{charts}

it's happened ! finally !! they are doing it all on their own !!

my jono is 7 and my alia is 5. they have always been early risers. me, not so much. or not at all. my alarm goes off at 6:30 and i'm usually up by 7:00. the kids are up looooooong before me ! a couple of years ago, i had the brilliant idea to let the kids get their own breakfasts. it drove me nearly insane to be woken every morning (if you can call 5:00 morning and not the middle of the night !!) to "i'm hungry". i started by telling them they could have a piece of fruit when they got up. but, they'd have the fruit and then at 5:02 (still the middle of the night) i'd have a little person standing beside my bed saying "i'm hungry". so, i moved the cereal down low in the pantry, taught them how to pour it and the milk and voila ... they are no longer hungry and i am no longer waking up grumpy ! it's a win win for all involved !! but ... that has been happening for a couple of years now. what i'm talking about is the next step ... something i didn't know would happen this quickly !

i've recently set up a new home management station in our new house. i did it to help me keep everything in one place and to properly manage my cleaning (something i felt needed improving). i did up some charts ... a big one for me and a small one for each of the kids with daily things they need to do. their lists are the same except that one of them feeds the cat in the morning and the other feeds her at night.

before school they need to : make beds, eat breakfast, get dressed, brush teeth, brush hair, feed the cat, and get their bags ready ... not forgetting to include their library books, home folders and lunch boxes. these have always been their responsibilities but many mornings we'd leave the house with beds unmade and more often than not teeth unbrushed.

my kids love ABC kids, the morning cartoons that play before school. my rule has always been they can watch it once they are totally ready for school. but ... it was always up to me to remember what needed to be done and remind them and check and on and on and on ...

things have been improving since i made the charts. they looooooooooooooove ticking things off. alia cannot read but jono and i helped her at first. now, i think she has the thing memorized because she knows where each item is and ticks them off properly. they come to me and say "mommy, can we put on ABC kids?" and where i used to have to ask if they had brushed their hair ? made their beds ? etc etc etc, i can just say "have you done your charts ?" it's been a great improvement.

but ...

yesterday morning (!!!) ...

i was in the shower and jono came to me and said "mommy, we've finished our charts, can we put on ABC kids ?" (!!!)

it's finally happened ... they've got ownership of what they need to do. responsibility is being learned. and this is one happy mommy !!