You can't say no to this face can you!
        Spring is here and I am anxious for it to warm up.  The Burg has been cold with a few semi-warm days sprinkled in.  Today is just WINDY.  I hope to be able to be bike riding more...and I think that will happen when we have fewer kid visitors (aka fewer babes that need watching minus my own!)  B got 'married' to a little girly friend the other day...thank you Tony and Rachel for that bit of inspiration (wink, wink).

On to these adorable little slaves...  How to get your kids to help...

Start small with little activities like cleaning up the toys singing little songs, and do things with consistency and repetition. The last bit has made all the difference in our home.  Most of us have our nighttime routines and morning routines, add a 10 min timed family-quick-pick-up to that routine. Your lonely 1 hour clean-up gets cut in half!  Do I hear a hallelujah?

Even when it is inconvenient let your children help.  I have two brooms. I might need three.  B -needed- to help me sweep when he was M's age, ergo two brooms.  Now I have two amazing helpers...does it take a few more minutes, yes, but helping me lets me build up my kids self image, encourages clean habits, and I am doing it with people I love.  They will not be little or mine for long. snif.

Dinner time around our house gets to be demanding time. One way I have distracted and detracted from that unhelpful behavior is enlisting my children's help in making dinner/dessert or setting the table.  It usually ends up with them munching on the salad (veg, right?) or being a little more patient with the when and more interested in eating the what.

Think about what you want for your kids as an end result; I want children who are self starters, who finish what they begin, and are tricked from birth to make their beds and take dirty clothes and put them in the laundry basket.  Bwahhahahah!  If I want these things, I have to do them myself and say what I am doing out loud all the while encouraging good behavior while redirecting the bad--easy right?  I'll let you know when I get it right.

The following was pure accident; I was going about the morning pick-up when I said out loud, "I'm going to make my bed." B flurried into action...(he just does that) Not sure what action until I was making my bed I heard a "I'm going to beat you, Mom!"  He totally made his bed, by himself!  I loaded the praise.  We work on technique a little at a time, with a healthy amount of 'atta-boy'.  I tried thinking out-loud with other mundane tasks and it is magic. (This thinking out-loud is fab in a classroom setting as well)

You are your kids advocate, your child's best chance of succeeding.  Like Aunt Suelyn said, "Maren, you are raising adults."  What kind of adults do you want your kids to be?  Any tips and tricks that work for you? Please share!

 I am woman on a mission!  A mission of living a good to great life.  My love of living life, my husband, and my sweet children have inspired me in so many ways.  I am a momma, a teacher, a runner, a daughter, a sister, a wife, a friend, and a person in need of tracking all the things I do and don't!
  Learning so much from others who have shared, those who have made my life a little brighter makes me want to give back!
PS Isn't she the CUTEST!  If she can climb into it she will!!