch!), if you do a lot of slow cooking, and you don’t like having a lot of crock pots around, this three-in-one is amazing. It has the three different sizes of crocks that fit down into it, so it is like having three crock pots for the storage of one! (They nest inside each other onto the base for storage.) I have loved this, and I actually have two of them. We call it my “dueling/dualing” crock pots when I have two soups going at once. (Sorry, I’m an English curriculum author!) I will warn you that this is not your typical “cook all day crock pot.” The high is very hot; the medium is more like high on most crock pots; and the Keep Warm is more like low. (In other words, it cooks fast and hot, so it takes some getting used to.)

The post Mama’s Christmas Money appeared first on Character Ink.

I have been busy this summer doing some private tutoring as well as teaching a few small groups in my home. It was fun to teach in my home in a super relaxed environment of fewer students (and less homework since it was “summer school,” and parents wanted about half the normal amount of homework for their kids).

Additionally, I was blessed with the opportunity to work with a special needs student on her letters and sounds. (In case you ever wonder what the best age of kids is, I stand firm in my conviction that the best is four to six year old, followed closely by every other age!)

I didn’t set out this summer to write a preschool program that teaches letter recognition and sounds of the letters. (I’m still finishing my composition series, Meaningful Composition and writing a novel with my son…so I had plenty to keep me busy already!)

I started out like most tutors who are tutoring in an area they are unfamiliar or rusty (in my case, it has been ten years since I taught a child to read, and it has been over twenty years since I worked on my master’s degree in Reading Specialist). However, I didn’t anticipate that so many fun and flashy programs (and grocery store workbooks, flash cards, and activity packs) would be so un-sound in their foundations. (I’m sure there are great ones out there, but just not the ones I was working with.)

For example, one taught beginning sounds at the same time as it taught them as middle sounds and end sounds (way too much new information at one time; plus, once the beginning sound is taught, it is much easier for a child to transfer that information over to end {then middle!} sounds). Some had way too many writing (penning) expectations for preschoolers. Some taught the initial sound then had the student read words with it—really? It only takes recognizing the sound of D in drummer to be able to read that word? One had less-than-best clue words (like alligator for A—too long for a clue word and run for R (verbs are not a good first choice for clue words). Some just had vague clue words (park ranger—who looked like a policeman or an explorer). Others were downright wrong—ark for short A?????

So what does a curriculum writer do when the programs she tries just do not suit her? You guessed it! She writes her own program. Enter “Letters and Sounds”!

I love to teach—so this will definitely be a teaching post! I am going to paste the full front matter for the ABC Sounds Song book/packet below. If you are teaching preschool and/or kindergarten, even if you are not in the market for materials to teach letter and sound recognition, I hope you will take time to read this “front matter” as I give a lot of instruction on teaching littles these first important skills. And check back often as I continue to add new grammar, writing, and other learning materials! (Oh, and check out my demo videos here!)

About “The ABC Sounds Song” Packet

Your teaching of beginning letter sounds is about to get much easier! Yay!

Children remember words of songs. They remember rhymes and mnemonics. They remember jingles and ditties. Thus, a natural way for littles to learn their beginning letter sounds is through one of these means. Enter “The ABC Sounds Song Packet.”

In a nutshell, this packet contains 8.5 x 11 inch colored “posters” of each of the twenty-­‐six
letters of the alphabet (plus five additional ones) in song to the tune of “Mary Had a Little
Lamb.” (It actually includes thirty-­‐three posters; see below.)

Each song is the same (same wording, phrasing, and line breaks) as the other. The only differences among the song sheets are in the letter and the words/picture clues that begin with that letter.

Here is what you get:

1. Three ABC posters with the alphabet laid out in the order and with the line breaks in the same manner it is sung in the “original” ABC song. (See “Tips for Using the ABC Sound Songs” below.)

