Kids Clean Up Part 2: Keeping it clean

Today is the second in my two part series of getting your kids to clean up their toys. Yesterday, I talked about organization of toys so that they had a place to belong and streamlining the amount of toys so there wasn't so many to deal with it. If you missed it you can check it out here. 


Now that the toys all have a home we can talk about how to keep them picked up and put away. I think the key to most parenting issues is consistency. When it comes to getting the toys picked up a good part of it is warnings, reminders and regular pick up times. Wait, I know I promised yesterday that you wouldn't sound like a nag, so please just hear me out. 


What I have discovered over the years is any toys left out (especially in their rooms where I'm not the one tripping over it) when the kids leave the room will most likely stay left out and we all know that clutter mysteriously multiplies quickly leaving you with a horrible mess. So, in order to avoid this give your kids a 10-15 minute warning and tell them it is clean up time. If you wait until dinnertime, bedtime or time to walk out the door it will only add stress and most likely the toys will be left out. But if about 10 -15 minutes before the next activity you establish pick up time as a transition things will go much smoother, especially if you are consistent and make this a habit. 


Also start random cleaning up sessions. With my kids I called it a "10 Second Tidy" like on the Big Comfy Couch. When you notice that they have moved on to a toy or two and the previous ones are still left out have everyone stop what they are playing with and put everything away. Yes, everything including the current playthings. (Of course you can use discretion if the kids are working on an intricate puzzle or complicated Leggo creation, but find a way for it to be up or away without being destroyed.) Your kids will resist this, but in my experience when we stop and clean up and I allow them to leave the current toy out about 80% of the time it remains out and they do not go back to it. Once everything is picked up they can get it back out and continue playing. These random checks help keep small messes from turning into huge disaster areas.


The biggest part of getting them to do it without argument is to make it fun. First off I know too well if Mom is dreading clean up time, the kids are definitely not going to want to do it either, so try to add some variety and make it as fun as possible. Here are some ways to make cleaning less of a chore and more of a game:

• Set a timer and see how much can get done before it goes off
• Pick a random number and have everyone pick up that many toys (such as 11 or 27)
• If your kids are competitive have a race to see who can pick up their number of toys first, or who can pick up the most before the timer goes off
• Assign each kid a color of toy to pick up. This is a little more interesting than having Sally pick up all the blocks and Johnny pick up all the cars.

Even if you are successful in establishing these habits, you and your kids will have to periodically throw away broken toys, give away out grown or unloved toys and go through artwork and school work in order to keep the kids' stuff from taking over the entire house.  A member of the Flylady's crew, Kelly, has kid challenges in which she gives kids a special cleaning mission. These range from walk around your house and find all of your books that are laying around and put them away to find 10 toys that you no longer play with and give them to mom or dad to bless someone else with. You can make up your own missions or you can just use Kelly's. Even if you don't want to follow the Flylady plan yourself you can check out what the Flykid challenge is on Kelly's facebook page.

Like anything else it will probably take time to establish these habits in both yourself and your kids. It will also take consistency, so don't give up if you have a bad day, just jump back in. 

Thank you Flylady and Flylady Kelly

Kids Clean Up Part 1: Organization

I think one challenge most parents face is getting kids to pick up their toys and keep them clean. My house is far from perfect and I do pick up toys several times a day, but over the years I have learned some tips that should be helpful. Since this is a fairly broad subject I decided to break up into two parts. I feel that before you make kids accountable for keeping their stuff picked up, they need to have places to put it. The old saying "A place for everything and everything in its place," says it all, but sometimes finding the right kinds of places to put the toys is the hard part. So for part one we are going to discuss organizing toys, tomorrow I will share ideas on how to get your kids to clean up without feeling like a constant nag. (Check out part 2 by clicking here.)
Years ago, I read somewhere a great tip about organizing, and that is not to buy containers until you go through everything first. If you have spent a bunch of money on containers or time making them you may keep things just to have something to put in the boxes. Also, by knowing what you need to store you know what size containers and what type of container will be the most helpful.  So first, sort through all the toys, books and other kid stuff. The first sorting is not necessarily finding places for things but deciding what to keep. If your kids are like mine they have way more toys than they actually play with. 
Depending on the ages and personalities of you kids you may or may not want them around when you do this. It could be a good opportunity to teach them how about blessing others with and that the less stuff to clean up the more time there is to play. (Both are what Flylady and Flylady Kelly teach.) My kids are such pack rats they had a hard time getting rid of stuff like Happy Meal toys that they played with in the car home then got thrown in the room, so this kind of stuff I got rid of when they weren't around. Toys that are expensive or special may need your child's input as far as what to do with to show respect and to teach giving and caring for our belongings. Some toys you may decide to pack up in totes and save for your grandchildren, and that is OK if you have the space and you don't pack up everything in storage, just the special stuff.

