Do you ever wonder what to do with these children?

I often get so busy with my own tasks, that I put aside spending time with my own children. I get wrapped up in taking care of the house, laundry, feeding kids, feeding the baby...that I forget about my middle child. I spend time doing school with the oldest, and I forget that my middle 3.5 year old needs attention and learning time, too. So, I've been searching for ideas of what to do with her. We read lots of books together, go for bike rides and walks together, but in this area of schooling, I admit to not getting too far. She's not ready for writing letters or workbooks and she's just beginning to enjoy coloring. The sites that I've found give great ideas for this age-group of 2-4 + year olds that have many hands-on activities and ideas. Many of this involve mess/clean-up or preparation or some small purchasing (which, I admit, turns me off). However, you may pick and choose what fits you and your children.

Totally Tots is a site that gives a variety of ideas on developing fine motor skills, sorting, grouping items, gives Christian resources/printables, and all sorts of good stuff. Here's another of her sites that gives specific on "Tot Boxes". Here's one of her posts on working with numbers with your preschooler--no writing, but GREAT ideas!

More Chore Charts

Here are the chore charts we will be using on Tuesday. Each mom will get one of these, plus some magnetic "stickers" to place accordingly when the child has done the job. I'll be posting the stickers later.

Chore Charts

Routine! Back in the swing of things! Some kids in school...gets dark earlier, change of the seasons. So I thought we'd talk about chores in the home for our children as we focus on routine, and I wanted to share some sites and printables with you all.

Here's a cool chart that you can customize the design, the chores, the colors, and more!

Focus on the Family shares an article about what ages should do a variety of chores, beginning with age 2. I'll be sharing some of this info at our first meeting. Did you know that at 2-3 years old a child should begin to make his bed, pick up toys, dust furniture and put dirty laundry in the basket?

In all my personal searching on this topic and on training my children, I came across this site & book. Now, this site is directed toward homeschooling, but there's just a TON that is applicable to all parents. This book is on my next to buy list. I've come to realize that having my children do chores isn't just they have something productive to do. It's not training them to clean up after themselves so that I don't have to. It's more than just teaching them to work hard and be responsible. In all of these things, we are training our children in the area of character! When we teach them to clean up after themselves, we are instilling the habit & character of neatness. When I make my children wash their hands, I want her to develop the habit of cleanliness. I want my children to get into such a habit of doing these good things, that they do them without me needing to tell them to do it each time. At the end of this process, the child will find it easier to do the right thing because it will be what she does without thinking about it. To do the wrong thing will require MORE thinking.

{added later} I wanted to share some more links on the topic of character training. Here's a link to a list of character traits, definitions and Scripture to go with them. It's from A Heart of Wisdom.

I've recently become a fan of the TLC show 20 and Counting, about the Duggar family. Here's their list of Character traits.

Come Tuesday morning to find out more on this topic and catch up on everybody's summer activities!