2. Twenty-­‐six “regular” letter posters-­‐-­‐the “regular” twenty-­‐six letters of the alphabet, one on each poster, with each letter ’s own “song” with the beginning sound. (See “What Makes This Packet Unique” below!)

3. Five“additional” letter posters—the five long vowels (the original five vowels in the first
twenty-­‐six letters contain the short vowel sounds) and the soft sounds of c (suh) and g (juh).

What Makes “Letters and Sounds” Unique

I developed the entire “Letters and Sounds Program” when working one-­‐on-­‐one with a special needs student at the pre-­‐school level based on my experience in my reading specialist master ’s work as well as on my experience as a curriculum author for fifteen years (sixty books and forty thousand pages!). Thus, I do not take lightly the exact breakdown of curriculum development and its usability and effectiveness. Giving students every chance to succeed is what curriculum creation is all about.

Here are some things that are unique about the entire “Letters and Sounds” program and specifically about these letter/picture songs:

1) There are thirty-­‐three song posters, not the typical twenty-­‐six letters only. Why?

a. I think it is important when teaching beginning letter sounds that the short and long vowels not be put on the same poster/taught at the same time. Thus, the first twenty-­‐six letters are in ABC order with the vowels beginning with the short vowel sounds. The remaining five vowels are at the end of the posters and begin with the long vowel sounds. (In other words, one A card does not have Apple and Acorn both on the same card…way too confusing for young learners.)

b. Also, the hard and soft sounds of C and G are separated. The first time through (in the first twenty-­‐six songs), the hard C and G sounds are used (the most common in primer and pre-­‐primer readers). At the end, two additional songs are included with the soft C and G sounds (less common). You may choose not to use the soft sound cards, depending on how the reading program that you will be using handles these.

c. The short vowel sound is given first because it is the more common sound of each vowel (especially in one syllable words that begin with the vowel as found in beginning readers). If you desire to teach the long vowel sounds first, simply start with the vowel song posters at the end of the original twenty-­‐six. There are definitely pros and cons to both methods/orders.

2) Each of the letter song posters has the upper case letter and the lower case letter on it.
The concept of recognizing both of these is very challenging for young learners. The more that the student sees these two together, the better the connection will be between the upper and lower case letters.

3) The letters are Primary. This means that the REAL a is used (not a
typewriter a)—the a that the student will learn to write is used (circle and line lower case a).

4) All of the Letters and Sounds products have the exact same clue pictures. The clue pictures are the most important pictures in all of the Letters and Sounds products, and great care was taken in choosing them. Here are some tips:

a. Do not change clue pictures or clue words when teaching the beginning sounds. A should always be associated with AX and APPLE. B should always be associated with BED and BIKE. (Obviously, worksheets with multiple pictures to practice finding pictures with a beginning sound will contain other pictures, but clue word pictures should remain constant.)

b. The clue picture words for the consonant sounds are primarily from Dolch words lists and Fry word lists. When these words did not work, the words were taken from a children’s dictionary. They are the most common words that a student will encounter when he or she begins reading. Thus, they will already have been exposed to “first words” over and over again in the Letters and Sounds products (as opposed to random choosing of clue pictures).

c. The clue pictures for the consonant sounds have a short vowel picture (BED) first then a
long vowel picture (BIKE). While students are not learning to read yet (just learning beginning sounds and letters), they are continually exposed to both short and vowel sounds with the twenty-­‐one consonants (as opposed to r-­‐controlled, diphthongs, etc., which are used in other Letters and Sounds products as needed to create rhymes, etc.).

d. Whenever possible, the clue words are one syllable words so that the beginning sound can be isolated more easily. There are instances in which two syllable words (and occasionally three syllable words) were used, but only when necessary and only when the beginning sound is clearly heard (like APPLE….even though it is two syllables, the short A sound is heard more clearly than, say, in ANT, which is one syllable, but is more n-­ controlled and the short A sound is not as discernible).

e. Whenever possible (excluding difficult ones like X-­‐tra), noun picture clues were used. It is important in sound-­‐picture recognition activities that the pictures be common ones and that they are clear, non-­‐ambiguous pictures. Verbs were used only when nouns were not clear enough or not available (QUACK for Q, for example). I tried not to use DOVE, for example, because students tend to think that is a BIRD, and this is too ambiguous.

f. Blends were not used for beginning letter picture clues unless the consonant sound was clearer in a blend word than common non-­‐blend nouns.