Art supplies

But wait, we are getting ahead of ourselves. When you go through the toys for the first time have 3 boxes or bags handy to divide the stuff into:
1. Stuff that is broken that can't or won't get fixed. (ultimately the trash)
2. Stuff to give away
2. Stuff to keep
 If box number two is difficult you can make it "stuff that has been out grown" then go back and decide what should be packed up and what could bless someone else.

Now that you have the toys, books, games and such that you are keeping it is time to organize it. How you do this and just what type of storage system you use is dependent on your house and the space you have, the types of toys you have and your taste preferences. Start by dividing the toys into groups. Try to put all toys that are similar together for example: all dolls, all cars/trucks, all blocks. Then the groups can be broken down further if necessary for example small matchbox type cars would be in a small box but larger push Tonka-style toys may be put in a large box/tote, on a shelf or in toy box.

Trucks

Once the toys are organized the biggest key is labeling the containers that way everyone knows what goes where and what is inside (if your containers are not transparent) so things don't get dumped while looking for a specific toy. If your kids are young and can't read yet, or even if they can, you can either take photos of what is inside each box, or draw or print out clip art of the types of toys and stick it to the container. (The pictures on this page are examples of things you could print out as lables) I like to label the side of the container and the lid if it has one. 

Dolls

Plastic containers, totes, baskets, fabric pins and so on are all great for organizing and storing toys but they can be expensive. This is a time to think outside the box (pun intended). Many household items can be recycled or repurposed to hold toys and such- just be creative. Egg cartons can hold lots of small things such as beads or art supplies. Other things that you may have laying around the house that would work for organizing toys are: baby wipe containers, margarine/cool whip containers, breath mint boxes, large diaper boxes, and plastic baby food containers. (Glass baby food jars aren't very safe to have for kids' toys, but Gerber now sells varieties of baby food in clear plastic boxes with lids that are excellent for storing small things.) For more inexpensive organizing ideas check out this article by By C.M. Vanderlinden on hubpages. 


Here are more resources and ideas:

• A great step by step tutorial for turning diaper boxes into fabric storage containers can be found on Saving Addiction
• Here is an article showing how to make your own collapsible fabric storage boxes.
• Tip Junkie shares five free patterns for storage containers that she has found.
• Family Fun has a whole bunch of crafts designed to help organize kids' rooms. You can find a list of all the projects here. 

Part 2- Getting Kids to clean up can be found here

*Special Thanks to Flylady, Flylady Kelly, Saving Addiction, Hub Pages and Tip Junkie*

Recipe Make-over: short cut au gratin potatoes

I absolutely love au gratin potatoes, but I rarely make them.  Besides not being the lowest in fat and calories, the biggest drawback for me is the time it takes to bake them. Most of the recipes I have tried take 1- 1 1/2 hours to bake which is entirely too much time for weekday side dish, well at least for my family's schedule it is. Sure, there are the boxed potatoes, but I personally don't think they taste as good as homemade, not to mention additives, preservatives and the other fun stuff from convenience foods.
Well I have discovered a way to cut the baking time down to 25- 30 minutes! Simply scrub the potatoes and before peeling them, microwave them. (Don't forget to pierce potatoes with a fork before microwaving so the steam can escape.) Then once they have cooled enough to handle, or using a fork to hold them, peel and slice then continue with you favorite recipe.
Another tip I discovered is before baking cover the potatoes with greased foil- just spray with non-stick spray. Then, remove the foil for the last five minutes of bake time so that the edges brown up a bit.
My family raved about these short cut au gratins. They even liked them better than the long baked original.

Websites I Recently Discovered

Stumble Upon

Stumble Upon is a site I was introduced to by my husband who learned about it from our nephew. It's a website in which you let them know your interests (check boxes next to all kinds of categories) and then it suggests sites for you. You can then give the sites thumbs up or down so it can learn your preferences and suggest more accurate sites. They also make it easy to share your discoveries through several social networking sites. There is also an android app to can download for free and link to your computer account so it has your preferences in it already. 

Check out Stumble Upon by clicking this link.

