DIY Chore Chart

Santa started quite the Skylanders craze in our house. Will couldn’t be happier, and is now addicted to these things! Seriously, he talks in his sleep about Skylanders.
Since Hubby & I are just a smidge smarter than a 3 year old, we decided that maybe we should use his Skylanders addiction to our advantage. Thus the Kiddo Chore Chart was born!

I cruised Pinterest for some inspiration, but I couldn’t find anything that quite fit the bill. Hubby & I agreed that it needed to be colorful, fun, and needed to have some kind of moving component.

Here’s what I used:

• Magnetic White Board (I had this over my desk & wasn’t using it.) – $8.94
• Metal Spiderman Bucket (from the $1 bin) – $1
• 3M Command Hook & Velcro Strip (I always have these around the house) – $3.94 for 2 pack
• Square Glass Magnets from Staples – $1 for each 6 pack, need 2 packs
• Pack of Dry Erase Markers – $7
• Mod Podge

I had everything except the magnets & dry erase markers on hand, so I spent $10 out of pocket. If you needed to buy everything, you’re barely over $20. Not too shabby!

First I used the velcro strip thingys and the hook to hang the board & bucket on the wall. I made sure to do it at 3-year-old height, since Will would be the one moving the magnets.

I am on a gold spray kick, so I taped off the inside of the Spiderman bucket and took it outside for a makeover…

After a few light coats of primer and gold spray paint, we were in business. I also sprayed the base of my hurricane while I was at it. I was tired of it being black… the gold is FAB!


Next, it was time to work on the magnets.

We brainstormed for quite a while for some “chores” Will could do. The key is to keep it simple. He’s only 3. So part of the strategy of this Chore Chart is for Will to willingly do everyday tasks without incident.

• Brush Your Teeth
• Get Dressed
• Help Clean Up The House – This is just what ever I ask him to help me with. Put the utensils away from the dishwasher, help sort the laundry & load it in the washer, etc.
• Clean Up Your Room
• Learning – more on this in a minute.

I just used some cute clipart I found on Word and online. I sized them up so they were a tad smaller than the magnets and printed them out on our regular ol’ inkjet printer, on regular ol’ printer paper.

Now that they’re all cut, I placed them on the magnet squares and used a little paint brush to brush on some Mod Podge.

I made sure to Mod Podge the edges well because if a little edge is lifted, someone’s little fingers will find it and peel it. It dries clear, so there’s no need to worry about it looking a little messy.

While the Mod Podge dried, it was time to jazz up the dry erase board:

Now we are in business:

Once it was all installed & ready to go, Hubby sat down and explained how this system works. Will was just a little excited.
 
Here’s how it works:

Every day Will brushes his teeth (or Mom or Dad brush his teeth), and it is a nice & easy experience, Will gets to move his magnet up one square. The same goes for Will getting dressed by himself and cleaning up the toys in his room. Of course, there’s still drama while doing these chores, but typically, he gets one warning like “if you don’t do this nicely, you don’t get to move your magnet”. Sometimes that is a nice reminder and he changes his attitude, and sometimes he doesn’t. It’s a bummer when he doesn’t get to move the magnet up, but that’s life. We don’t make a big deal about it or yell about it. We just remind him that that’s not how you behave, you don’t get to move it, so you’ll have to try and do better next time.

The “Helping Around the House” and “Learning” magnets work a little differently. Those aren’t necessarily on an everyday basis, but maybe every other day or so.
He has happily helped put away the utensils from the dishwasher:
I’ve also had him help me separate the laundry, put the clothes in the basket, and load it into the washer. He also helps put his clean clothes away in his drawers. My favorite part of this particular task is that he’s asked “Mom, are there any chores I can help you with?”. Be still my heart.

The “Learning” magnet is exactly that. He’ll be 4 in a few short weeks, so we figured we needed to work on some pre-kindergarten basics. We’ve worked on writing and recognizing letters:
Since Will isn’t much of a color-er, we vary the learning to other things like puzzles, counting & organizing coins or berries, and other hand-eye coordination skills. It’s also a tv-off, quality time activity, too. Bonus points all around.

Once he’s moved the chore magnet to the top, he can take a Skylander magnet out of the bucket and put it in the spikey bubble. 5 Skylanders in the spikey bubbles = a new Skylander!
The Skylander magnets are just Skylander stickers that came with some of the Skylanders he got for Christmas. Major bonus that they were just the right size for these magnets.