Tips for Using the “ABC Sound Song Posters”

1) In terms of upper and lower case letters, I personally have students call them CAPITAL and BIG for upper case and LITTLE for lower case. You may choose to have students call them upper and lower case, but the key is to be consistent in what they call them—and be sure that you use the same wording all the time as well.

2) You may desire to use the songs in a different order than ABC order. This is up for debate, but I know many teachers choose to teach beginning sounds in the order of frequency (think “Wheel of Fortune”) as opposed to ABC order. I waffle on this because on one hand, students usually already know the ABC’s in ABC order from the original alphabet song. Thus, it seems there is a “learning hook” already in place to learn the letters in ABC order. On the other hand, learning the consonants by themselves then the vowels by themselves can be somewhat easier—and it is especially helpful not to have “b” and “d” so close to each other in the visual learning sequence (and the sound of short a, short e, and short i very close to each other in the sound learning sequence). Obviously, the order for the sound songs is completely up to the teacher.

3) I recommend still reviewing the “original” ABC song with students even if they already know it. Here are some tips for doing so:

a. Use one of the ABC posters provided on the next pages (with the letters in the order the way the song is sung)—not as a long string of letters. (You may use the ABC pages given here as 8.5 x 11’s or enlarge them for more “poster ” sizes.) You want the break in the letter line to fall in the same place on paper as it does in the song.

b. Students love to sing the “original” ABC song fast. This is not conducive to letter-­‐sound
recognition. (They may be able to sing the song super fast but are not able to see a B and know it is a B because they do not correlate the “sung” letter with the written letter.) Because of this, I recommend that you sing the “original” ABC song with your students painfully slow while pointing to each letter on the song-­‐letter chart. Do not let them speed up or run away with it. Then go through it again a tiny bit faster (but still slowly and still pointing to the letters). Keep going through it, letting them speed up each time until they are doing their “crazy-­‐fast-­‐can’t-­‐point-­‐to-­‐the-­‐letters” (or learn anything!) speed just for fun. If they know that they will get to do the “fun and fast” way later, they will be more patient and more attentive during the “slow and point” way.

Speed of Use

If you are using the product for one-­‐on-­‐one teaching, pay close attention to the student’s of learning and base your speed through the product on that. Some programs recommend a letter a week if you have that option and that amount of time to spend on each letter. Of
course, you will want to do other activities to help cement the letter-­‐sound learning. Watch this spot for additional “Letters and Sounds” products, including our “Little ABC Rhyming Books,” which students love!).

What to Call the Sounds

What to call the consonant sounds: All of the “Letters and Sounds” products have the consonant sounds indicated with buh (or whatever consonant plus uh-­‐-­‐with the uh in a lighter color). This is easier for the teacher than having a key that is confusing (such as /b/ or “b” always refers to the sound, but B refers to the letter, etc.). However, you really do not want your student to say “B says BUH.” You really want your student to say a quick B sound. Thus, be careful that you are not stretching out the BUH (which is why the UH is written in light font).  (see image above)

There are two methods for ensuring that your student does not say BUHHHHHH:

i. One method for teaching the beginning consonant sounds is to have the student whisper the sound (buh). He will be less likely to drag out the UH if he does this.

ii. The second method is to have him say the sound with his
lips closed or just open ever-­‐so-­‐slightly as much as possible (just when saying the isolated
consonant sound). In this way, he will likely say bbb not BUH. (This method might not be desired for students in speech therapy since the advice may be the opposite of what the therapist is giving.)