Life Tips

Life Tips is a site I found through stumbleupon.com. It led me to the cooking measurements and equivalents page. That in itself was pretty cool. It didn't have too many of the normal equivalents like the numbers of cups in a pint, but it did have some helpful info such as how many cups of sugar equal a pound, or how many mini marshmallows is the equivalent to one large marshmallow. When I further explored the site I discovered that this was just the top of the iceberg. Life Tips has TONS of subjects to find more information about and each of those subject also has several sub-categories, so can finds on just about anything. Also, if you are a writer they have writer's program (they call them Gurus.) However, I have not checked out the program thoroughly nor do I have any experience with it so I do not know if they are legit or follow though with their promises. From what I have discovered you will not get paid until you submit 101 tips to the category you have chosen. Once they have your 101 tips they will publish them into a print edition book. You get 10 complimentary copies of the book plus 20% of the sales of the book and another 5% of the sales will get donated to the charity of your choice.  For more info about Lifetips.com click the link.

My Fridge Food
I have seen programs and widgets for helping you figure out what you have can actually cook with what food you have on hand, but myfridgefood.com is by far the best I've discovered thus far. You start by checking boxes in their fairly detailed list of food and beverages you have in your house. If you log on, your list will be saved, but even if you don't log on you can have a list of recipes generated. Next to each recipe it will give you the percentage of ingredients you already have. If you do not have 100 percent of the ingredients needed for a recipe it will tell you are missing. I just discovered this site, but I plan on using it to help me come up with my meal plans and menus since it really seems to fit the way I shop. I keep an inventory of items I like to have in stock, what I am out of  or running run of I add to my grocery list then I also add other ingredients to specific meals to my list. There is also a grocery list tab in which you can create your grocery list, but I have not tried it yet. If your tired of trying to figure out what to make for dinner check out My Fridge Food by clicking the link.

Dornob - Design Ideas Daily

If you're looking for design ideas dornob.com is the place to check out. They have so many idea galleries it is unbelievable. The main categories are Architecture, Interiors, Furniture, Furnishings, Fixture and More. (More includes sub categories such as DIY, Fashion & Style and Photography). Due to the vast amount of info and the vast categories dornob is difficult to describe. However, if you have even the slightest interest in design or art it is definitely worth checking it out and you can do so by clicking here.

The above described websites are those I discovered on my own or by word of mouth through family or friends. I have not been offered or given compensation of any kind by the above mentioned websites or anyone else for reviewing the sites. The opinions expressed are my own and are influenced only by my experience at the sites. Although I am not against compensation, and may eventually receive some,  I have not received any for writing this article. For more of my legal jargon and info check my disclosure page. 

Rainy Day Activities

April Showers may bring May flowers, but they also bring cranky kids that want to go outside and play. So,  I thought this would be a good time to share some projects and activities to make being staying inside fun.


Arts and crafts:

• Finger paint
• Sock puppets
• paper bag puppets
• Paper plate masks
• Make paper grocery bag costumes 

Sensory activities:

• Make and play with homemade play dough
• Play with shaving cream
• Make "Monster goo" a mixture of corn starch and just enough water to make it liquidy but still have resistance.

Fine motor skill activities:

• Create your own lacing cards 
• Make Fruit Loops necklaces or bracelets
• Make beaded jewelry (if age appropriate)
• Make a paper chain countdown calender to countdown to s special day or event (last day of school, birthday, grandparent's visit, etc.)

Large motor skill games and activities:

• Simon says
• Have a dance party
• Follow the leader
• Duck, duck, goose

Imaginative play:

• Put on a puppet show with your homemade puppets
• Have a picnic in your living room
• Have an indoor "day at the beach"
• Make a blanket fort

Family Fun Time - Instilling the Love of Reading

Well, on my Facebook page I tried using the new questions app and epically failed. I only got five (Yes, 5, a whole hand, a nickel's worth, you get the point) responses to my question "what parenting issues are most relevant to you"? Of the five that responded, two said Family Fun time. So, for you two I dedicate this post and my new regular (well every once in a while) topic of Family Fun Time.
Since it is National Library Week, the subject of today's family fun is reading. I know I see the eye rolls now. I hear the complaints "We thought you said FUN!" But stop your doubting reading IS fun and it can inspire great family activities. First off it is so much more fun if you are talented enough to do voices and some sound effects. Even if you can't do them great, your kids will appreciate your efforts. Yes, that is pretty basic, but I promise that are many more ways to have reading inspired fun. Here are some ideas:

