A New Groove

While everyday we are doing basically the same things (the 3 r's and such), at times I see the need for a revamping of our schedule or adding something new to keep things interesting.

Over the weekend I read some books on housekeeping, personal care, and homeschooling. I was moved to try some new things to get the kids excited about helping around the house. One statement in the book on housekeeping really got me - productive and responsible children will grow into productive and responsible adults.
So chores, NOT slave work, are needed. Even though it seems so much easier to just do everything myself, I am not helping my household by doing that. The more my kids help, the more they feel needed here in our home.
I've done chore systems at different times, but here is what we are doing right now and my kids LOVE it (so far) :)

I made three "flower pots" out of Styrofoam cups, one for Aden, one for Camryn, and one marked "chores". In the morning, they will pick three "chore flowers" from the "chores" pot to do at our designated chore time. They will place it in their flower pot and do their morning chores.
The "chore flowers" are just flowers made from construction paper and taped to a dowel. These flowers have age-appropriate chores written on them (wipe walls, pick up toys, dry dishes, fold laundry, etc.).
Aden loves it, and even though Camryn is older - she really got into it as well.
By the way, I found this system online somewhere - I can't take credit for coming up with it. :)

Another change, we incorporated Japanese into our day. We did that a few years back, we tried out two different programs, but it was just too much. I ended up giving that up.
Now we are using a program that just takes 10 minutes of review a day. Then practicing a few Nihongo words every day.
The DOD schools, from what I hear, don't offer Japanese until 7th grade here. Anyone know if that's correct or not? The only (few) kids I know that have learned Japanese are those that are put into all-Japanese schools off-base. They are saturated by the culture that way and forced to learn it. That is one thing I wish we had done, at least for a while. But, oh well, they've still experienced a lot of the culture here. Any of you Misawa folks have info on Kumon?

We live about 10 minutes off-base and have a good mix of Japanese and American neighbors on our street. Also, Camryn's piano teacher is Japanese, she comes every Monday. So... we have ample opportunities to practice. It's easy not to because so many of the Japanese here speak English. :) But... new goal... times almost up here! We need to take advantage of it.

Piano practice is going better since implementing a reward sticker system. She gets a dollar for each sticker on her chart, for 1/2 hr of practice. She can make around $30 a month if she's faithful to it.
Working so far... we'll see. :)

Have a great day everyone!