What to call the vowel sounds: All of the “Letters and Sounds” products have the short vowels written like this Ah, Eh, etc. (with the exception of o since the combination oh is
really a long vowel word—too confusing!). This tells you that you are working on short A, again, you don’t want your student to say AHHHH like he is getting his tonsils checked. The ah is in light font and is there to remind you that it is short A. Sometimes it is better to say “A says ah like in AX” than it is to say Ah by itself.

The Songs

The songs are all laid out with the same breaks as “Mary Had a Little Lamb.” It should be easy for children to catch on to the songs. The song purposely has the following components in it:

1. Letter name (D says the sound of…)
2. Sound (sound of duh)
3. Two clue words (as described earlier in this forward)

The pictures of the clue words at the bottom of each song are in the same order that they fall in the song. Thus, even if your student does not know “sound of duh, sound of duh,” when you get to the end of the song, and you point to the dog and the deer, he should be able to recognize and sing those easily. The song is repetitive enough that children learn it very quickly.

Using the Packet/Book

It is debated as to whether it is more beneficial to learn to recognize the letters by themselves before embarking on sound learning or if it should be done jointly.

Hopefully, your student has had a lot of exposure to letters and has done puzzles, coloring pages, etc., with letters as well as had fun experiences with letters on signs and in his environment.

This makes the transition to letter recognition and beginning sound learning much easier.
If your student does not recognize letters, it might be a little bit difficult to jump right into
the sounds. In my upcoming book (Letters and Sounds: Patterns, Posters, and Pages), I begin with letter recognition entirely—and matching upper case and lower case letters before beginning with sounds.

Whenever we ask students to learn two or three things at one time with no “learning hook” to hook the new material on, learning becomes challenging-­‐-­‐like in the case of very little
letter exposure followed by learning (1) Upper case letter recognition; (2) Lower case letter
recognition; (3) Beginning sound; and (4) Clue words. That is a lot to learn at one time.

For this reason, I recommend that you work on letter recognition first by itself (using the
letter portion of my “Letters and Sounds ABC and Picture Cards”). Once the letter recognition is mastered, your student is ready to move into sound-­‐letter correlation. (I know this is debated, and each teacher has her own way. Some programs even recommend not doing letter recognition at all but simply sound recognition of that letter (this letter {B} says buh as in bed without saying the letter ’s name). That is not how I would handle it because that is not natural—how the child has been introduced to letters at home, at the library, in preschool, etc.—usually.

Email me to let me know how this product helps you. Feel free to send me questions. I answer questions about parenting, homeschooling, language arts, marriage, family living, organization, and teaching in my Wondering Wednesday podcast episodes. I would be happy to answer your questions there or via email or Facebook. Check out my products and blog posts at LanguageLadyBlog.com. Thanks for buying Language Lady products!

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One of our many traditions/housekeeping rituals is that of cleaning out the refrigerator on grocery shopping day (which now with six “adults,” ages fourteen to over fifty living here is twice a week!). Everybody starts carrying in groceries, and as they are carried in, I sort them and bark out orders: “The SMALL deep freeze; not the big one. I need to be able to find this on Wednesday!” etc. etc. Also, while they carry (and I sort), I clean out the inside refrigerator and have people bring things in from the garage refrigerator. (Yeah, I am a mean multi-tasker after thirty years of homemaking/parenting/homeschooling/working!)

Anyway, all of this is going in WITH teenage boys talking about their day, our college age daughter going over her schedule with Mom or Dad (“Is it okay if I leave in ten minutes to run, so I can get five miles in before it gets dark?”), the dog pulling things out of the trash can as I put things in, and, of course, a radio drama playing in the kitchen cd player. (Yes, I can work with a lot of noise too, another survival skill developed through the years!)