• Try a chapter book or book series that is beyond your child's reading level but not interest. For example I have not personally read the first four Harry Potter books because my husband read them first and then decided to read them aloud to our daughters and I listened, too. The girls were young when these were the rage and the size of the books were daunting, yet they wanted to know all about Harry and his friends too. The coolest part is when we saw the movies we were so surprised how well my husband's voices sounded like the actors. 
• Pass the book a round and give everyone a turn or assign each person a character and have them read or act out their character's dialogue. 
• Before road trips head to the library for an audio book to listen while traveling. Not only does this keep bickering down (always a plus) it gives you something to talk about as well.
• Have a meal or snack of foods the characters in your favorite book would or did eat. Some book series actually have cookbooks of the types of foods their characters ate such as the Little House on the Prairie Books and the American Girl books, but if not just get a little creative. You could add a dash of pumpkin pie spice and a few drops of orange food coloring to warmed apple juice to make Harry Potter's pumpkin juice. Or cook hot dogs over the camp fire or make foil dinners if you are reading a Western or cowboy book. Fruits and veggies cut into butterfly shapes and flower shapes for a Fairy Tea. Just use your imagination (and your kids' imaginations) and try not to over complicate it.
• Pretend to be the characters for the day, meal, car trip, whatever. If the characters have accents, whether southern, British, New England or whatever you have to use it too. If the they use a special vocabulary, then you need to use it to.
• Play charades or Pictionary based on your favorite characters or book titles. You could either just figure it out as you go or take a few minutes to jot titles, characters, places, etc. down on  index cards so it doesn't take forever for each player to try to come up with an idea. 
• Play "Who Am I ?" using characters of your favorite book. If you never played, it is so simple and fun for all ages. Write character names down on sticky notes or pieces of masking tape, but keep them secret. Then stick the name to each person's back. You could also stick them to foreheads but personally I think the back of a shirt is less annoying and itchy, plus little ones can reach it to pull it off. Then take turns trying to figure out who who are. The person who is guessing stands up and shows his  name tag to the others. Then he asks yes or no questions to try to figure out who he is. Such as: "Am I a fictional character?", "Am I human?", " Am I a girl?", "Can I fly?" and so on.  

These are just a few ideas, if you have any others please feel to share them. For more information on instilling the love of reading check with your local library or go to Scholastic.com. Scholastic.com

National Library Week April 10-16

It's not to late to celebrate National Library Week, which is going on right now. Many libraries are offering activities to celebrate. But even if you missed out or your library isn't participating you can still celebrate the love of reading and the wonderful services our libraries provide.

It's no secret that I love my local libraries. I am there so often that most of the librarians at two out of the three libraries in my county know me by name, if not, than by face.
With the continual changing of technology it would seem libraries would become obsolete, but that is not the case. In fact, in my opinion they are becoming more important than ever. So what is so great about the library anyway?

Well first off as a cheapskate, I love the library because it's a great deal. Besides checking out books for free there are so many other free services. My local libraries also have available for loan DVDs, VHS cassettes, audio CDs (music), audio books on cassette and CD, computer games, and probably even more. By checking these items out at the library you can see if it something you want to purchase or not. My library loans CD ROMS for the same length as they do books, which is three weeks. This is the perfect amount of time to see if your kids are actually going to play the game or not. Or depending on the game just beat it after two days and toss it aside. With computer games costing $20- $50 or even more it makes sense knowing you will actually get your money's worth. Although many people use such services as Netfilx to rent DVDs and stream movies, the library is still a great place to get your movies. In my house we use Netflix streaming as our primary source of viewing children's TV and movies as we do not have cable, satellite or even an ariel antenna. But if the item is not available for streaming and it is not something the whole family will enjoy for family movie night, it usually gets kicked down to the bottom of our DVD queue. That is where the library comes in handy. I also use it to check out the "chic flicks" my husband also keeps kicking to the bottom of the queue.

Another feature I love that I can only get from my library are the programs. My libraries offer tons and I rarely have the opportunity to take advantage of the ones offered for adults, but my kids are regulars at the children's programs and story times. My local libraries host such programs as various craft classes, computer classes, movie showings, book discussions, lectures, Leggo clubs, contests and so much more. I love the story times. My library offers different ones for different ages and they are a wonderful way to introduce little ones to the joy of reading, the love of learning, the wonders of the library and interacting with other kids.

As my oldest two children have grown, the library has been an essential resource for school work. Although, now in high school, they have some teachers that allow internet sources for writing papers and essays. However, when in younger grades many teachers still require the use of Encyclopedias and other print media that can be found at the library. Although not all libraries offer this service, one of my branches has (or at least when my kids were elementary and intermediate school) a copy of the text books that our local public school uses. This is a lifesaver for the times when you child forgets her textbook at school and has homework due the next day.

Another great advantage is that our local libraries house local history and help us reunite with our roots. Besides being an excellent resource if you are tracing your family tree, libraries often house archives of old yearbooks and newspapers. When I was a reporter for my local newspaper I did a story of the 100 anniversary of fire that changed the face of much of the town. The internet was no help in my research. The newspaper office did not have newspapers that old in our archives, but the library did. It was on microfiche, a media that few are familiar with these days. I had to do a lot of searching but my library is so excellent and the librarians are so helpful that the librarian who specializes in such things as history and microfiche (and yes, that is a specialization) found it for me and made a hard copy for me.

