How We Do It: The Morning Routine {#31days}

Since I've written about the boys doing their morning jobs, it occurred to me that you might want to know what those are. There are a bunch of chore charts all over the place that you could use. And, for a while, we used a ton of different ones until we found what worked for us. We used the Melissa & Doug one, we used reward charts, stickers, etc. But the one that has worked the best for my boys was the Morning High Five! I guess it is the "high five!" factor that made it stick. I'm not sure. But, they help with keeping the house in order, so we we keep on keeping on!

Here's what the boys do every morning:

 

MORNING ROUTINE

Breakfast

Kitchen Clean Up

Brush Teeth

Get Dressed & Make Bed

Trash Cans

Dirty Clothes

Go Play!!

Pretty simple, really. They pick out their breakfast for the most part. When they are done, they help clean up the mess made in the kitchen and help with putting away the dishes. Then they go get dressed, make their bed, and brush their teeth. They each empty a trashcan from the bathrooms and bring the dirty clothes to the laundry room. Easy peasy, most days... They get to go play until Austin decides to take a nap which signals time for school.

As for rewards... We kind of dropped that whole thing. They already have too many toys, why add more to that mess? And we attempted the "beginner's allowance" with failure - get a quarter for doing their jobs without fuss. So, they get a sticker or tattoo for helping around the house sometimes. They are happy. I am happy. And, the house is picked up. That's how we do it.

How about you? Do your kids have a morning routine? What kind of reward system do you use?

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Not sure where to start in handing our jobs to your littles? Start here: 

Seventh Generation Blog - Age Appropriate Chores

Weekly Rewind: August 5-10

Well, I can finally say (after hitting the "publish" button...) that I am caught up on posting pictures! Whew! I take too many pictures... Nah, I don't think so!

{MONDAY}

Chilling in the pool in the shade 

 

  Awesome little Frisbee throwers! Can I just say how excited I am!!!??? I can't wait to take them to play disc golf!! I wish it said my name, Shaun's, and the others whole helped in the making of this, but here is the course we designed! So cool, huh? Eh, at least I have all the paperwork from it still ;)

 Ok, you have to look very closely to see...but Andrew is chasing this dragonfly that keeps coming to our yard. He's pretty big, too! It is just to the right of his head. 

{TUESDAY}

 

Spelling their names with Super Why! Alpha-Bits Cereal at breakfast!

{WEDNESDAY}

 

Zoo Day!!

 Letting Mommy rest make a menu plan/grocery list while watching "The Cat in the Hat"

Making a puzzle while I make dinner

{THURSDAY}

 Putting together Jason's lunch one morning. I put a surprise message in his lunchbox! Gotta love it!

 Look where I found the smaller one during nap time - love him!

 Another cute moment captured while making dinner

{FRIDAY}

 UGH! Laundry day... At least I have some super cute helper boys who think that making a laundry train is the best thing ever. :) 

 2 boys, a bug, and a dump truck. Sweet. 

 Of course the outside play didn't last long...rain! But, we did see a great surprise out the window afterwards! Love rainbows!

 They were pretty impressed, too!

 Once the rainbow faded away, they had to get back to their puzzle making. This puzzle (similar) is so LONG!

{SATURDAY}

Jason's company picnic was Saturday. It was a lot of fun! The boys thought that the boat was the coolest thing there (except the great food!). Thanks, again, Mr. Ken, for letting the boys hang out in your boat and giving them a ride! They LOVED it!!!

 Checking out the boat

 So pretty! 

 Headed out for a little ride (and, yes...they had their puddle jumpers on at this point)

 I enjoyed the bits of sunshine on the dock as they headed out. 

What a great week!! Hope y'all had a good one, too!