I make sure to put the Chore Chart in a prime location:

After a about a week and a half of hard work, Will earned his first reward:
I think he’s excited…

Do you have a Chore Chart for your munchkin? Do you have any ideas for other types of chores a 3 or 4 year old can do? I’d love to hear, and maybe even use them to evolve our Chore Chart. It’s always good to mix things up!

For The Kiddos: $1 Bin Painting

Ack! Time to catch you up on all of our fabulous doings since we’ve been blog-slacking. I picked up a few of these little birdhouses in the $1 bin at Joann’s. Will isn’t big on coloring, so I figured I’d give painting a whirl…

 
I thought it would be doubly fun to do when Will’s cousin, Ashley, stayed with us for a weekend while she was out of school. An activity that a 3 year old and a 16 year old both enjoy? SCORE!

I covered the table with newspaper, grabbed some paper plates, brushes, red Solo cups with a little water for paint color changes, and a bunch of random paint.
We got a little on our hands…


We watched, mouth agape, as we swirled our paint brushes in a cup of water to change colors… or just mix all of them together to see what happened. Will learned that his two favorite colors, red and yellow [aka Iron Man’s colors], make orange when mixed together.


We “awww”ed at cut little baby hands swiping paint on the little birdhouse… Maybe it was just me because those little sausage fingers and dimples are just so cute!,

Meanwhile, Ashley was elegantly painting her birdhouse. This is a girl with a plan, … and an iPhone just in case she misses a text.


Intense! I highly approved of the colors she picked. It would blend right in with my house.

When all was said and done, Ashley produced this masterpiece:
 

And Will produced this colorful conundrum fit for a king, or a pigeon:
                  

Not bad for $2! It took a little over an hour, start to finish. Obviously Will lost interest faster than Ashley did, but he’s also not as crafty as she is. He’d rather go Hulk-smash something. I’ve been keeping my eyes peeled in those $1 bins for fun little activities like this we can all do. You never know when creativity, or a good deal, will strike! This would be a fun little party activity turned party-favor if you’re planning on doing a bird themed party. Or do it as a baby shower activity, and the mom-to-be can take them home for a cool mobile or hanging collage!

Do you have a favorite $1 bin find? Or maybe a fun little activity you like to do with your kiddos? Do share! We love a fun [and cheap] good time!

Firsts

When your kiddos graduate from being an infant to a toddler and then into a real human child that talks back to you and has an opinion, you think the firsts are over. You would be wrong. Sometimes they aren’t all rainbows and unicorns… But they are still pretty big milestones, nonetheless, and I would be really sad if I wasn’t there for most of them. I could’ve stayed home for some.
Sit back, relax, because you just might learn something!

First trip to the dentist. Tip #1 – don’t wait until after your child’s 3rd birthday to go… Dentists want you to take your kiddo when they first start getting teeth for a good reason… We brush Will’s teeth pretty regularly, but who knew you should be flossing a wiggly toddler’s teeth?! Not us! Guess who he had SEVEN cavities?! Shameful… #ParentFail

If you are in the South Orange County area, take your kids to see Dr. Sarah! They have a crazy cool office:
That’s the waiting room! There’s a giant tree and a tiger and TONS of video games and regular games and toys to keep these kids busy. She’s the dentist and her husband is the orthodontist. One stop shop! Love it. The staff has been so great.

1st x-rays… of the teeth. These are so cool and digital now. She pushed the button and we could see his teeth right away. He sat pretty still considering I know how uncomfortable that thing is to hold in your mouth. Ouch!

That first dentist appointment was followed by two cavity filling visits. First Cavity(ies) definitely falls on the list of firsts I could’ve stayed home for…
They have the kids wear sunglasses during their exams and procedures because the light in your face is kind of bright. But HELLO! How fun is that?! The little pink nozzle for his laughing gas was bubble gum flavored. Will was cool as a cucumber since he got to lay there and watch Cars. Oh yeah, they have TVs mounted to the ceiling so the kids sit even more still during their exams! Will got to pick the movie that played for the whole office. I really wish Dr. Sarah treated adults.

But lesson learned in the teeth-care department. Brushing isn’t enough, especially if your kiddos’ teeth are really close together. Will only had 1 cavity we could see, the rest only showed up because she did the x-rays. They were all in between his teeth. So now we get at least two brushings in (morning & before bed), plus flossing with these little picks, and mouthwash. The mouthwash was tricky, but he’s got it down now. We’ve also toned down the fruit snacks, fruit leathers, and apple juice a lot. All of those are major cavity culprits. If there was something else we could’ve been doing wrong, we probably were… Definite repeat offenders on the cavity-causing list.