Usually, one of these shopping days falls on “leftover night,” so I start organizing food for that night’s meal, “re-loading” (as my kids call it) some of the leftovers so that they look new, and cutting up old fruits and veggies  before we put away the new ones. Someone will be called upon to make a quick fruit salad out of leftover fruits–and somebody will often start chopping leftover veggies to create a quick side dish to go with the main entree leftovers that we usually have.

We have gotten pretty good at throwing together fresh vegetable stir fries fairly quickly. We have variations on this side dish another night–we almost always have a chicken-veggie stir fry or beef veggie stir fry as one of our main entress each week. That night is is more involved and time consuming (cutting up meats, marinating meats, all the chopping and dicing and stir frying required for two huge pans of main dish meat/veggie stir fries). And, unfortunately, I don’t have much help on that night!

However, for “shopping day stir fried veggies” as a side dish, it is literally anything available chopped by whomever is available. I’ll give you some steps on tonight’s version, though it changes according to what’s left in the fridge on shopping day, who is home to help prepare veggies, and how many are there to eat it. (Leftover stir fry is not one of my family’s favorites!)

Tonight’s Version:

1 lb baby carrots
1 small zuchinni
6 oz snow peas
1 large green pepper
1 onion
1 lb brocolli
garlic
Mrs. Dash
oyster sauce
soy sauce
beef or chicken broth*

*Note: I seldom use oil to make a stir fry. If I do, it is just a little olive oil or coconut oil. I usually use broth to “fry” my stir fries

+I am a big pre-cooker. And I precook in the microwave, despite what some say about the microwave. It steams brocolli perfectly, and it is fast. So…

1.  Steam carrots in micro. (I put carrots with a tablespoon or two of broth in glass measure and cover with plastic wrap. Then I steam for three to six minutes, depending on how many carrots I have and how done I want them before I add them to the stir fry pan.)

2. Heat small amount of broth in skillet while chopping onions, garlic, and  peppers.

3. Stir fry aromatics (the three in #2) while you pull out the carrots.

4. Clean and chop brocolli and start steaming it in the micro in the same way as the carrots.

5. Slice zuchinni in thin rounds.

6. Add carrots, zuchinni, pea pods, garlic, Mrs. Dash, soy sauce, oyster sauce, and more broth, as needed and turn fire on medium high. Stir frequently as they cook.

7. When stir fry has just a minute or two left of cooking time, fold in the brocolli. (My guys do not like mushy brocolli, so I fold it in at the end.)

8. Continue to add more broth as needed while cooking.

And it looks like the picture below! 🙂

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Honoring those in authority is something that we have tried hard to instill in our children. Respect and honor for their grandparents is simply the beginning of that. Our children love their grandparents–and the feeling is completely mutual. Why? Obviously, they love the kids because they are their grandparents, but additionally, they appreciate and enjoy an amount of love, respect, and attention that they see few of their peers receiving. Teach your children to honor, serve, love, respect, uplift, encourage, and help their grandparents. It is truly the beginning of teaching our kids the character qualities of loyalty and honor.

                         Seventy Things We Love About Grandpa

                                               by Mary May Larmoyeux




Donna Reish wanted to make her father’s seventieth birthday extra special. “We knew that his daughters and nine grandchildren were the most important things to him,” she says, “so we centered the day around spending time together.”


Donna’s twenty-one-year-old daughter, Cami, came up with the idea of making a list of 70 reasons the grandchildren loved their grandfather. Each grandchild was asked to jot down why they loved Grandpa—specific things he had done with or for them.


“A month before Dad’s seventieth birthday,” Donna says, “[we] had a wonderful surprise birthday party for Dad.” When he returned from a trip to the store, he was greeted by his grandchildren, daughters and sons-in-law. He was completely surprised.


But the most wonderful surprise was the last gift opened. In the middle of a framed collage with pictures of the grandkids all around the outside was the list. Cami read the list out loud as she sat next to her grandfather. There wasn’t a dry eye in the room. “As each reason was read,” Donna says, “we all had little flashbacks in our minds and hearts of Dad and that child. It was truly moving.”


