Putting Abby to bed...

Tonight, Shawn put Abby to bed, but I heard her calling to me as I left Lucas's room. She wanted a drink of water, but I told her no and to go to sleep. She persisted, but I held strong and walked away. As I walked down the hallway she said, "Mom you just don't understand people very much!"

Abby reading Frogs, Dogs, and Gators

This is a book that is really a song that Cory wrote when Shawn was a kid and Shawn turned it into a book by doing illustrations for each verse. At any rate; we self-printed it a couple of years ago and Abby was so cute reading it this morning that I HAD to get a video of it!!!

Children's Miracle Music

So, a few years ago when I was living in Pleasant Grove and working at Curves, this woman who was working out told me about this program that she had created called "Children's Miracle Music" and how by the time she got home, her husband will have gotten all of the kids out of bed, they would be dressed, hair done, bed's made, toys put away, eaten breakfast, brushed teeth, etc. I was amazed that any husband could do this, but she told me that all he had to do was put on this music CD that she made and supervise them while they did it all themselves! Well, this sounded pretty cool to me and I bought the program from her, she gave me a deal for it- it came with a Cd and with a dry-erase chart that you can keep track of the kids points on. I listened to it a time or two, but didn't use it until recently (earlier, I thought, well, the kids don't need wake up stuff, because they wake me up, and I wasn't too picky about how clean their rooms were and bed's made unless people were coming over) At any rate, I started using it this year because Lucas has to be ready to leave for the school bus at 7:15 (I know, ridiculously early!!!) So, after a couple of weeks of scrambling each morning to get the Lucas ready for school on time, I remembered the Children's Miracle Music.
One morning I put it on at about 6:30- it starts out with a nice song to wake the kids up...so I played it and went upstairs to help them hear the wake up music and explain that for each thing they got done with the music they would get a point that would work toward earning them a private date with Mom or Dad. They jumped out of bed and immediately started making their beds when the music told them too. Then it told them to "do and act of kindness" which I explained meant clean up their rooms and toys, etc. So, for 3 songs they do this. The pattern continues...there are 8 points to be had in all for the morning routine, and 4 to be had for at night (they clean their rooms, get changed, brush teeth, etc.) Every time they get all of their points, they also get a star.
We have made ourselves a reward menu for them to choose from- for 100 points, they get a private date (and it only takes less than 2 weeks to get 100 points if they get most of them every time), so we made the 100 points dates cheap ones, like go to the park together, or go to a dollar movie, then if they want, they can save up for 200 points, this is something that costs a bit more, like go to a matinee movie, or go to the local swimming pool, etc. 300 is something more, like the Dinosaur Museum, or go miniature golfing. Do you see my pattern? At any rate, it is wonderful, the kids beds are made every day, they get themselves dressed and ready for the day without a fuss, their rooms (although, not perfectly organized) are cleaned up and look pretty good almost all of the time! I am loving this. The woman who does it gives them a star sticker for their star if they get it, but we decided to keep track of the stars and use them as their allowance. At 10 cents a star, once they have 10 they can get a cheap $1 toy at the store, and for 100 stars, they get a $10 toy- this is also working out well; although so far we haven't cashed in any of their stars yet and we also want to do tithing with them on that... so we haven't actually done that yet...but we have done dates, well, actually one date; I took Abby to the park the Saturday before last and then we went to Wendy's for a $1 frosty. She loved it! Lucas is saving up for the Pool, I think. We are loving having our house cleaned up all of the time and the kids doing it all themselves! I so, highly recommend this to any parent! If you are interested go to www.childrensmiraclemusic.com and watch the video that this woman made of her kids doing it- the cost for what she put together is $35; and I totally think it is worth it! I am starting to get a little tired of the same songs all of the time (most are classics and stuff, nothing edgy), but we might go in to Shawn's work sometime soon and record just the vocal prompts as tracks and then we can insert whatever music in that we want to for the tasks...but I don't know when we will do it... At any rate, I am loving this new routine and so do the kids!!!