Which leads to another advantage of the library: the librarians. First off I have never met the stereotypical librarian which her long gray hair in a bun on top her head, her half-moon spectacles perched on the end of her nose and "Shhhhhhh" the only sound that is uttered from her mouth. The librarians I know are awesome! They are beyond helpful for locating a book, recommending a DVD or answering a number of my questions. They are the ones that take their time and resources to come up with, organize and put on the story times and other programs. Few other business professionals show continual excellent customer service like librarians.  This phenomenon occurs not only in my local small-town library, but in large city libraries that I have visited as well.

For more information about National Library Week contact your local library or visit the American Library Association's website. If you live in NW Indiana more about my local libraries can be found here.

Explore the great outdoors with your kids

Now that spring has finally sprung, well for the most part, it's time to get outside and show your kids the wonders of spring. I've compiled a short list of outdoor activities to enjoy now that sun is shining and weather is warmer. Most of these activities are free or almost free. Many are  things you might have enjoyed as a kid but may have forgotten. 

• Look for new spring flowers, then either let them grow, pick and press them for an art project or take a photo to use in a art project or scrapbook.
• Fly a kite
• Make chalk drawings
• Teach your kids how to play hopscotch or Four Square
• Blow bubbles
• Set up a water table
• Have a picnic lunch
• Look for shapes in the clouds
• On a warm evening look for constellations
• Discover a new park
• Go for a bike ride 
• Set up an obstacle course
• Have a relay race
• Splash in the puddles
• Make mud pies
• Plant flower or vegetable seeds or seedlings

What are your favorite springtime outdoor activities to do with your kids? Please feel free to share your experiences with the above ideas or share your own ideas. 

No More Excuses

Wow it has been a long time since I have written anything on this blog. However, it has not been "out of sight out of mind for me." Yes, Christmas and the first of the year were extremely busy. But as the holidays passed I did think a lot about my blog and often I would get an idea to write about. However, there were many excuses and negative voices (my own voice not my family or friends they are very supportive) that prevented me from just doing it. 


One major excuse was not having time and forgetting my ideas when I do have the time. I would come up with ideas while in the shower, driving the car or cooking dinner and could not go to the computer right then. When I did have free time on the computer I would forget what I wanted to write or that I even had something to write in the first place. Yes, I am what you may call ADHD, a multi-tasker or a SHE (Sidetracked Home Executive). My mind is always going a million miles per hour and I easily jump from one thing to another. Now, I am taking the time to jot notes when I get the idea- or at least when I can safely write. Don't worry I won't be writing as I drive down the highway. And no, I don't have a waterproof notebook in my shower but if I did the world may be in trouble.


Another main excuse was I didn't have the "right" photos or logos or whatever I needed to make each article look professional and polished. I would think "I could write _____ but wait what kind of graphic could I have with it?" Or "Do I really want to spent all that time coming up with a graphic for such a small article?"


Well, since mid February I have been slowly taking baby steps in reclaiming my home from CHAOS (Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome) by re-starting the Flylady plan. One of the points she makes is not letting perfectionism stop us from cleaning our house or doing other things we want. For those of you not like this, it may sound super strange. I mean you would think a perfectionist would have a perfectly clean house and do anything they thought of doing. Well for born organized perfectionists this may be true, but for SHEs like me it is quite opposite. The idea of doing something wrong or imperfect is so crippling that the task gets left undone. But fear not, I am learning that you cannot climb stairs until you take the first step and you don't have to see the end of the staircase to take the first step. (The second part is a paraphrase from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.) Flylady likes to say that "even house keeping done incorrectly can bless your house." This does not mean to just do it half baked and think "eh... good enough." It means not to let concerns of doing something the "correct" way or trying to do things the way your mother or mother-in-law or whoever else would do it keep you from doing it the way you can. 


I have taken this way of thinking on as I think about my blog. So, it may not always looks super polished and have perfect graphics but the content may actually help or encourage someone and that's the point. Also, lets face it, I don't have a whole lot of readers and of the readers I do have 99 percent of you are either my friends or family and you know me well enough not to expect perfection. I doubt I will every make one penny on this blog. If the time comes that I actually do I will have probably learned quite a few things about producing a great looking blog.


So, if you my, dear readers, are willing to try again I am back on the saddle again. Many of the ideas I have are discussion questions or topics so please feel free to leave a comment below of on the FB page.