My son came home from school an announcement that "the whole second grade was giving up talking at lunchtime for lent." Gee, I can only imagine who's idea that was? Any teacher friends want to fess up?
So mom, what are you giving up for lent? Hmph, for the first time in many years I hadn't given it much thought. I'd seen my Facebook friends post Meatless Monday, Tubeless (No TV) Tuesday, Water Wednesday, Fish Friday, etc. you get the idea. And yes, on Water Wednesday that doesn't include the water in mom and dads coffee. Let me know how that works out for you?
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So at about a week into lent my son returned asking again "Mom what are you giving up for lent?" I said without thinking "I'm giving up on giving up!" And it hit me - sheer brilliance! I am not giving anything up, instead I will do... I will do what I have been needing to do for months, years even. I am going to do every little project, activity, and proactive effort I have been meaning to do during lent. I commit at least one hour a day to this task.
And then I started my list. Because of course I have a list to check things off as they are accomplished. My only "rule" was to complete these things over the course of lent, committing at least one hour per day. I couldn't abandon my children and like a tornado get everything sifted and shifted in a day or two. After all this was months and years in the making and I hadn't gotten it done so far. And I had to involve family members where possible (#4 & 5 are AWESOME for kids). I've included my list and some of the steps involved. And we know how time flies, things don't get done because the day to day of life takes over. So this plan just might work to get those things done!
#1 - Clean off the dining room table and KEEP STUFF OFF OF IT. Granted I was only storing things on half of the table, but it's so unsightly during dinner. Most things were transitional - go to basement, go to storage, go away. But they didn't "Go" anywhere, they sat, and sat. So once I put things in their rightful place I gave myself a basket. It's an 8 x 12 inch basket for any transitional stuff. If the basket gets full I MUST pay attention and put those items away.
#2 - Have at least 3 projects a week with the kids. After homework and commitments we need our time to learn the non-school way. My four year old is really into color mixology, thank you Pinterest for all the great ideas. Including Gak, Slime, Sensory bags, Sensory bottles, I-Spy Bags (AWESOME), Growing Beans in a Clear Jar so we can "watch" what happens (AWESOME x2!), make a paper mache mask and paint it, and much more!
#3 - Speaking of Pinterest. MAKE THOSE Sensory Pins! Check and Check! Again based on the current interests I used some small animals and made an African habitat in rice. Baby girls has a sound set up making noise, I mean music with her bowls and spoons, and our sensory bags.
#4 Have the kids start picking up after themselves. So it is totally true that boys "don't see" things laying around as they trip over, hop over and scoot around them. So I am making a conscious effort
that when we leave a room, like the kitchen, the older boys takes all the toys from the "high" areas and the younger from the "low/floor" and items get put Where They BELONG! This worked so well that I have added putting your own plates and cups away into the sink. When they leave their plates out - well that same plate greets them in the morning, who the hard dinner crud on it. Lesson quickly learned. My effort in this is constant - hopefully only thru lent, where I follow them around like Mother Goose, making sure toys end up in the right places. THIS IS WORKING GREAT! For me too - I have learned to actually follow the kids and make sure they learn the procedure right the first time. I "invest" my time and they learn correctly - again the brilliance of Montessori-esque.
#5 Finally start that Montessori-esque Playroom. I have been reading lots and lots about Montessori, and I totally love it. Its so European and makes loads of sense. But some elements I think are too extreme for me. Others are of course wonderful reminders that children can be independent at a young age. And for my own mom sanity its a great method to teach good habits, chores and independence and creativity at the same time. So to task I asked my boys to bring me toys they no longer want, that are broken, etc. HA! Each boy brings me things the other plays with. . . Let's start over. I sat the boys down with a glass of juice and "we" decided on what goes, ... again.
- If it's broken, gone.
- If it's not played with. buh bye.
- If it's not yours, put it where it belongs.
- Bring me stuffed animals we don't like, don't want, that smell, or are leaking stuffing.
- If you think you might want it but your are not sure, bring it in the "maybe box" ("also the keep it in the basement a week if they don't ask it goes box")
After I get their selections I separately went thru the toys they NEVER play with. We cleaned out nearly 3 large boxes of stuff. Our toy room is more of an inspiration room now.
What stayed in the Toy Room
all neatly organized into individual boxes and baskets by item:
- Musical Instruments
- Wooden Building Blocks
- Wooden Lincoln Logs
- Ball bin
- tinker toys bin (one in toy room and one in their bedroom, since they always end up downstairs)
- Wood trucks and cars
- Plastic toy cars all in one basket
- All board games
- construction play set
- dress up clothes (on hangers)
- Chest with our "hard plastic" animal figures
- Basket with stuffed animals (slimmed down to our most, most, most favorites in 3 rounds of filtering)
- Book shelf (thinned out so we can actually access our books and thumb thru a selection)
- Wood Toy Trains Sets
The walls still have our Art Gallery Line where I pin their art work up. And a map of the animals around the world, a low play chalkboard, and craft / supply storage shelves.