Today, Seventy Things We Love About Grandpa, proudly hangs on Grandpa’s wall. “I am sure that when my step-mom goes to the grocery store or runs errands,” Donna says, “Dad stands beneath it and reads and cries again. This was, by far, the most moving, celebratory, affirming gift I have ever given to anyone.”




                            70 Things We Love About GrandpaOne for Each Year!!!


                                               Grandpa, I Love It When….


1. You do special things for us.
2. You make us food we love.
3. You let us watch our favorite shows on your TV.
4. You make us seashells in tomato juice.
5. You take us fishing.
6. You take us to McDonalds.
7. You take us to Silver Town.
8. You read with us.
9. You take us to Wal-mart.
10. You watch football games on TV with us..
11. You read with us when we were learning to read.
12. You take us to Red Lobster.
13. You go to watch our basketball games.
14. You spend time with us.
15. You support us in our ministry opportunities.
16. You save comics out of the paper for us.
17. You let us play with your “noise makers.”
18. You play Phase 10 with us.
19. You make butter bread for us.
20. You watched us in Speech and Debate.
21. You make summer sausages for us.
22. You always give us hugs.
23. You always have kisses for us.
24. You make Christmas special for us.
25. You have special nameplates on your Christmas tree for us.
26. You gave us a “Sharing Box” full of goodies each Christmas.
27. You make our birthdays special.
28. You pass out Christmas gifts at Christmas time.
29. You go to the movies with us.
30. You go and watch the Rocket games with us.
31. You went on trips to Florida with us.
32. You try to “surprise” us.
33. You have sugared cereal at your house for breakfast.
34. You talk to us.
35. You have cookouts at your house.
36. You cooked out on your grill for us.
37. You watch TV sports with us.
38. You play Euchre with us.
39. You play games with us.
40. You played kickball with us.
41. You held us when we were little babies.
42. You are never too busy for us.
43. You were there when Joshua and Lisa got engaged.
44. You taught us to love baseball.
45. You gave us coins to start our coin collection.
46. You give us Legos every year.
47. You took us to the water park.
48. You were snowed in with us.
49. You let us play in the field by your old trailer.
50. You took us to the Blueberry Festival.
51. You took us to the Street Fair.
52. You took us to Bearcreek Farms.
53. You took us to the zoo.
54. You have cookies jars at your house.
55. You let us sleep on your couch at your house.
56. You tell stories about when you were younger.
57. You take us to the Ritz Movie Theatre.
58. You go to all our graduations.
59. You bought us American Girl dolls.
60. You make us your homemade chili.
61. You go watch our plays.
62. You went to our homeschool Expo’s.
63. You talk “sports” with us.
64. You take time for your “every day granddaughter.”
65. You make us smile.
66. You have a funny laugh.
67. You are sweet to us.
68. You give us special snacks to take on our way back to North Carolina.
69. You make us feel special.
70. You are the BEST GRANDPA EVER!




Picture and full article at FamilyLife site: https://www.familylife.com/site/apps/nlnet/content3.aspx?c=dnJHKLNnFoG&b=3577217&content_id={DD388856-331E-4D96-AF9A-16D69EF92994}¬oc=1

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–All of the “Help” and “Chores on his Own” listed in yesterday’s post (toddler and preschool list)

-“Help”**:


1. Weekly cleaning of his bedroom (see daily cleaning under own chores below)


2. Weekly cleaning of toy room (let him help you develop systems—more on this later)


3. Put refrigerated grocery items away in proper places (again, with him knowing systems well after having worked with you)


4. Learn to run washing machine and dryer—with help and oversight


5. Help wash car


6. Help clean out car—gradually make this alone chore by end of sixth year


7. Help with baking, including rolling out his own dough (that room time play dough helped!), rolling balls of dough for rolls or cookies, stirring, chopping nuts (hit with rolling pin in zip lock bag)