On a happier note…
First Day Of Preschool:

We are lucky enough to be able to walk to school, so we do…
Up hill, both ways, in the snow…


First trip to the Emergency Room:

I know… looks are definitely deceiving. This happy kid is actually sitting in an ER exam room. That visit was quickly followed by another first…
First broken bone.
See that split down the middle of the top bone in his middle finger? Yep. Broken.

So he gets to wear a comically large splint on his finger for 3 weeks. We are about half way through that time frame. Thankfully I can take it off and re-wrap his finger, but even after a day, that finger get so smelly! I cannot imagine how rank a cast will be. Oh yes, not that I’m trying to curse my kid, but I have a feeling that this will be the 1st of many broken bones or body parts in casts or braces or some kind of wraps. He’s just too crazy!

There you have it. Some pretty expensive firsts happening in our house over the last few weeks! It’s all part of the grand scheme of life, though. Definitely lots of entries into his baby book, too.

I had a broken finger in elementary school so when Will’s finger was getting more swollen and more black & blue, I knew it was probably broken, but that’s the only thing I’ve ever broken. Hubby, surprisingly for how crazy he was, has never broken a bone. A broken bone doesn’t always mean you’ll be screaming and flailing around in pain… now if bone is sticking out through your skin… ew.

Have your kids gotten any broken bones? Or busted teeth? Maybe that was you when you were a kid and you’re scared of your kid being your payback?

Two become One

I don’t really understand how I don’t have pictures of my kids rooms.  Most people…most NORMAL people…take such pride in their kids nurseries and take a gazillion pics.  How do I have NONE???  I don’t really get it.  Well…this is what I could find in the ways of Hunter’s nursery..

 

I know I know….horrible right???  But you can kinda see the paint job, that we have a crib, a highboy dresser next to it, and a shelf/changing table piece.  I am awful!!!  Wednesday resolution…take better before pictures.  And how the heck aam I that skinny at 6 months out with Hunter but still a chubbo 2 years out with Jagger?  Another Wednesday resolution…start getting in shape…it’s about damn time woman.

So we’ve now decided that it’s about time our boys shared a room and that Hunter’s room become an office/guest room.  Right now I do all my sewing on the kitchen table…which is just annoying and awful, and Craig has a teeny tiny corner in the basement for his desk.  It’s pretty inefficient and awful.  Oh and when guests come we have to bunk the boys together anyway.  So when my parents came just recently and we had to bunk the boys…we decided to just move Hunter’s bed into Jagger’s room…and never move it back!  And yes…I don’t have a before picture of Jagger’s room either.  WHAT KIND OF A MOTHER AM I!!!!!!  jeez…

And I didn’t really realize what a task this would be….

 

Notice how close the crib comes to the walls?  That’s because we didn’t realize how HUGE this crib was.  It was put together in the room and we haven’t moved it for 4 years….so…again…bigger task than we thought…

Best course of action…take the door off Jaggers room!

This turned out to be simpler than we thought.  Bang a few pins out of the hinges and voila!!  But the thing you have to always remind Sonny….DON’T FORCE IT.  When we went to take it out it got just a little stuck…and my husband thinks that forcing things a little always gets the job done.  I had visions in my head of him ripping out the hinge from the frame, or bending it so that we couldn’t get the door back on.  So while these pics were being snapped there was a lot of verbal snapping as well…

Door off, crib slid in…and now we are in limbo!  Ha!  We are currently in the process of switching out furniture (Hunter’s is 100% nicer than Jagger’s so we are going to use Jagger’s in the office or in other places in the house), creating more closet space, and making this room truly THEIRS.  I’m excited!  I eventually want them to have 2 twin beds, but being that Jagger hasn’t tried once to crawl out of his crib, I have no intentions of forcing him into a bed he can easily get out of.  So we are going to attempt to have 2 cribs/toddler beds in this room for now…then upgrade it down the road.  But I have big plans for this room.  I want to make bedding, do new curtains, organize their closet…I’ll have to come up with a to do list and I’ll share that on here with you all.

New projects are a flurry in this house!!  I’m going to snap some “now” pics today so that I can really show you guys the room and we can all see how it transforms!