Confession...

Hello faithful readers :-) I realize I have not made a post since the time I made a goal to start blogging more! But, I am so glad to know that you all are still here!

I had a realization the other day that I wanted to share. I am hoping I might get some feedback from you.

For the past ten years I have been reading books, magazines, and blogs about how we need to teach our children to do work around the house, even if their work takes longer and isn't done as ours would be. A few weeks ago I realized that I am one of those Mom's that won't let their kids do any work around the house because it takes too long and it never gets done "the right way". The problem is... I can't do everything. Therefore, the chores aren't getting done at all. I can't even begin to tell you how many different chore charts and schedule's that I have started that only lasted a few days (or hours). I usually give up because I get tired of the constant reminding and  nagging I have to do every day. I know this inconsistancy is not good for my kiddos.

One of my goals for homeschooling is to teach my children life skills. Right now they are learning they can put things off until they get REALLY bad and then have a marathon cleaning day. I want our cleaning schedule to be more consistent than this. I would like for everyone to have their own jobs that need to be done daily and then have additional jobs that they can do to earn money. That is so much easier said than done for me!

I have a couple of specific questions that I am struggling with.

• How much should a child be responsible for at each age? (My kids are 9,7, and almost 5)
• Should the same child be responsible for the same job every day or should the jobs rotate?
• How do you stay consistant without nagging all day?

I know blogs typically offer advice on what works for the author, but in this case the author is asking advice on what works for everybody else! Even though most of you have children who are younger than mine I am hoping you have ideas about how you are going to handle chores in the future or what your parents did when you were young.

I know that if I don't get a handle on this now they will be teenagers before I know it and then I will be in even more trouble!

First Day of School 2012-2013

Is anyone still there???

I am not sure if anyone is still following my blog or not, it must have been 2 years since my last post. I would love to get this thing going again. There are so many great reasons to blog! I would love to use the blog to document our homeschool adventure.

I am going to start with my monthly goals. I have seen what my friend Keri Ronk has accomplished by doing this and I think it is a great idea. I wrote down my goals for March, but I had no one to hold me accountable. Here they were:

1. Read the book of Matthew everyday. Fail. I know I need to better with this.

2. Organize homeschool books and papers. Success! They were a mess too.

3. Organize filing cabinet. Fail. It has been a mess for years, why fix it now?

4. Visit somewhere on Okinawa that I have never been. Success! Derek and I ate at a new restaurant and it was delishus. (yes mother I know that is spelled wrong!)

5. Go running three times a week. Fail. I hate running.

6. Pray more for our family and our future. Success! But I know I could always be praying more.

7. Eat a healthy breakfast everyday. Fail. I need to do a better job of getting all of us breakfast in the morning

8. Do not turn any late assignments for school. Unfortunately Fail. I was late posting a couple of my weekly discussions.

Goals for April

1. Read the book of Mark everyday for the rest of the month.

2. Keep praying, specifically for my children and their future

3. Visit a new place on Okinawa.

4. Stick with my diet and exercise.

5. Make lists and begin preparing for our move.

6. Post two more times on the blog.

7. Do not turn in any late assignments for school.

8. Do a better job of planning weekly for homeschool lessons.

9. Accomplish at least half of these goals.

If there is anyone still out there please let me know!