Upstairs Boys Bedroom has:
- Lego's with tiny not-baby-friendly pieces
- Squinkes set which my 4 year old loves
- book shelf (thinned out so we can actually access our books and thumb thru a selection)
- Astronaut set and imaginext shuttle
- Dinosaur play set
- Reading/snuggle chair
- Bionicles
- stuffed animals bin in baby girls room
- Lego Table and 2 chairs.
Also Montessori Esqu beginnings are:
- ENFORCING the put your slippers on policy. "Enforcing" for me means when shoes come off after arriving at home, I gently remind the boys to put slippers on. It's a "Type A" thing, sorry Montessori readers!
- # 4 picking up after themselves and putting their own plates and cups in the sink.
- keeping your homework basket neat. And cleaning up homework supplies after yourself.
- to be introduced: a small wood try and a tray basket. So if they want individual play they can have it.
These are all wonderful steps to mom feeling Waaaayyyyy less stressed. And my boys knowing what to do and not having to ask who what where constantly.
#6 Write Scientist Names Around the trim of the toy room. Followed by a project on each so we can learn about their contribution to science. Still on the to do side of the list. When we were at the Museum of Science and Industry, during a demonstration in the main rotunda I notices around the ceiling moulding were various scientist last names. LOVED THIS IDEA. It'll get it's own post when that's accomplished.
#7 Filter the old mail, papers, and filing documents in the office. I went thru and trashed so much paperwork in 1 hour, only 1 hour! Such an accomplishment. Now I need one more hour to file it all... nearly there. When we renovated our office into a sitting room I rid us of the horrid filing cabinet and hanging folders into accordion folders i had left over from some other projects. So the filing process was started but for some reason I had a BIG basket of left over paperwork.
#8 Clear off kitchen Counters and KEEP THEM THAT WAY. Am I yelling? I don't mean to yell, it's just I cannot keep my counters uncluttered. Everything has a place. That's been my rule for year. But for some reason I don't follow it? Until now, and it's working great. I am simply Following my own rules!
#9 Impromptu clean up the spice cabinet and tea boxes. I'm not British, but you would think I was with all the tea I drink. Loose tea, bagged tea, boxed tea bags, and canisters of exotic teas yet unopened. So I filtered out half empty tea boxes into a canister, bags from left and right. I consolidated spices and tossed what is not used - and will never be used - OUT. Again, it took only an hour, and it felt so good!
#10 Sit with my son during homework. We have 3 kids, and this one can be challenging sometimes. I had to rearrange my day to accomplish this task. Homework usually takes 30 minutes. But we sidebar, and or chat, alot, so it can get to an hour sometimes. I want to sit at the table with my son. It accomplishes 2 things. I get less "frustrated" having to walk away from what I am doing (usually cooking dinner) to address his needs, and he feels he has my full attention - as it should be. So the Sensory Bin plays a big role here. For my 4 year old son and 1year old daughter. Both have a sensory bin. The 4 year old plays for an hour with no problem. The baby however plays for 10 minutes (which is still great) and then invades my cabinets. Still giving me and the big boy quality homework time.
#11 Sort boys art center. I opened items in boxes and put them in east to access baskets (Montessori esque). I opened the lacing and string box, put all the stamp and ink in a clear bin, and consolidated all our craft books (mask making included) into one shelf. The boys said they like it better, but most importantly are using the area more which shows me they really do like it! I also ended up sorting their coloring books bin right by the kitchen table and got rid of old magazines and half colored books I knew they wouldn't use.
#12 Put into storage what goes into storage! So obvious, right? Yeah I have a Christmas bin I am still filling with leftover stragglers. But that, and my husbands teaching books that are collecting dust, and the boxes from under my sons bed (with toys he can grow into), into the Attic they go.
#13 Rearrange Boys Room. My older son brought this up a few weeks ago. And we know how time flies, things don't get done because the day to day of life takes over. We were in their room, filtering the books and toys and my son said his bed would look good by the window. And so we talked thru where 2 dressers, a table, 2 beds, a chair and 2 drawers sets and a book shelf would go. We started moving things out and out. I'm a pretty logical kind of girl so I directed mostly here. That took one hour. We moved the beds around and the chair. Dressers were basically in place so time for a Lunch break! It was great! We sat at the kitchen table, talked about the room move, what we liked, what we didn't. The boys didn't really want to finish the job. But I talked up our sense of accomplishment, ... that we were almost done, ... only a few more books and toys to move around,... okay, I caved and promised some ice cream. Congrats to us all on a job well done.
I feel a HUGE sense of accomplishment getting these tasks underway. We are not even halfway thru Lent and I am more then Halfway thru my list. I hope to keep our home running this way for several more years! As for my new Lenten tradition. I may just have to keep that too. #14 - add before and after pictures to the blog :-)
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