so in other news - i've done no scrapping in days! days!! i need to clean up my room very badly. i need to clean house too - all that reading put me a bit behind!! :) I did make a huge dent in cole's messy room today. that boy can drag out more toys in a small amount of time than any kid i've ever seen. i mean - really - i find toys everywhere. he likes to stick them in places they don't belong too. he dropped woody (from toy story) behind is toy chest - an accident? i'm not sure because then he sent all his other toy story characters, along with spongebob and all his friends, and a super mario - down after him, to help him escape. i know this is 'cute' and from the movie - but when i have to move furniture to dig about about 15 toys from behind the toy chest, i get a bit annoyed. the day before, i had to use his mickey mouse light sabor to get the same characters out from under the bed. not anywhere near the parts i could reach with my hand - but all the way in the far corner - his bed is up against the corner - so only two sides are open to us. ugh. then today i'm picking up toys and find the library book i'm missing, stuck under his nightstand - with 6 cars from Disney Pixar Cars - we gathered these all up a while back - all that we could find - and here are more. So - i had to play mean mommy and tell him that he just has to stop sticking toys under furniture and behind furniture. he does this with the couch and loveseat - sticks them between the cushions. so now the next time we find toys where they shouldn't be (under, behind, or INSIDE furniture) those toys are going away for a while. he's got so much and we buy more when he doesn't need it - we weren't really like this before he had cancer honestly - it's just another side effect of having a sick kid - it's hard to say no to him. anyway, he has no real respect for his toys - he doesn't tear them up by any means, but seriously - he doesn't take great care with them either. drives me nuts - can you tell?
i'm going to start on a check list for him - something i can post somewhere in the house - for him to go by each morning. things he needs to do to get ready for school - potty (yes he needs a reminder sometimes), drink your juice and take your pill, eat your muffins, get dressed, pack your backpack, put on your shoes, brush teeth and hair and wash your face. So many of these things I do for him - help him dress, brush teeth/hair and wash face, pack his backpack. he's never going to be independent if i don't push it along. so i'm pushing this school year. he's going to have to be more mature at some point - so i'm committing to making the effort! jason's here in the mornings, but he's getting ready too and he's not home until later in the evening from work - so it'll be me trying to keep cole on track. i think once he gets into a good routine, he'll just do these things without the constant reminders. but we remind him a lot!! lots more than i think a 'normal' 7 year old has to be reminded - that's just how his brain works. this way - he'll have his own list - not just me saying it over and over again. i'm thinking about one for after school too - unpack back pack, put shoes away (he just kicks them off anywhere), snack and homework. maybe even a bedtime check list - bath, pj's and pick out tomorrow's clothes - magic marker (this is his growth hormone injection - we name everything lol) and then story time and bed time. Something else i would like to work on is him going to sleep on his own. we lay down with him every night. EVERY NIGHT. this isn't terrible, i mean we read a story, we talk about it a little, we snuggle - then it's good night and i read until he falls asleep. but there are times when i have things to do - take a bath, iron tomorrow's clothes, etc - and i could use the ten minutes, sometimes longer, to do those things instead of read. i know by now most kids have been going to sleep on their own for years. but we just never got out of the habit. at four years old - we should have been breaking the habit, but he was sleeping with fluids going constantly - so i always felt we had to be there all night - plus if he got sick - you know we needed to be there. then we came home and he couldn't exactly get up and walk down the hall if he needed us - he was still weak and not walking - so we went back to the baby monitor and one of us laid down with him each night. so now it's back to one of us laying down with him - it's a sweet time, but we could do all the sweet stuff without staying in there until he was asleep. i really want to work on this.
and another thing - maybe someone out there has some suggestions - he needs chores - things he needs to do each week and maybe get an allowance for. he can save his money for toys instead of us buying so much. so i'm thinking about putting his dishes away, picking up toys, keeping his dirty clothes where they go - but i don't know what else. what's normal for a 7 year old? what's normal for a 7 year old he isn't quite normal? hmm..........i'm not sure!
oh well - i guess i should get back to house work and stuff - we have to go meet the teacher this afternoon at 2 and sadly we need one more thing off the school list. i hope i can find it - i had a hard time last year and it turns out that what i got isn't exactly what they needed - i wonder what his teacher used them for then? hmmm.....
then i'm hoping to run over to where the new scrap etc is being set up! i want to check it out - i just can't help myself!
later,
4 comments:
I am with you on the checklist and chores. I have a checklist/magnet board for my girls with a total of 9 daily tasks. Each task represents 10 minutes of free time. If they do all 9 tasks, they get a total of 90 minutes of time that can be used for TV watching, the Xbox, or the computer. Two of their tasks are their chores. I have 6 chores that rotate between the 3 of them. Hayden (5 yr old.) needs help with some of them. But she can pick up the living room, wipe down the bathroom counters and sinks (clorox wipes), and set the table pretty much by herself. I hope this isn't too confusing. I love routines and charts. My little baby starts Kindergarten this year and I am having a hard time cutting the cord and helping her be more independent. So good luck. I understand a little what you are going through. And if it makes you feel better, we still use a baby monitor.
one chore that my then 7 year old had to do was pick up his dirty clothes and on laundry days it was his job to bring all the dirty clothes baskets to the laundry room. i'll have to think of some of the other things he did and get back to you.
Does he make his bed or put his clean clothes away? He could fold or hang clean clothes too, if you have the time to spare for him to help. Setting the table sounds good, what about helping gather all the little trash cans scattered around the house on trash day? Ooh, and dusting? Just a thought, I'm thinking about all the little things that I'd like to have help with around here...
I'm laughing...not because this is funny but because I got J. to print up a chore chart I made yesterday. They both take turns bringing the dirty dishes after dinner to the kitchen. They have to have all their toys off the floor at bedtime. I also put for Dalton reading 30 minutes a day and Maggie has to read a book to me or J. I'm using star stickers and they get a reward when they get all of their stars. Oh, and brushing their teeth in the morning and night, that's on there too. Not really "chore" chores, but things that they need to be reminded of.
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