8. Help with meal preparation, including learning to assemble salad with prepared ingredients, layering of ingredients for casseroles, etc., making more elaborate sandwiches like submarines,


9. Help prepare packed lunches


10. Start learning to cut and clean produce (with child’s safety knife—Pampered Chef used to carry these)—start with cutting lettuce with scissors, cleaning grapes, peeling potatoes as ready, slicing bananas for salad or smoothies, cutting and filling celery, etc. Work together on fresh food preparation, and you will be surprised what your six year old can do!


11. Work in yard with you—give small tasks and have child report back to you for you to check on them (weed certain area, water certain area, pick up yard, etc.)






-To Become His Own Chores (after proper teaching and direction):

1. Unload entire dishwasher


2. Clean table after simple meals—teach to do this alone after breakfast and/or lunch


3. Fold and put away fold up loads of laundry


4. Make simple microwave meals—oatmeal packets, reheating leftovers; hot meat and cheese sandwiches


5. Other simple food preparation—peanut butter and jelly; meat and cheese plate; stemming grapes to be washed; boiled egg peeling; layered salads for meals, simple lettuce salads and fruit salads, dishes that involve mixing things together in which you have opened the cans, etc.,


6. Make beds throughout house (if sheets are already on them; not changing of the bedding)


7. Straighten a room at end of day (i.e. “jurisdiction” in easy room, such as toy room (in which he knows where everything goes) or a seldom used room that does not require much daily upkeep)


8. Dust room entirely alone (again, after having it as a “Help” job for a while)


9. Gather laundry from baskets in each person’s room and put in correct bin in laundry room (i.e. whites, darks, hang ups, etc.)


10. Mop small rooms with water only


11. Pick up yard


12. Clean bathroom or kitchen sink each day


13. Weed small areas of flower beds or around shrubs


14. Water flowers and/or garden




–Notes


a. By the end of age six, you want the child to have a consistent routine of morning routine (room, groom, dress, mess)—all chores related to his own personal care, like hygiene, straightening bedroom, making bed, putting laundry in hamper, etc.


b. You will probably want to add to that daily routine one to three chore sessions in which he does the exact same daily work each day (or at least each week), such as folding and putting away fold up load, unloading dishwasher, setting lunch table, sweeping porch, etc. Or vary it some but have the same tasks each Monday, each Tuesday, etc.:


First Morning Session Daily: unload dishes and set table


Second Session: M: fold up laundry


                         T: sweep porch


                         W: fold up laundry


                        Th: simple lunch


                        F: fold up laundry


c. Do not neglect training in future chores! It is so nice when you have a six year old that has several tasks that he can do regularly on his own following your diligent training. However, you want to always be teaching him new tasks for the next “changing of the chores.” (I changed my charts two to four times a year.)


d. Be sure to start giving this age child things that are truly essential to the operating of the family. He will feel much more needed and much more mature if he has real daily tasks that help the family operate more smoothly.


e. Because of the above items, you might want to have two chore sessions in which this aged child does regular jobs that are “his” followed by one session in which you work together—this can be the time that you work in the kitchen together or do laundry together or any other “training tasks.” Of course, these can vary day by day. I almost always had a chore session in which a child just “worked with Mom.”




*For the complete story of “Jonathan’s Journal, follow this link: https://positiveparenting3-6-5.blogspot.com/2010/03/day-seventy-eight-introducing-jonathans.html

**If you have been reading PP 365 long, you probably remember that we focused on giving our children entire chores/areas rather than just having them “help” forever….this builds self-esteem, responsibility, and skills; however, in the toddler years, “helping” is what he will primarily do. Anything you can “give” your pre-k/k child (i.e. setting the table all by himself for breakfast and/or lunch) will help him towards more and more responsibility.

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